The Third Man In - An Independent Chicago Blackhawks Web Site

Tim Sassone today points out how the Hawks' two-week circus act didn't do much for them in the standings.  The flip-side of that however is the Hawks are now facing eight of their next ten opponents at the United Center.  Four of those are against divisional opponents (Columbus tomorrow night, Nashville on Friday, St. Louis on Wednesday the 16th and Detroit on Sunday the 20th) and they wrap up the impending ten-game stretch against the San Jose Sharks.  By the time December 22nd roles around, Chicago-San Jose should be a legitimate battle for first overall in the conference.  The Hawks will need a strong December as the tables will turn in January with the team playing 11 of 15 on the road.  Joel Quenneville's bunch went 6-0-0 at the United Center in December of '08 and 10-1-1 overall.  Both of those losses - at Joe Louis Arena.  The Hawks visit the Wings on Dec 23rd, the back-end of a home-and-home as far as Detroit's concerned.

-- I will be a guest on this week's HockeeNight PuckCast, which we'll tape tonight.  You can listen to the show live or check it out on their site or ITunes starting early Tuesday morning.

-- We have a new TTMI Facebook fan page if that's something you're into.  This site's RSS feed ties into that so you'll be notified of new updates via the Facebook newsfeed.

-- This week's TTMI~Radio, which was originally pushed back to Wednesday because of tomorrow's Hawks-Columbus game at the UC, has been post-poned yet another day.  My men's league schedule came out over the weekend and we start this Wednesday night instead of Thursday so I won't be able to do a show then.  It's possible we may not do a show at all this week at all due to an event I may be attending Thursday, or we'll tape a show some other time and post it on the site.  We'll keep you posted but for now we've re-scheduled this week's show for Thursday night at 8pm over at BlogTalkRadio.com/TheThirdManIn.

Our upcoming radio schedule looks like this:

Thu Dec 03 - 8pm (Live) *Tentative
Tue Dec 08 - 8pm (Live)
Tue Dec 15 - 8pm (Live)
Mon Dec 21 - 8pm (Live) *Which should be interesting because I will probably be drunk~!
Tue Dec 29 - 9:30pm (Live Post-Game following Hawks @ Dallas Stars)

HockeeNight has some December shopping suggestions for Stan Bowman.  Only Seidenberg, Cullen and possibly Weight make any sense whatsoever.  And even so, you'd be moving better assets for expiring contracts.  But that's the spot John McDonough has put his GM in.  Dennis Seidenberg, 28, is a damn fine defenseman (his +4 ranking bests all Panthers' defenseman) who played an important role in Carolina's playoff magic and upset of the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference-Semi's last spring.  He plays bigger than his 6-1, 215 frame and he'd be an excellent third-pairing guy who'd easily transition into either second or first pairing minutes if necessary.  Another key component in hopes of reaching the ultimate goal.  He's not great, just solid all-around.  Seidenberg will be a member of Germany's Olympic team in Vancouver.  Matt Cullen, a current Carolina Hurricane, just turned 33 and has 6 goals and 14 points in 26 games so far this season, centering the second line on the NHL's worst team.  A good face-off man, Cullen would give the Hawks three aces in that category come playoff time, though none (Toews, Madden and potentially Cullen) right-handed, which is a slight concern.  As a reasonably-priced legitimate two-way forward, will be one of the most sought-after trade deadline targets should Carolina choose to hold onto him much longer.  Cullen had 4 goals and 18 points in the Canes' 2006 Cup-winning postseason.  For the reasons listed above, Seidenberg and Cullen are atop Stan Bowman's wish list.  Slava Kozlov even at his advanced age still can bring it, but his contract is too much for the Hawks to take on, unless it means exchanging one as Forklift suggests, which would be asinine.  Joe Corvo is a first-class idiot both on and off the ice.  Andy Sutton, Matt Stajan and Paul Mara don't bring with them anything which can make the team even marginally better on their best days, so those would be acquisitions for the sake of acquisitions.  That was the norm on the West Side five years ago.  This front office is supposed to be more refined and should avoid such putrid decisions.

Tribune columnist Rick Morrissey tells you it's okay to embrace the Blackhawks

Chicago Now's Mark Kiley makes an excellent point regarding the loss of Dave Bolland, and how it's affecting Joel Quenneville's lineup.

San Jose's Rob Blake chooses Keith and Seabrook as two of his NINE Canadian Olympic blue liners  Globe & Mail

-- In case you missed it, Andrew Ebbett's first NHL shootout attempt was successful on Saturday night, clinching Minnesota's 3-2 come-from-behind victory at Colorado.  Since Josh Harding thwarted the Avs first two shooters Marek Svatos and Wojtek Wolski, and Mikko Koivu scored first for the Wild, Koivu gets credit for the shootout winner.  Ebbett's shootout conversion was somewhat humorous as he lost control of the puck as he approached Craig Anderson, but it through Anderson's rythym off just enough that Ebbett was able to poke the puck forward just enought and have it slide right under Anderson.  Ebbett played 10:29 in the game, skating on Minnesota's fourth line with Derek Boogaard and Chicago-native Robbie Earl. 

-- Minnesota placed Martin Havlat on IR over the weekend.  They did the same with defenseman Brent Burns (concussion).  Havlat is still bothered by the hamstring that's apparently hampered him most of the season.  Havlat has just two goals (same number now as Marian Hossa) and 8 points in 19 games so far with his new club.  Havlat is not expected to miss more than a game or two.

-- Results of our most recent poll:
"At season's end, who will lead the 'Hawks in Goals Scored?"

32.3% - Patrick Kane
25.8% - Jonathan Toews
16.1% - Marian Hossa
12.9% - Patrick Sharp
06.5% - Kris Versteeg
03.2% - Troy Brouwer
03.2% - Dustin Byfuglien

-- First 10,000 fans at tomorrow night's Hawks-Blue Jackets game receive a Blackhawks "knit hat" courtesy of AT&T.  Take note of the early start time (7pm) tomorrow to accomodate the VERSUS telecast.

** Blackhawks Final "Circus-Trip" Statistics

Goaltending

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