I rarely get to say anything nice about the NHL, but the Winter Classic has been a pretty great idea. The NHL season is so long. You need something to break it up a little bit and the All-Star game is so pointless, it’s hard to get excited.
I feel awful Doc Emrick won’t be able [...]

Don’t worry if you missed last night’s Blackhawks-Senators game. Apparently a lot of Canadians did, too, as the game was shown on the not-widely-available TSN2.
Can you imagine if the Blackhawks still didn’t broadcast their home games? This might have been a game practically unseen by anyone outside of the United Center.
Obviously, the Senators didn’t want [...]

We always talk about the NHL coaching carousel but some coaches do seem to evolve. Chicago coach Joel Quenneville, who always seemed a little too player friendly to me, has taken to benching players and it seems to be working.
Colorado’s Tony Granato, who replaced Quenneville in Colorado after being replaced by Quenneville (an extreme version [...]

Over in Chicago, Corey Crawford, the highly regarded (by the Blackhawks, anyway) goalie is finally getting some playing time.
Well he’s not really playing. He’s really backing-up. But still. He’s with the club, waiting to crack the lineup and live up to his one-time billing as Chicago’s so-called goalie of the future. Of course, during Chicago’s [...]

The Kings are probably one of the NHL’s bigger surprises this season. The team has a young, almost anonymous roster, yet somehow the Kings are still in the thick of things.
Now, with billions (OK,millions) of dollars in cap space, the team has to start considering if it wants to grab some high-priced talent to make [...]

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. I’ve been on the phone with Richard Simmons since Friday, so I’m feeling much better.
You know who’s not feeling so well? Brendan Shanahan. It seems all of the teams that might have wanted him are now playing so well, they really don’t need him. The Flyers are suddenly [...]

Brian Burke stepped down as GM of the Ducks and Bob Murray is taking over. Burke is expected to take over the Leafs.
Both GMs will have similar issues: capped-up teams with a lot of obvious holes and not a lot of salary maneuverability to fix them. Burke is a smart guy, though. He really pushed [...]

Even with all of the goalie drama in Chicago, there’s something very likeable about the team. I think it has to do with how young everyone is.
Last night, captain Jonathan Toews got his first goal of the season. His teammates had a great reaction:
One retrieved the puck, ready to deliver it to him as if [...]

How about those Blackhawks? They’ve yet to lose at home this season, including last night’s big 6-2 win over the Avs.
One of the reasons for Chicago’s success? Coach Joe Quenneville’s Detroit-style offense, that features a lot of shooting defensemen. The defense either scores or creates rebound opportunities for the forwards. As I see more and [...]

I’m sorry. I know I talk about the Blackhawks and their dueling goaltenders a lot, but it’s just such an amazingly odd situation.
Do you want it to get weirder?
Apparently the Blackhawks have tremendous goalie depth in the minors, too. So really, they have four goalies not being used to their full potential.
This raises the question [...]