that was something. Hawks lose 8-3

do I want to talk about last night's Blackhawks game vs the Blue Jackets? no, not especially, but there's a few things worth sharing. just this game; I need to put together a whole "Hawks keep finding different and spectacular ways to lose post-Olympics" post. I actually wanted to go to this game because I had such a good time seeing the Hawks play in Columbus in January. Aubrey of Buckeyes are Deadly Nuts went to the game and The Mel of a fountain of useless information went from Chicago. I'd have been deaf from the cannon that goes off when the Jackets score if I had.

according to the NHL.com recap "The eight goals for the Blue Jackets set a mark for most scored at home and tied the franchise record for most in a game." it was bad when the Jackets scored 32 seconds in, bad when they took a 2-0 lead, bad when they got a 2-goal lead again in the second period with the game at 3-1 (by the end of the game I'd already forgotten it'd been 2-1 and not at all hopeless for a while). they got a goal on a penalty shot, they got their first power play goal in 20 attempts...and so forth. THE SCORE WAS 8-1 FOR A WHILE. 8-1. 5-1 and I still hoped for an epic comeback despite how badly the Hawks were playing. but by 8-1 I could only hope the Hawks wouldn't lose as badly as San Jose did to Dallas last week (8-2).

and they managed to get two more goals. Adam Burish got his first of the season. Jordan Hendry, the one goal-less Blackhawk, scored late in the year, but when Burish came back from injury we had a player with 0 goals again. no longer! oh, and he fought Derek Dorsett early in the first. Burish lost, but at least the fight got a higher-than-usual-for-the-Blackhawks rating on hockeyfights.com.

I'd have preferred the fight be when the Hawks were down, say, 4-1, and had a chance to turn it around, and got motivated... Blackhawks haven't allowed more than 5 goals against all this season (Minnesota won 6-5, but in a shootout). they hadn't lost by more than 4 goals (a 5-1 loss to Vancouver). needless to say, they'd never been down by 7 goals this year. Blackhawks could have hit 100 points (or 101) in this game; San Jose was first to hit that in the West in their game later last night. Hawks at least got the playoff spot clinched because Calgary lost their game.

do I want to talk goaltending, defense, motivation? NO, I want to gripe at what Second City Hockey did for their game preview thread:

okay...I am KofC on the SBN blogs (and nearly all places I comment; I'm kofchicago on some others and on Twitter). it's the short form of the nickname I got from my main Flickr account. not long after establishing myself as KofC I noticed that's what the Knights of Columbus use in their logo. I found a particularly great sign and used it as my icon there, and I make a point of looking for KofC signs in any city I visit--see the tagged photos here. (Cleveland; Elgin, IL; Hamtramck, MI; Quincy & Melrose, MA, among others. I didn't find one IN Columbus yet though!) pretty soon Flickr friends started posting KofC signs for me too. it's just a running joke; I don't endorse the Knights' politics or anything (but I did win a second-place spelling bee trophy from them as a kid). anyway, I know it was just a coincidence but I was weirded out, and having that logo/my screenname attached to the worst loss of the season? AAAAAAARRGHHH.

oh well. two other amusing things, from listening to the WGN 720 radio broadcast. so Cristobal Huet was pulled in the second (after 5 goals against) and Antti Niemi came in (one goal against him). Huet returned at the beginning of the third (2 more goals scored against), but the broadcasters didn't notice until a couple minutes from the end of the game! they referred to him as "Niemi" several times! then finally noticed, and apologized afterwards.

and Nick Boynton, who's played just a few games with the Blackhawks, was the post-game interview. he said "...and the game got a little chippy." now I think I need an "award" for any player or broadcaster who uses that phrase (look, I needed SOMETHING to cheer me up after that game.) perhaps my famous chocolate chip cookies made with bourbon? (in theory--there's no way for me to actually give them cookies).

AHL news & sports card news

so, I noted a while ago that Oklahoma City was going to get an American Hockey League franchise next year, and the Edmonton Oilers would use it as their affiliate, instead of the Springfield (Mass.) Falcons. what would happen to the Falcons? and why didn't the Anaheim Ducks have an AHL franchise? (it's been 29 AHL, 30 NHL teams this year). today: mysteries solved! the Syracuse Crunch will switch their affiliation from Columbus Blue Jackets to Anaheim, and Columbus will switch its affiliation to Springfield. Dark Blue Jacket, a CBJ blog I found rather late in the season and recently blogrolled, posted "Goodbye Syracuse"; and there's now an updated list by Scotty Wazz of the distance between each NHL team and its AHL affiliate.

other AHL news--I forgot to include the following in the previous "congratulations" post. last Friday, 3/19, vs the Rochester Americans, Binghamton Senators goalie Chris Holt became the 10th goaltender in the AHL's 74-year history to be credited with scoring a goal (the last instance was Drew MacIntyre of the Manitoba Moose, and now the Chicago Wolves...scoring against the Wolves)! I love seeing the goalie get patted on the head even before the game is over...



Wednesday I had a little adventure in Northwest Indiana with a couple friends (it was supposed to be all the way to Gary, but we lost an hour when the muffler fell off the car and we had to get it looked at). industrial sites, toxic fumes, beautiful decaying architecture, abandoned houses (which may have had cool stuff in them we stole rescued), cheap diner food, low sales tax--that's the Calumet Region for you! we had a nice walk through quaint downtown Whiting, known for its Pierogi Fest in July. I was disappointed the dollar store had every type of sports card except hockey cards...then I noticed a whole sports card shop (I'd seen this at Pierogi Fest but didn't go in because I wasn't paying attention to sports memorabilia at the time). Cheap Seats Sports Cards--it's 1504 119th St. in Whiting, but looks to be closing at the end of March and presumably staying online only (cheapseatscards.com). I got a bunch of cards from 2000-01, 2005-06, and 2006-07 and some photos from the late 1990s or so (game snapshots they'd made multiple prints of). of course I'll share some of the finds.

I don't know a great deal about sports cards as a business, so I'd like to read the new book by Dave Jamieson, Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession. it was excerpted on Slate on Wednesday. thanks to @Marcusist on Twitter for alerting me to this!

other news on Thursday, combining every topic of this post--a special (and pricey) collection of hockey cards featuring all the AHL goalies and famous AHL goalies of the past! (you can find this on the AHL's website)

 

oh, one other piece of news (which should be tagged "self-congratulatory nonsense") (and where's all the news about, oh, I don't know, the BLACKHAWKS, you might be wondering?). re: things I said at the end of the previous post. I came home Thurs. afternoon to this:

and laughed, yes, out loud, for quite some time. this made my day! until the Hawks game ruined it. but then I thought about it again and it's still cool. and congrats to DGB for getting in the New York Times hockey blog this week!

back from Columbus...

...and my first trip to Nationwide Arena, to see the Blackhawks narrowly win yesterday vs. the Blue Jackets. who knows when I'll get to a game description/photos...but below is a screenshot from a highlight video. I'm glad the Hawks won, because if they hadn't, I'd have had to be happy with the warmup photos I got of Hjalmarsson and Sharp. (believe me, I would have been, but a win is great)

I would like to point out I've seen the Blackhawks 17 times in just over a year--and now, in 4 different cities (home and Pittsburgh, Boston, Columbus), and they've WON EVERY ONE. shouldn't I be waking up to a phone call from the Blackhawks office saying I get free tickets to all those home games I can't afford? or, failing that, getting a wakeup from a Blackhawks player? I'm off to look up recipes for lingonberry pancakes...er, actually, to have coffee and the Timbits (never tried these before) I brought back...as you can see below, you can find those in Columbus. I answered comments on the last few posts and I might try a new post while I watch the morning game vs. Red Wings today.

Hawks vs. Blue Jackets, 12/1/09: wow

so, to count the ways that was an exciting/significant game: 1) it was the Blackhawks' first game at home since Nov. 15, after the successful 6-game Canada/California trip and 2) first game this year against division rivals the Blue Jackets (and Hawks still haven't even played the Blues yet, but played Avalanche 3 times already?) (and my first time seeing the Jackets).

I bought a copy of The Committed Indian from Sam outside the United Center--oh, I'll count that as 3) even if I buy one at every game. I got there in plenty of time for my 4) free winter hat, which I'll be wearing in Pittsburgh this weekend (probably covering up the corporate logo on the back).

and in time for the warmup, where the Hawks were sporting their 5) third jerseys for the first time this year. sure, they're virtually identical to the Winter Classic ones...

I got to see all the players up close though getting pictures with a point & shoot was challenging. I saw Kane toss pucks to people near me, twice.

the game! 6) Marian Hossa's home debut with the Blackhawks. I loooove this video they show right before the game but have yet to get a photo of my favorite scenes, which of course involve the L train going by. this scene is in Millennium Park:

7) exciting goals. Hawks are first to score with a shorthanded goal from Versteeg, and the other two Hawks goals in regulation (by Toews and Sharp) are on power plays. two assists from Hossa!

and it was a 8) close game because oh right, the Jackets scored a few times too, and had the lead for a good chunk of the game. worst of all was the goal scored just 40 seconds into the third to take a 3-2 lead.

so it went to overtime and then a 9) shootout. okay, so I haven't said anything yet about this teenage boy behind me who spent the WHOLE GAME talking to a friend/acquaintance from Australia, who'd never been to a hockey game before. now, the Australian wasn't asking questions. the other kid just felt the need to explain everything about hockey and the Hawks to him, and when I'd hoped for sweet relief by the second period, he moved on to explaining America to him. really. how our seasons and our gun laws and drinking laws compare to Australia, and what Texas is like, and...I'm surprised he didn't throw in an explanation of the electoral college, or how the development of the interstate highway system contributed to patterns of housing segregation in cities. he didn't say anything stupid (though he blanked on what Hossa's first name is) until: "Everyone loves shootouts." uh, well they'd be fun to watch if they didn't actually COUNT. he was saying this in the 3rd period, and that he'd never seen a shootout before. did that curse us to have one?

so, shootout. Hossa scored one early. Rick Nash fell down, hilariously. then nothing happened for a long time. the Hawks stars you might expect to win this didn't, as did players like Kopecky and Byfuglien who haven't been doing a lot recently and this would have been a great time for them to save the day. I nearly felt ill as it kept going and going. I'd say I was developing a heart condition but when I got home I heard about the Leafs' Jonas Gustavsson having to leave last night's game due to one, and that worries me. anyway, it 10) finally ends with Seabrook for a Hawks win!

I found out later it was 11 rounds, the longest shootout in Hawks history, even worse than anything involving the Avalanche. nice to be part of "history," maybe, but damn, I was blaming it on that kid. in my mind, I was going through the list of hockey penalties (which of course, he'd tried to remember out loud for his friend earlier) and committing all of them against him. well, I don't know how I'd manage "too many men on the ice," but any that involve hitting with a stick, YES.*

so Keith got his requisite star of the game (#1 this time) and look, he's #2 on this list at From the Rink of the NHL's top defensive defencemen (Hawks have 3 spots of 25). and I'd remembered this before the game but completely forgot during: 11) the game was Joel Quenneville's 500th win! and he'd just been listed as #2 on Puck Daddy's Top 10 NHL Coaches of the Past Decade. also, here's a nice feature on his time playing for the Hartford Whalers.

12) can't beat the deal I got on this (unless you got free tickets). posted to prove to my friend who's asked, that with TicketExchange you do get a real ticket, not a printout.

*all expressions of violence in this blog are purely for dramatic/comedic purposes and should not be taken seriously by any potential employers, or dates.

glad I don't have to write sports headlines, #2 in an ongoing series

well, “Wings shred Jackets” (Columbus getting defeated at home in a humiliating 9-1 game) isn’t so bad, except it prompts me into dumb questions like “if they’d lost 2-1, would it just be ‘Wings Slightly Damage Jackets with Inadequate Dry-Cleaning’?”  also, is “down” and “Ducks” a pun, or am I just really coat-fixated right now? (I could also talk about how months ago I inadvertently discovered some people have a fetish for women in puffy/down coats, but never mind.) anyway, not that I’d celebrate a big Red Wings win like that, but the Jackets losing and Hawks winning meant THIS came up online that night:

#1 in Central! #3 Western! #8 overall! it was all true two days ago, anyway…