The Two-Line Pass

The perfect marriage between Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane might finally be over. Their feud over which one gets votes onto the All-Star team has spilled from the dressing room and onto the internet, where the two forwards are now waging a bitter war for votes.

Toews, for example, believes Kane to be a liar and a turncoat. Not the kind of guy you’d want representing your Chicago Blackhawks at the All-Star game.

Kane, on the other hand, doesn’t think we should trust someone that can’t spell “Taves.”

Brian Campbell, by the way, is your third-party candidate.

Things are only going to get worse come January.

(Big ups to Trevor Bird on this one.)

The Lead

After Ben Guite scored maybe the ugliest goal I’ve seen all year late in the first period, I was a little worried how things would turn out for Joel Quenneville’s new team against his old one.

The Blackhawks had opened the game with a wide advantage in shots and puck possession, but the Avs closed both late and headed into the dressing room up a goal thanks to a Ben Guite marker that was just hideous. I don’t know what Quenneville said between periods, but it worked. The Blackhawks came out guns blazing and picked apart Colorado for a 6-2 win.

Andrew Ladd’s goal 3:54 into the second period tied the game and Troy Brouwer’s first NHL goal put the Blackhawks up for good. Both were the result of hard work that the ‘Hawks had let flag in the latter stages of the opening period, and they seemed determined not to let it happen again. As with the last Blackhawks game to be featured in this space, the difference in the game came down to coaching. Quenneville identified the problem that his team had and corrected it in the space of a 15-minute intermission. Tony Granato, his replacement behind the Colorado bench, did not.

And that’s why Chicago dissected the Avalanche with surgical precision in the final two-thirds of the game. It wasn’t that the stars showed up for an especially big night on the back end of a stretch that saw the Featherheads win three games in four days. Patrick Kane, Jonanthan Toews and Brian Campbell were just fine, but they weren’t Kane-, Toews- and Campbell-level performances. Instead, Quenneville got production out of guys like Ladd, who scored twice, Brouwer, who’d never done so before, Cam Barker, who has spent part of this season in the minors, and Patrick Sharp, who also scored twice and looks like he’s worth every penny they gave him this summer. These aren’t exactly perennial NHL All-Stars, but because the Blackhawks up and down the bench have bought into Quenneville’s system, they are 5-1-2 since he came aboard. After that shaky first period, in which the teams both had 11 shots, the Avs were outshot 26-15 in the final two periods, and 11-5 in the final one. They were also outscored 6-1.

For vast stretches of the third period, especially, it seemed like the Blackhawks were playing pickup hockey. The way they held the puck was just unbelievable, and the crowd gave them several standing ovations just for keeping it in the zone for 45 seconds to a minute at a time. The Avs were running around in circles trying to dispossess Chicago’s third and fourth line to no avail. The best evidence of this was on Chicago’s fifth goal, where Dustin Byfuglien received a bouncer from Dave Bolland, shrugged off Joe Sakic’s coverage along the endboards (no small feat, that), drew John-Michael Liles in below the goal line and no-looked it to Ladd, who scored an absolute cracker of a wrister in acres of space. It was a beautiful example of how work along the boards will always create space in danger areas, and it was the kind of hockey the Avs played so well last year. Byfuglien being roughly the size of a horse helps as well.

This has to feel good for Quenneville. He was unceremoniously fired because he couldn’t make it deep into the playoffs with a team backed by Jose Theodore and Petr Budaj, and really, who could? Budaj gave up another six-spot tonight on 37 shots and was hopelessly out of position and Theodore’s busy being thoroughly inconsistent at worst and mediocre at best in Washington. He might run into a similar problem down the road in Chicago (is anyone sold on the Khabibulin/Huet tandem in the playoffs?) but right now this team is firing on all cylinders. It seems like there’s very little that can stop the momentum they’ve built up over the last four da.. oh, they don’t play again until Sunday.

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On the heels of Joel Quenneville coaching one of the best games Chicago’s played in years, the Blackhawks announced he’d gotten signed to a three-year extension.

It wasn’t finalized until Wednesday, but new Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville has signed a three-year contract, according to general manager Dale Tallon.

Quenneville’s deal is through the 2010-11 season and he celebrated by watching his team go out and dominate the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 at the United Center.

Well-deserved, one supposes.

The Lead

Earlier this week I said that Chicago firing Denis Savard in favor of Joel Quenneville was a dumb move. Quenneville has a history of coaching poorly against division rival Detroit and I figured if you’re not good enough to coach that Avs team (weak goaltending aside) into the playoffs, then you can’t be THAT good.

Two convincing Chicago wins later, I am rethinking that stance.

For those of you that aspire to be NHL coaches one day, get a video of tonight’s Chicago/Edmonton game. For 60 minutes, Quenneville’s team played a game that was so exquisitely coached in every zone that Edmonton, despite being a very talented team on a decent roll, looked like a middle-of-the-road AHL team. The ‘Hawks skated away with an effortless 3-0 win.

Now, I say effortless because Chicago made everything tonight look incredibly easy. But the effort for Quenneville and his boys was clearly put in on the practice rink. The forecheck was brilliant, either forcing turnovers or at the very least forcing the Edmonton breakout back down low to regroup in all three periods. The neutral zone play was a thing of beauty as well, as Edmonton passes were being picked off and Chicago moved through it freely, as if uncontested by the Edmonton defenders. In the defensive zone, it was nearly as good. Chicago allowed just 23 shots, most from low-percentage areas, and Nikolai Khabibulin was equal to all of them.

A friend of mine who worked for the Blackhawks for the last few years said it’s the best he’s seen them play in forever, and I can believe that. The Blackhawks committed just three giveaways all night but took the puck nine times, and only one of the Chicago giveaways was actually caused by an Edmonton player. Chicago also blocked 11 shots. Though Chicago gave Edmonton four power plays, the Oilers managed just one shot on net. You take care of the puck, the puck takes care of you.

After Patrick Sharp and Brent Seabrook scored special teams goals in the first period (Sharp’s on the power play, Seabrook’s shorthanded), the rest of the game was a formality. Seabrook’s goal, too, was perfectly indicative of the type of night Chicago had. Kris Versteeg blocked a blast from the point and Chicago had three guys go the other way with it. Once in the zone, Dave Bolland pulled up and waited for the trailer, and what a job Seabrook did in recognizing the developing play at the other end, especially for a defenseman. Seabrook’s wrister killed the Oil tonight. They never even looked especially threatening after that. From a blocked shot to a dagger of a shortie in seven seconds. It was crazy.

Granted, Vancouver and Edmonton ain’t exactly Detroit and San Jose, but if the ‘Hawks turn in performances even remotely resembling this against the real brass of the Western Conference, they’re going to win a ton of games this year, and make it look easy.

The good news, too, is that the game was at the United Center in front of more than 21,000 fans. They saw their hometown team play the closest thing to a flawless game anyone in that building is ever going to see. If that doesn’t keep them coming back, nothing will.

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Athletes sometimes attach themselves to very odd products.

Baseball superstar Fred McGriff has the Tom Emanski videos (back to back to back to back national champions!), a shirtless Bill Clement has Deep Woods Off!, and OJ Simpson has double murder Hertz Rent-a-Car. But it takes a rare athlete indeed to come out with his own personal line of products. These are players whose names are synonymous with success and athletic excellence.

Jordan.

Tiger.

Beckham.

Wisniewski.

That’s right. James Wisniewski. The currently injured guy on the Blackhawks, and, according to the banner at the top, “your favorite Chicago Blackhawk.” He’s got his own clothing line. WizWear43. Who wouldn’t want a $20 t-shirt with a goalie mask wearing sunglasses? Just $15 bucks for the girls’ shorts? Is there a way to send my money faster than my cable modem will allow?

This is possibly the worst idea in the history of sports marketing. Not only is this a player that wouldn’t be in the top 10 current Blackhawks named by any Chicago sports fan (and even then, ehhhhh), but “Wiz Wear” sounds like the rubber underpants you give a kid that can’t hold it during a spelling test. Terrible name for a terrible product, alliteration aside.

On the plus side, the site allows you interact directly with the Wiz through a Q&A form. Feel free to ask him such questions as, “Do you think anyone is going to buy this?” or “Seriously, what the hell were you thinking?” or even “Can you get me Jonathan Toews’ autograph?”

Besides, my general rule is that I don’t buy things that cost more in dollars than that player’s career goal total, which effectively prices Wisniewski out of everything that’s over 11 bucks.

RDS and Bob MacKenzie are reporting that Nikolai Khabulin is officially on waivers.

Frankly, I’m surprised. I could have SWORN the Blackhawks were going to drop $12.375 million on goaltending and leave promising young netminder Anti Niemi up in the press box to eat all the popcorn he wants. That made a lot more sense.

This flies in the face of everything the Blackhawks have been saying all summer. The link’s dead now, but earlier in the summer, I found an article where Chicago GM Dale Tallon said he had no plans to move either goalie (not that Huet, who just signed this year, was ever in danger of that). In fact, just the other day, the Chicago Tribune ran an article headed “NIKOLAI KHABIBULIN AND CRISTOBAL HUET IN BATTLE FOR BLACKHAWKS GOALIE JOB.”

“We have two great goalies here,” Savard said. “We’re very fortunate to have both of them. The best is going to play every night.”

So all that was a lie. What this means, of course, is that Chicago finally wised up and is now in the process of ridding itself of an albatross contract that it never should have signed in the first place. But no one’s going to want Khabibulin, at least not for $6.75 million. This has to be the first step in the buyout process. The only thing I can’t believe is how long it took to get to this point. They had to have known there was no way this was a tenable situation, right? I mean, almost SEVEN million for Nik Khabibulin? Really? Why would Chicago put it off this long, and lie to its fans in the process? It doesn’t make any sense.

Serious question: Is this the biggest non-surprise of the offseason?

TOEWSFACE !!!

We’re now something like 21 days out from the start of the NHL season, which means I have to get a move on  with these season previews. This is mainly for two reasons: 1) I am lazy and there’s no way I’ll do one of these every day, and 2) These started early enough that if I just stop doing them entirely you’ll have forgotten by October anyway. Oh and I guess also to show off my near-infinite knowledge of the National Hockey League. I’ll be previewing the teams in reverse order of finish in the 2007-08 season. Please note, though, that this is the opinion of one man, however smart and handsome he may be.

Chicago Blackhawks, you’re on the clock.

The last person you want to be like is Bill Wirtz. No one’s death should be a cause célèbre that actually makes people happy.

While he was philanthropic and loyal almost to a fault in some cases, Old Man Wirtz’s stranglehold on the team he owned for more than four decades had an entire city turned against him and it for the better part of the latter half of the 20th century and into the 21st.

More after the jump.

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"I know! They'll BOTH start!"

They’ve got some brilliant hockey minds in Chicago these days. Just brilliant.

Remember how the Blackhawks signed Cristobal Huet to a huge deal out of the blue and are currently contributing $12.375 million of their cap number to goaltending? They meant to do that, and they’re going with a two-starter system.

Really.

“We’re going to push each other to play and to compete,” Huet said. “It’s going to benefit the team. He’s definitely a great goalie. There’s going to be competition, obviously, [but] it’s always like that with any NHL team. This year is going to be a little more than the average team, but it’s great. We’re going to work together and make it happen every night so we can [get] some wins.”

Wrong-o, Mr. Huet. The best NHL teams tend to be the ones with clear-cut starters and an above-average career backup (Detroit obviously being the exception to this rule). Were it not for injury and deadline deals, almost every playoff team in either conference would have had one goalie play 50-plus games and a number of backups pick up the slack. Only Montreal (early uncertainty about Carey Price, their now-clear No. 1) and Pittsburgh (Marc-Andre Fleury injury) don’t fit the bill in the East, and only Detroit (Osgood/Hasek tandem) did it in the West.

Newsflash: Chicago is not as good as Detroit, or even close. Chicago allowed an extra 5.1 shots a game last year and hasn’t improved defensively this year, so why go this route? Oh yeah, “it’s all about winning,” right?

“It’s all about winning—it’s not about keeping people happy,” Tallon said. “We want to have an opportunity … to have the best goaltending every night. If by chance that’s not going to work as far as number of games played or not wanting to be here then we have to look at that. … If it’s keeping Khabibulin, we do that. If it’s not, then we move on and we try to do something that makes sense for both of us.”

Trade Khabibulin for whatever you can get right now. He’s too old and too expensive to make any kind of sense on a team that’s trying to grow.

Oh, and Tallon hasn’t talked to Khabi about this yet.

”Nik’s in Belarus. It’s hard to get ahold of him there,” Tallon said. ”But I did talk to his agent the day after [Huet's signing], and we had a great conversation.

”I’m sure [Khabibulin] was taken aback, and rightly so. No one saw this coming, except within our staff. But this is all about winning. It’s not about keeping people happy.”

Tallon reiterated that he doesn’t plan to trade Khabibulin.

Read that last line again and try to wrap your head around it. It’s making my brain hurt to think that an otherwise competent organization is spending more than $2.5 million over the cap right now and won’t trade one of the two players making more than $5.6 million, of whom they can only play one per night.

Chicago will be able to compete for a postseason berth by virtue of the entire Northwest division falling all over itself to get worse and not take up three playoff spots (more on that tomorrow), but this strategy is mind-numbingly stupid.

Look out, Scotty! Hitler's behind you!

Apparently it is, but for a very specific reason.

Bowman’s son Stan is an Assistant GM, Hockey Operations with the Blackhawks.

“It’s certainly an exciting day for me and for the family,” said Scotty Bowman. “Being in Detroit for 15 years, I got to know Gordie Howe. He often talked about… how he felt the most exciting time of his career was when he got to play with his sons. I wanted to work with my son Stan. it’s a dream everyone has and it doesn’t happen very often.”

This is a great move by the Blackhawks. Obviously the senior Bowman’s reputation speaks for itself, and the more he’s around all of Chicago’s kids, the better. Bowman’s one of those guys that exudes success with no great effort, and there is something to be said for a man that knows how to pick his spots.

He led the Blues to three straight Stanley Cup Finals and never finished lower than third in the West, then won five Cups in eight years with Montreal. He went on to win the Cup only four more times in his coaching career, once with Pittsburgh and three more times with Detroit. From 1967-68 to 2001-02, Bowman made the playoffs 28 of the 29 full seasons he coached. He has served as an advisor to Detroit since his retirement from coaching after the 2002 Cup win.

So now he and his 10 rings are on to Chicago, where he will certainly do what he does best: be Scotty Bowman for everyone.

This is actually the law now.

I didn’t think the phrase “_______ sucks” would ever get into legitimate legislation, but it looks like I have underestimated the Tiny Toddlin’ Town.

So when Quigley put together an official resolution Tuesday celebrating the Hawks’ outdoor showdown against the Red Wings on New Year’s Day at Wrigley Field, he included a secret message to the reigning Stanley Cup champions and their fans.

He used red capital letters in the last line of his resolution to spell out a favorite chant he learned while growing up a Hawks fan ”in the second balcony in Chicago Stadium.” The letters spelled out, ”DETROIT SUCKS.”

That doesn’t seem especially secret. In fact, it appears to be rather conspicuous. But no matter, it’s awesome that people are getting this fired up over a regular season hockey game that’s almost six months away. Those Wrigleyville cretins might be on the verge of riotous action by the time this game rolls around.

And kudos to Quigley for making Wrigley Field and its surrounding area to be “octopus free.” We loved the way Gary Bettman banned octupus tossing incensed Detroit fans, and this will surely bring equal amounts of rancor.

Besides declaring Jan. 1 will be ”Chicago Blackhawks Day” in Cook County, Quigley’s resolution designates Wrigley Field and the surrounding area an ”Octopus Free Zone” — a dig at Red Wings fans’ tradition of throwing octopi on the ice after their team scores.

Good one. But looking at the way the rink will be set up on the field, the only person who could possibly throw an octopus that far is the kid from that movie “Rookie of the Year,” and he’s from Chicago anyway.

Quigley saved the best truism for last though.

”The good thing about being a Blackhawks fan,” Quigley said, ”is you don’t have to live in Detroit.”

I think even Detroit fans can agree with that one.