Blackhawks take three straight to force game seven

When the 2010-2011 NHL season began, it seemed to be a given that the defending champion Blackhawks would definitely contend for the Stanley Cup for the third year in a row. They were just coming off a championship season, and though role players like Dustin Byfuglien and Kris Versteeg were gone, the Blackhawks still had the core of Jonathon Toews and Patrick Kane. Sports Illustrated picked them to finish third in the conference, easily making the playoffs.

 The regular season started off slowly with the Blackhawks losing three of their first four games. No worry, said most Blackhawks fans, this slow start was just a small championship hangover that would obviously be cured with the Blackhawks’ skill. As the season progressed, it became evident that not only were the Blackhawks not the same team as last year, but that they would need to fight to make the playoffs. Going into the last game of the season, they still hadn’t secured a spot in the playoffs. It took a loss by the Dallas Stars on the final night of the regular season to push the Hawks into the eighth spot in the Western Conference.

In the playoffs, the eighth seeded Blackhawks had to face the top-seeded and President’s Trophy winner (most points) Vancouver Canucks. These Canucks were not the same team that the Blackhawks had beaten the last two years in the playoffs, and the Blackhawks did not come into the series with momentum like they had the past two years. The Canucks showed this by taking the first three games in the series. Led by goalie Roberto Luongo and an aggressive defense, the Canucks shut down the Blackhawks offense and held Patrick Kane and Jonathon Toews to just four assists combined with no goals scored.

But Games Four and Five brought hope to all Blackhawks supporters. They not only beat the Canucks in both games to bring the series to 3-2, but they won in blowout fashion. The Hawks took Game Four by a score of 7-2 and then shutout the Canucks by a score of 5-0 in game 5. In both games, the Canucks had to pull Luongo because of the onslaught of goals by the Blackhawks, but backup goalie for Cory Schneider did not fare much better. Marian Hossa and Duncan Keith provided most of the damage in Game 5 with two goals apiece.

In Game 6, the Canucks decided to bench Luongo and go with Schneider. But after Michael Frolik scored a penalty shot goal, Schneider cramped up and Luongo had to enter the game to the Hawks fans yelling “Lu” mockingly. Ben Smith scored the biggest goal of his career in overtime on a rebound and the Hawks guarenteed a Game 7 and showed that the Blackhawks are the team that most fans believed they would be from the start.  

Now the series goes to Vancouver for Game 7 tonight at 9:00 Chicago time and the Blackhawks definitely have the momentum. But they do have history working against them. In the NHL playoffs, only three times in the playoffs (1942, 1975 and 2010) has a team come back from a 3-0 deficit to win the series. If the Blackhawks continue to play like the defending champs, they could become the fourth team to achieve this feat.

Hawks turn it around

After a questionable start to the season before the All Star break, the Chicago Blackhawks are looking like themselves lately.

The Hawks went on an right game winning streak from February 20^th to March 5^th.  This helped them jumped into the playoff picture in the Western Conference and they are currently sitting in the fifth seed.

A large part in this change in momentum is the man between the pipes, Corey Crawford. He has helped keep the team up and doing a good job in net. In the last fifteen straight games he has started, he had six games in which he let in two goals or less in a game. He also carries a 2.31 Goals Against Average, 6^th among goaltenders in the NHL currently. This helps keep the difference of goals for a goals against easier, to help capture a victory every game.

The Hawks are still hanging on in the powerplay department. They are 2^nd in the league with a 23.8% powerplay percentage. This rampaging offense is led by the Captain Jonathan Toews and Forward Patrick Sharp, each with 30+ goals thus far.

Among the other seven teams fighting for five playoff spots in the Western Conference, the Hawks have the best record within their last games played (7-1-2).  Teams that are competing for these spots include the Los Angeles Kings, Nashville Predators, Phoenix Coyotes, and a few others. A good number to have is their home record of 22-14-0, second best in the conference and crucial with the remaining home games left.

Overall, the Hawks have a good chance to grab one of the playoff positions. It will be a tough road, considering the schedule ahead of them will not be easy, especially playing Detroit Red Wings three more times. Despite this, the Hawks stars have risen up and are earning their pay checks like Marian Hossa, who is nearing a point a game average. It will only be a matter of time until the playoffs start.

Five Musts on the Hawks’ To Do List

Here are a few items the Blackhawks need to keep on their mind after the All Star Break, to push for another playoff run.

TAKE POINTS ON THE ROAD:
The Hawks have only twelve remaining home games this season, while they have nineteen battles away from the United Center.  They have been doing well, posting an 11-7-4 record while away, which is above average in comparision to the rest of the NHL teams. About half of the road games will be against division teams, which will be crucial to capture as many wins versus these teams to gain jump up in the division, as well as the conference standings.

FIGURE OUT WHEN TURCO AND CRAWFORD HAVE THEIR RUNS:
Both of the Hawks’ goalies have a lot of talent and can help the Hawks pull off a win most of the time. A problem these netminders face is their consistency. Neither Turco or Crawford can last a whole season playing 90% of the games and still pull off wins. It is important to balance the two equally, and when one goes on a streak of wins and has the confidence in him, to keep him playing, but also know when a goalie’s momentum is fading and to put in the other goalie, before it costs the Hawks a few games.

KEEP THROWING THAT PUCK ON NET:
One statistic that helped the Hawks take the Cup last season was shots on goal. They are in the top five of the league in goals per game and in shots on goal. This is an important stat to have if you want to win hockey games. If the Hawks are pouring on shots on the opponents net, its giving the opposing team some trouble and keeping the puck away from our net, that is crucial in close games.

POWERPLAY, POWERPLAY, POWERPLAY
Nothing makes a game easier when a team has a man advantage. The Blackhawks are the best of the best when it comes to the powerplay. They rank number one in powerplay percentage with a 25.58%. Along with that, they have the third fewest powerplay opportunities, which does not allow them to have a lot of chances to score on the man advantage, but they execute the best. Keeping this consistency up throughout the season will defenitely help in the long run, and in the playoffs.

REMEMBER WHO WE ARE
On June 9, 2010 the Chicago Blackhawks captured their first Stanley Cup since 1961. Now some may say that was a while ago and much of our team has dispersed from Chicago, but that is far-fetched. The Hawks still maintain their core of their star players like Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa, Duncan Keith, and many others.  Many of the players we have now are maturing and developing into their roles that help the team best, like John Scott replacing the Hawks’ former bully Adam Burish, and is doing a great job. Other players like Tomas Kopecky are shining more often and a name to keep in mind later on in the season.

Blackhawks struggle early on

The Stanley Cup champions were not expecting to begin the new season like this. Through seventeen games in the season, they sit at an 8-9-1 record  in the Central Division. It is quite disappointing to see a team of this caliber be struggling like this. The Hawks cannot seem to get on a roll, struggling to consistently win games.

The Central Division is very competitive this year with teams like the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues dominating the standings. Currently, St. Louis is the best team in the league sitting with a 9-2-2 record. Detroit is posting up strong numbers, with a 3.2 goals per game that ranks third in the league and in the top ten for goals against per game as well.

The Blackhawks were 11-5-2 through their first seventeen last year and tallied less than 15 losses at home in the whole season itself. Patrick Kane will be shifted to the left wing position and lining up with Marian Hossa to spark some extra offense. Patrick Sharp is doing well thus far and is second in the NHL with 10 goals and leading the team as well.

Duncan Keith is tolling plenty of minutes on the ice, playing almost half the game. This will not last and can put wear and tear on Keith, whom the Hawks need to have for the whole season and the playoffs. The Hawks goaltending needs to be more consistent, considering they are the backbone to the team when it comes to pulling off victories out on the ice. Marty Turco is a goalie that has the tendency to be too aggressive and his angles could use some work to stop those first shots on goal.

The Blackhawks suffered a tough loss to the Phoenix Coyotes at the United Center witha  score of 2-1. Both of the goals were due to turnovers and mistakes by Duncan Keith, who was forced to sit the bench for some extra minutes on Wednesday. The Hawks play Nashville on Saturday and need to rebound and secure a win to relieve some of us fans from this misery thus far.

The puck drops tonight for the Blackhawks

If you heard any recent news of the Blackhawks throughout the summer, it’s been that the Stanley Cup champion team is disintegrating. Everyone is beginning to believe they will never be what they were last year, but I say don’t give up hope yet.

The roster has had many changes including various trades to Atlanta and letting go of some players due to restrictions. Despite this, the team will still have strong forward lines and the core is still intact. Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, and Marian Hossa always bring offense to the table and will be great to watch.  The third line of offense will have our new acquisitions, Viktor Stalberg who signed as a free agent and Fernando Pisani, acquired from Toronto. When healthy, they both can post up strong numbers offensively as third liners. The offense will not lack goal scoring, so it should be entertaining to watch all season.

Defensively, the Hawks still have their Norris Trophy winning Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, and five other returning players from the team of last year. They all are very strong, blocking shots and reducing offense for the other team as much as possible. The Blackhawks led the league in least shots against, which is not a coincidence which helps the goalies out. A player to pay attention to this year is John Scott. This big brawler, signed as a free agent is the team’s new fighter. He led his previous team (Minnesota Wild) in penalty minutes and will always be ready to drop the mitts for a scrap.  This should be icing to the cake for the defense.

For the man between the pipes, the new goaltender is Marty Turco from Dallas. Antti Niemi, theprevious goalie, was too expensive for the Hawks to fit on the roster so they grabbed Turco for a one year contract. He is a very aggressive goalie that likes to play the puck and move it up which is new for Chicago. Christobal Huet was released and Corey Crawford will be the back-up, he recently was playing in the Hawks farm team, the Rockford Icehogs in the AHL for a few seasons. Overall, they will be solid throughout the season and post up very good numbers this year.

This team should be solid and be fun to watch all throughout the season. They have the capability to make the playoffs this season, but may not be able to capture the division. The Detriot Red Wings pose a huge threat and will be very dangerous this year if they can stay healthy. Other than that, playoffs should be interesting with this new mix of players and I can see them getting very deep into the playoffs again this year.

The Blackhawks play their first game tonight in Colorado at 9 P.M. central on Versus, don’t miss it!

NHL ’11 scores an easy goal

EA Sports unleashed another franchise classic, NHL 11 , on September 7.  There has been much anticipation to adding on to what is already a great sports game. Last year’s edition, NHL 10 had new features like board play, be a GM mode, and a new fighting engine. NHL 11 brings plenty of additions to be entertained throughout the whole hockey season.

Game play has been greatly improved including new stick handling, broken sticks, a new face-off system, and my new favorite, a physics-based hitting engine. Also, a new mode to play, EA Ultimate Team is a new mode introduced this year. This adds a much more realistic feel to the game.

When NHL brought in the one-on-one stick handling aspect three seasons ago, it was a hit. Again, for another consecutive season, they add on with establishing the dekeing system better than ever. The game runs much smoother when making a deke and will actually put you past a defensive player if you pull it off right. Many dekes are new too, including through the legs, off the skate, and others even I have yet to discover.

A player can break a stick by shooting the puck or taking a shot directly to the stick and the shattered stick will fall to the ice as your player skates around without a stick until he reaches over the bench for a new one. The broken stick also interferes with the game and the puck will be affects by a broken stick on the ice if hit.

Face-offs in NHL 10 were all too simple. Now, you can tie up the opposing center, push him out of the way, or win the face-off in other ways. This adds some strategy to face-offs which are important to coming out with the puck first.

A new mode the new Ultimate Team game mode is loads of fun, taking away some of the more boring parts from be a GM mode and season mode. With this mode, you start off with a pack of random semi-pro and professional players. This is much like a trading card game with all your players giving their own player card in which you can switch them in or out of lineups and roles on the team. This brings in the importance of team chemistry and matching together the right players on the right lines to have each line play to their full potential. Also, you can play games in your season to earn more points to buy more packs that give you more players to enhance your roster. A supplement is having bonus cards to boost a player’s performance, extend player contracts, etc.  This mode is a lot of fun and will not get bored for a long time.

We cannot forget the new hitting engine brought in. with this addition, all hits are unique in their own way. Updates like this add a whole new way of enjoying the game through bone-crushing hits that are always a joy to see on the highlights and to save on your system for watching it again. Hip checking has also been brought in to use at your disposal and when you put a guy down hard enough, he will lose his stick and be a bit disoriented, taking a bit more time than usual to get back up on his skates.  But, with all this new hitting, the penalties are always right behind the dirty deeds. Penalties can be more severe, some resulting in a game misconduct which ejects the player from the game and giving the opposing team a gruesome five-minute power play. So lay your hits down hard, but wisely.

Overall, NHL 11 is a fantastic game. The graphics are always up to pay, the new broken sticks system, great face-off mini game, and the hitting engine are more than enough reason to invest in this game.  Plus the Ultimate Team mode will be great to mess around with. I give this game, 4 out of 5.

Verdict: Summer Olympics still better

With the conclusion of the Winter Olympics, it is kind of sad that the nonstop action has finally come to an end. No longer can I turn on NBC and know that there is going to be some sort of winter contest on. One question that is always asked about the Olympics is which games are better: the Winter or Summer Olympics? Though I do like both, I think the summer games are far more exciting and fun to watch.

Both the summer and winter games have their fair share of exciting, heart-pounding sports. The summer games has the 100m dash, while the short track speed skating competition is always crazy in the winter Olympics.

These two sports aren’t without characters to root for either. Though he was not born in the US, Usain Bolt is a fan favorite in the 100m dash, not only in native-Jamaica, but all over the world including the US. In the 2008 Olympics, he smashed records in that event as well as in the 200m.

Speed skating has American Apollo Ohno, who just recently captured his 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th Olympic medals in Vancouver. Speed skating is a sport where anything can happen as Ohno is well aware. He was in fourth going into the final turn of the men’s 1500 meter finals when two Koreans wiped out and he took the silver.

Speed skating is exciting, but I still prefer watching the fastest men in the world compete against each other for just under 10 seconds. This isn’t the only sport where I hold preference for the Summer to the Winter Olympics. Figure skating is boring and overplayed, which is a terrible combination. The male figure skating is ten times worse than the females just because of the terrible outfits that the men wear. I don’t think anybody enjoys these men in the outfits, but I could be wrong. I doubt it though.

The odd sports in the Winter Olympics are pretty interesting, but they can get old fast. Curling was cool a couple Olympics ago, but now I think they go on for too long. The games take forever and there are no household names to draw viewers. The same goes with skeleton and luge, though they are exciting sports nonetheless. The problem is that they are never shown on NBC at good times. One o’clock in the morning is not a good time to watch skeleton.

In the summer games, beach volleyball is the equivalent to figure skating in terms of being overplayed, but I would still much rather watch volleyball. The swimming is also very exciting in the summer games. Sure, part of this is because Michael Phelps is swimming, but the same can be said for snowboarding with Shaun White. Both sports are great to watch, but are made even better with these icons.

On Sunday, February 28^th, the hockey gold medal game was played in Vancouver. This is one thing that I agree is amazing in the Winter Olympics. The United States hung with the gold medal favorite Canadians, and gave them all they could handle for three periods and overtime. The Canadians outlasted the US team 3-2 in a game that kept all fans on the edge of their seats. Basketball does not bring this type of excitement in the summer games, just because the US is heads above every other country at the sport it seems.   

Overall, though, the summer games are much more fun to me. They rarely lag like the winter Olympics do. So in 2012, when the summer games come to London, I will be much more excited for the games. It’s too bad that the 2016 Olympics are not in Chicago.

The Ballad of Nick Klytta

This weekend senior hockey player Nick Klytta tied up his skates for one last hoorah. Klytta has been playing hockey for thirteen years of his 18 year-old life. This past season he played for the Hawks, an NIHL (Northern Illinois Hockey League) team. Nonetheless, it is possible that he will never take the ice again, despite an opportunity to play for Western Illinois University club hockey team.

Klytta and company took the ice early Saturday morning to compete in the Rock n’ Roll Tournament in Cleveland, Ohio. They got off to a stellar start winning three in a row with Klytta recording three goals and three assists. 

Late in the third period of the third game, Klytta was punched by a frustrated member of the opposing team. Klytta responded and broke the player’s nose. He was suspended for game four, and the Hawks struggled without its star player, losing the match. Luckily the tourney was double elimination and Klytta and company would still play in the championship.

“I knew that I had to go out with a bang, more so a championship,” Klytta said of his pre-game thoughts.  Klytta was awarded tourney MVP for his outstanding six goals and three assists.

After the game, Klytta said, “I was on cloud nine.  Then I caught the over time of the USA vs. Canada gold medal game.”

Klytta is still undecided on whether he will play hockey at the next level. He is unsure on if he can balance the college work load and playing hockey, but also unsure of if he can live without the game.

Canada beaten at their own game

The most hyped game of the Olympic hockey season ends in an upset for Canada with USA winning 5-3. This time the game was not for a medal, but for pride and respect for the US team. This win was the first win over Canada for the US since 50 years ago. With a bunch of players who are new to the Olympics on the US team, the win brought back memories of the Miracle on Ice, when an amateur US team took the gold away from Soviet Union.   

The game started fast with Brian Rafalski scoring a goal in the first forty seconds of the game. This was returned by a goal from Canada and then another goal by Rafalski, his second of the night.

In the second period Canada scored again to tie it up, but then the U.S. slipped ahead with another goal to end the second period 3-2.

With tensions high, U.S. scores again in the third taking the lead by two with 4-2. Canada then tried to make a comeback with another goal leaving it at 4-3. Then with only forty-five seconds left in the game the US cemented their lead with an open net goal from Ryan Kesler on Canada.

The US team will now advance into the quarterfinals top seeded. Their next game will be on Wednesday against Sweden. This year may just be another miracle on ice for the US hockey team.

Back on the ice

On Monday, September 14, the Bulldogs hockey team returned to the ice for the first time since the spring season ended. The Bulldogs are returning with a spark this year after winning the spring season championship.

The head coach for the Bulldogs is Yovan Stevanovich also known as Coach Yo. Coach Stevanovich is looking to bring the team to the championship and bring home a trophy.

The team will be held to high expectations this season because they had gone to the fall season championship but lost to Nazareth/Guerin Prep, to with  score of  6-4. “ I expect our team to developed well, because we’re practicing a lot to become better players, and be a force to be reckon with in the league.” Said junior assistant captain Jon Stevanovich

Stevanovich helped the Bulldogs to the spring league championship. If his efforts can carry over, he can do the same for Bulldogs this fall so the Dogs can bring home a championship.

The team got some help in between the pipes from freshman goalie Bobby Heff. All together the Bulldogs did great during there spring season. Hopefully their efforts will carry over so the team will can bring back a trophy to R-B.

Now with one game in the books, the Bulldogs are 1-0. The Dogs beat St. Charles East to a score of 8-2. Now the Bulldogs hope they have some momentum that will help them through the season.