I was completely unaware of this, but did you know that the Blackhawks aren’t terrible this year? I mean, they’re not even BAD! 15-13 is a winning record, and in Chicago, that’s grounds for a parade. Between the Bulls and the Bears, I just figured that team records were given in numerical order, but in fact, we just generally have been sucking lately.
I don’t know enough about hockey to claim brilliance, but I just couldn’t resist the chance to write about Chicago winning a game. Any game. I was checking the schedule for the Chicago Fire, for godsake! The Hawks were in the midst of a four-game losing streak before Thursday’s game (that means they were 15-8 before! That’s REALLY good!), so you can imagine my relief that they won a game.
As far as I can tell, we basically sent Tuomo Ruutu to be our goon of the evening, laying out a great hit on Lubomir Visnovski (who or what is a Lubomir?), then kicking the crap out of Brad Smith for no good reason, and he scored anyways. It also helped that Martin Havlat has been sick lately, and he tacked on two goals Thursday. Hell, he’s got 5 goals in 7 games since being a cripple the last 22 games, so something must be working for him.
I guess my one question is, why do people talk about Khabibulin like he’s such a good goalie? I’ve seen lots of good goalies in Chicago, from Belfour to Thibault, and I’m just not impressed by Nicky-boy. He has no shutouts (and only one in the last THREE SEASONS), and while I save percentage of .900 is do-able, he seems to be on the lower end (especially compared with the top tier goalies with a percentage near .930). Likewise, his GAA is almost three – how the hell can you be giving up almost three goals a game and expect to win? It’s a good thing the Hawks offense can put up 6 a game or we’d have some serious problems.
Wow. That was really a whole rant about Hockey! I feel dirty…
I don’t know enough about hockey to claim brilliance, but I just couldn’t resist the chance to write about Chicago winning a game. Any game. I was checking the schedule for the Chicago Fire, for godsake! The Hawks were in the midst of a four-game losing streak before Thursday’s game (that means they were 15-8 before! That’s REALLY good!), so you can imagine my relief that they won a game.
As far as I can tell, we basically sent Tuomo Ruutu to be our goon of the evening, laying out a great hit on Lubomir Visnovski (who or what is a Lubomir?), then kicking the crap out of Brad Smith for no good reason, and he scored anyways. It also helped that Martin Havlat has been sick lately, and he tacked on two goals Thursday. Hell, he’s got 5 goals in 7 games since being a cripple the last 22 games, so something must be working for him.
I guess my one question is, why do people talk about Khabibulin like he’s such a good goalie? I’ve seen lots of good goalies in Chicago, from Belfour to Thibault, and I’m just not impressed by Nicky-boy. He has no shutouts (and only one in the last THREE SEASONS), and while I save percentage of .900 is do-able, he seems to be on the lower end (especially compared with the top tier goalies with a percentage near .930). Likewise, his GAA is almost three – how the hell can you be giving up almost three goals a game and expect to win? It’s a good thing the Hawks offense can put up 6 a game or we’d have some serious problems.
Wow. That was really a whole rant about Hockey! I feel dirty…
