$3 What Do You Mean We Don’t Support Your System? We Go To Court When We Have To... $3 The Committed Indian The REal Fan’s Program secondcityhockey.com January 16th, 2009 [email protected] WHAT’S YOUR PRICE FOR FLIGHT, JACKASS? “Well, that was unexpected,” Mayor lumbus case, where a team is strictly built to might be lower than 23rd in goals-per-game, Quimby once said after watching Rex Ban- protect its goalie. The Rangers blue line has where they are now. ner catapulted into the abyss (and yes, we’re continually been the team’s weakness, and But Rangers fans will point squarely going to try to start these off with a Simpsons this year is no exception. Michal Rozsival has to the power play as the team’s Achilles Heel. quote as often as we can. Get used to it). We had to wear disguises when out in public in Clearly missing the dominating puck-pos- don’t think anyone saw a chippy, nasty affair New York for fear of physical violence. Wade session of Jaromir Jagr, the Rangers haven’t between two of the less ornery teams around Redden has been a corpse -- a handsomely figured out another way. They don’t have a coming, but that’s exactly what we got. Obvi- paid corpse, but a corpse nonetheless. Only plus-puck mover on the blue line, or a big ously, Drew Stafford’s hit on Duncan Keith Marc Staal and Paul Mara have been consis- shot -- Redden couldn’t hit a bull in the ass ramped the animosity up, but the Hawks were tently useful on the back end. Oh, and the with a snow-shovel these days. Add to that being physical before that. It was good to see d-corps is about the softest around, delight- the fact they’ve surrendered 13 shorties, and that when the temperature rises, the Hawks ing Rangers fans to no end. The fact that what we’ve got here is failure to communicate. can handle it. There will be sterner tests the Rangers are sixth in goals-against is a So Good To See You against bigger, stronger teams, however. testament to the goaltending they get from There are those out there who will tell you Obviously, the game turned on Lundqvist and #2 Stephen Valiquette. the Original 6 doesn’t mean anything these what was a dominant six-minute kill. It’s so With their d-men bordering on days. But it’s hard to ignore the charge in the heartening to see a team pick up a team- blisters-on-your-dick bad, the Rangers would air whenever the Bruins, Habs, or Rangers pay mate who went to bat for another teammate. clearly have to count on their forwards to be a visit. We expect a rollicking atmosphere to- Upon further review, Stafford’s hit was less significantly better. Well, they haven’t been, night, with a little NY-Chicago rivalry to spice than clean. It was a direct blow to the head and now you see why they’re barely over things up. The Rangers come in having won against a defenseless opponent, and whether .500 since the beginning of November. The their last two, but against white flag-waving it was legal or not, it definitely had the scent Rangers have been let down by what should Ottawa and Long Island. This is not the force of chicken-shit. So did Stafford’s absolute be a glittering forward lineup, or at least is we saw in October, and the Hawks aren’t the refusal to answer the bell when Eager came paid like one. Chris Drury is on the third same either. But, more than likely, it will be calling. The Sabres have never handled physi- line, after playing wing most of the season. one of the league’s premier shot-stoppers cal play well, and now you see why. Scott Gomez is on pace for 50 points, for $8 facing us, so it will not be easy. Still, with The power play looked a lot better million. After a hot start, Markus Naslund New York’s struggles with their d-men and against a very good penalty kill side, though it reverted to the glorified floater he was in Van- the way the Hawks forecheck at home, they’ll didn’t score. Put another mark on the Why- couver. If it wasn’t for the no-longer-incar- have their opportunities. Take just a few, and We-Love-Coach-Q Board, as we doubt Savvy cerated-by-Hitchcock Nikolai Zherdev and the the points are ours. -Grand Master Flash would have ever fixed a power play with only underrated Brandon Dubinsky, the Rangers two days to work with. They’ll have to be on their toes again tonight, as the league’s best PK is in town. There were also flashes -- but only flashes -- of a healthy Patrick Kane. Here’s hoping we’ll see a few more this evening. If not, Havlat will have to come save the day, but he hasn’t had a problem doing that recently. Also, a Committed Indian-kiss to Ben Eager, who not only went to defend Keith, but also has been productive on a line with Sharp and Kane. He’s skating hard, taking the body, and causing a turnover here and there. That should be a lesson to a pressbox-contained Troy Brouwer. If You Can Score Here, You’d Be The Only One To tonight’s soiree, and the inva- sion of the Broadway Blueshirts, the New York Rangers. Any discussion of the Rangers must start with Henrik Lundqvist in goal. A con- vincing argument can be made that since the lockout, there hasn’t been a better netminder than King Henrik. Save percentages of .922, .917, .912, and .913 this year, along with GAA ‘s never above 2.34 are striking enough. In addition, this is hardly a Minnesota or Co- “I’m gonna make Buff play angry, no matter what it takes!” MUSINGS FROM THE EDITOR Okay, I give up. I’ve tried to be patient. I really have. It doesn’t like crackheads at 4am in the park. Duncan Keith rarely, if ever, become me. I’ve tried to act my age for once, and let something lays anyone out and yet he’s playing some of the best defense in the roll off my back. But I can’t take it any more. I’m going to have to league. It’s not always necessary. There are times and places for a chastise some new Hawk fans in the United Center. I didn’t want to big hit, and I wish I saw it more often, but it is not all the time. do this, but I’m sorry, it’s gotten too much. For the love of Jocelyn Lemiuex, stop yelling, “SHOOT!” I -A few people have asked me to address this, and I can’t stand it any more. apologize for waiting so long to do so. Where have I understand that as a novice fan, or a our drummers gone? You remember them. When dumb one, you can’t recognize that there’s no lane the UC first opened, they used to pop up once or to the net. I also get the fact that you won’t grasp twice-a-game during whistles. If you don’t remem- the concept of someone being in front of the net, ber or are new to the scene, they were four guys who as you don’t know that an NHL goalie will most used to do a drum circle during timeouts. They used likely stop anything he can see from a long distance. to get the joint really jumping. It harkened back to But I’m here to teach you. Start looking for these the yahoos in the Standing Room of the Old Stadium pounding on the fire-escape doors (I was one at the things. Cam Barker cannot let one go if there’s a Sam Fels checker four feet in front of him. There’s no point age of 9, and now you know how I got this way). in 51 Phantom letting fly if there’s no one providing Maybe McDonough doesn’t want to cough up the a screen in front. Please, for my sanity, and the sanity of all other free tickets to the four of them when those tickets could be sold to Hawks fans who feel this way, look for these things. It’s not hard. some boring-ass family of four from Wheeling. Maybe those guys You’ll get it after a few tries. I promise. aren’t interested in doing it any more, but I highly doubt that’s the Secondly, and less offensive, are the ones yelling, “Hit case. We’d like our drummers back, as it would be one less timeout somebody!” I, and drinking buddy Matt McClure especially, are when I have to see some fat doofus waving on the scoreboard, or sometimes annoyed at the Hawks soft-play in their own end, too. have to listen to Nickelback or Linkin Park on the PA. I know they However, just because the play is in our end does not automati- can be found, do so. cally mean that every Hawk on the ice should be racing around NHL STANDINGS *late game not included Eastern Conference Western Conference W L OTL PTS GF GA HOME AWAY W L OTL PTS GF GA HOME AWAY 1 Boston 33 7 4 70 159 96 17-3-1 16-4-3 1 San Jose 32 6 5 69 152 102 20-1-2 12-5-3 2 Washington 28 14 3 59 147 133 18-3-1 10-11-2 2 Twats 31 7 6 68 165 121 16-3-2 15-4-4 3 NY Rangers 26 15 4 56 120 118 14-8-2 12-7-2 3 Calgary 27 12 4 58 136 124 16-4-3 11-8-1 4 Montreal 26 11 6 58 136 114 15-4-4 11-7-2 4 HAWKS 24 10 7 55 147 104 14-2-4 10-8-3 5 Philadelphia 23 12 9 55 143 132 14-5-3 9-7-6 5 Vancouver 22 19 5 49 131 129 11-10-2 11-9-3 6 New Jersey 25 15 3 53 132 113 13-8-1 12-7-2 6 Anaheim 22 18 5 49 129 128 13-10-3 9-8-2 7 Buffalo 22 17 5 49 126 125 12-9-2 10-8-3 7 Phoenix 22 18 5 49 113 127 15-6-2 7-12-3 8 Carolina 21 19 5 47 116 138 12-10-1 9-9-4 8 Minnesota 22 18 3 47 111 98 13-7-3 9-11-0 9 Florida 20 16 6 46 120 119 10-5-3 10-11-3 9 Columbus 21 18 4 46 115 117 13-6-1 8-12-3 10 Pittsburgh 21 20 4 46 137 143 9-10-2 12-10-2 10 Edmonton 21 19 3 45 119 130 9-8-3 12-11-0 11 Toronto 17 21 6 40 130 158 8-9-4 9-12-2 11 Colorado 22 21 1 45 118 129 13-8-0 9-13-1 12 Tampa Bay 14 20 10 38 109 136 5-7-7 9-13-3 12 Nashville 20 21 3 43 108 124 12-7-1 8-14-2 13 Ottawa 15 21 6 36 101 122 10-7-3 5-14-3 13 Dallas 18 17 7 43 121 145 10-6-4 8-11-3 14 Atlanta 14 25 5 33 126 160 7-13-2 7-12-3 14 L.A.