Launch the player below to listen to last night's edition of The Third Man In ~ Radio. "Superstar" made his epic return to the show. A bevy of topics were discussed including: developing a "Whole New Generation of Stupid," Burying the Red Wings Dead; The greatness of Brian Campbell, Sunday night's systematic shellacking of the Detroit Red Wings, a systematic shellacking of an in-town Blackhawks beat-writer, the difference between this year's and last year's Blackhawks team at the Christmas marker, Who's been a bigger key to Hawks' recent success than Marian Hossa?, Who can beat the Hawks in the West?, Feeling woozy and the remedy, Block getting the axe(?), Superstar giving Block a cold-shoulder at the UC, dirtbags, and taking a few moments to dip inside the email bag. All that and more on this week's TTMI ~ Radio.
Two shows New Years week. First we return on Monday at 8pm when we'll play "How Well Does Superstar Know His TTMI ~ Radio?" Should be entertaining. Then on Wednesday we'll recap the year and decade in Chicago Blackhawks hockey.
Join us for what promises to be yet another extraordinary expedition throughout the universe of Chicago Blackhawks' hockey and anything else our mind's may reveal.
We'll be taking your phone calls and emails during the show and discussing a wide-array of topics ranging from the greatness of Brian Campbell and Cristobal Huet, the Blackhawks systematic shellacking of the Red Wings on Sunday night, what beating the Red Wings these days really means, the week ahead to red-hot country starletts banging mediocre Ottawa Senators.
Returning to the show tonight is semi-regular co-host "the Superstar." And no matter how sick or hoarse I may be, the show will go on as scheduled tonight at 8pm.
For those who cannot join us live, you can pick up the show as always both in the archive section at BlogTalkRadio.com/TheThirdManIn or here on this site. Or you can subscribe to the show in the podcast section of your ITUNES store for those of you with IPods.
Should be a provocative, entertaining show as always (or is it?). Be sure to tune in.
It must be comforting to not have to worry about scoring in the National Hockey League. Offensive slump or breakout, the Blackhawks defense this season has been nothing short of lock-down, and Sunday night’s 3-0 shutout of arch-rival Detroit was no exception.
The Blackhawks defense stymied the injury decimated Red Wings, holding Detroit to 20 total shots, all saved by Cristobal Huet. The shutout performance is Huet’s second straight clean sheet - he has stopped the last 47 shots he has faced.
The Blackhawks goals were scored by Duncan Keith, Brian Campbell and Dustin Byfuglien.
Keith scored roughly eight minutes into the first period, skating the blueline on the powerplay. Keith fired a slapshot that blew past the glove of Detroit goalie Chris Osgood. The goal would be the game winner and be the only tally in the opening frame.
Campbell’s goal, the Blackhawks’ second, was set up by Patrick Sharp. After a Detroit turnover, Sharp skated through the neutral zone, into the Red Wings’ zone and held up to let his teammates catch up with the rush. Holding the puck at the top of the left wing circle, Sharp made a simple pass to the trailing Campbell who was able to skate deep into the zone and fire a wristshot past Osgood.
The Red Wings only had 10 shots in the first two periods, combined. With a dominating performance, but only a 2-0 lead, Dustin Byfuglien scored in the final minute of the second period, putting the proverbial nail in the Red Wings’ coffin. Byfuglien’s shot normally would hardly trouble Osgood on any normal night. For one reason or another, this puck snuck under his pads giving Byfuglien his tenth goal of the season.
The Red Wings came alive, a bit, offensively in the third period, putting 10 shots on Huet, but the French goaltender was able to stop them all. The Blackhawks have now posted shutouts in three of their past four games.
Three Stars
Third Star: Patrick Sharp - Sharp, for the first time in weeks, was finding space and making plays. Campbell’s goal was Sharp’s doing.
Second Star: Cristobal Huet - Huet was not tested early, but stopped everything he faced. It’s easy to be a goaltender for one of the best defensive teams in the NHL, but as the Hawks know, defense doesn’t stop the puck. Huet does, and he is looking impervious to offense at this point in the season.
First Star: Duncan Keith - Keith was part of two Hawks’ goals and was vital to the shutout win defensively. If there is a better defenseman in the NHL right now, he’s merely overrated.
In a game that will surely be recalled as one of the most entertaining of the 2009-2010 season, the Blackhawks and Bruins traded hits, goals, leads and momentum for more than 60 minutes Friday at the United Center. The Blackhawks would win the game in a shootout, improving their record to 22-8-3.
Entering the second period trailing 1-0, the Blackhawks sured up the fundamentals of their game, eliminated the toxic turnovers that kept play in their defensive zone and started skating circles around the Bruins. The Blackhawks scored three goals in the period with each goal scorer notching their tenth goal of the year.
The first goal for the Blackhawks was gift wrapped by Bruins’ defenseman Andrew Ference. Celebrating an early Christmas, Ference made a blind pass from the corner of the Bruins’ defensive zone that Kris Versteeg intercepted in front of Bruins goalie Tim Thomas. Versteeg had no problem beating the surprised Thomas.
The Blackhawks took the lead when a defensively conservative Bruins squad was infiltrated by Brent Seabrook, leading the rush. Seabrook skated past no less than four Bruins defenders, drawing Thomas out of his net to cut off Seabrook’s angle. Thomas made a shoulder save on Seabrook’s shot, but the puck bounced in front of the net, where Patrick Sharp swept the front porch, making the score 2-1.
The Bruins notched the score when Mark Recchi took the puck away from Brent Sopel in the corner of the Blackhawks zone. With the Blackhawks pushing forward, anticipating Sopel to make an outlet pass, Recchi was able cut directly to the net when Daniel Paille was able put it home for the tie.
Jonathan Toews scored his sixth goal in the last nine games when Troy Brouwer made a centering pass in the final minute of the second period. Toews, set up in front of Thomas, was able to redirect the puck through the five-hole before Thomas could react to the pass.
The third period brought back-to-back goals, the first by Johnny Boychuk, who scored on a one-time slapshot from the right-wing faceoff circle to tie the game. The second goal was scored by Andrew Ladd, who had the puck bounce off his hand after a point shot by Brian Campbell.
But a late goal by the David Krejci tied the game at 4-4, and after a back-and-forth overtime in which no team scored, a shootout was in order. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane both scored for the Blachawks, while Patrice Bergeron was stuffed by Antti Niemi and Blake Wheeler was denied by the post.
Who is Antti Niemi? That was the question Blackhawks fans were asking when the Finnish goaltender was named Cristobal Huet’s backup after Blackhawks’ training camp. Nearing the midway point of the NHL season, Antti Niemi is no longer an unknown in Chicago, but those who don’t follow the Blackhawks, who take a look at the NHL’s shutout leaders tomorrow morning might be asking the same question Hawks fans were asking two and a half months ago. Who is Antti Niemi? He’s the Blackhawks goaltender who has three shutouts in seven starts this season.
The Blackhawks introduced Niemi to the Tampa Bay Lightningon Sunday night and Niemi made the struggling Bolts his third victim of the season.
In the Blackhawks previous four games they faced some great goaltending performances and only scored six goals in that stretch. Facing Antero Niittymaki, one of the league leaders in goals against average and save percentage, the Blackhawks were able to find the antidote for their snake bite, scoring four goals.
Patrick Kane broke his own personal slump, scoring his first goal in ten games. After a neutral zone turnover by the Lightning, Kane made them pay as he skated into the Tampa Bay zone up the right wing boards. Cutting to the center of the face off circle, Kane shot for the far post and beat Niitymaki on his blocker side. The goal would be the game winner, but Kane would play less than five minutes in the game.
The Blackhawks had a 70 second two-man advantage later in the first period that was unconverted, but seven seconds after the first penalty expired Matt Smaby tripped Kane in the corner. As Kane went to the ground his head hit the ice. The play gave the Blackhawks another two-man advantage, but Kane skated off the ice and was out for the rest of the game. The Blackhawks would fail to score on any of their seven power plays on Sunday.
If the Blackhawks’ offense was affected by loss of Kane, there was no way for a bystander to tell. That’s because the Marian Hossa show started in the second period. Halfway through the period, Hossa knocked the puck up the right wing boards, taking on TampaBay’s No.2 overall pick, defenseman Victor Hedman. As the puck advanced through the zone, Hossa was able to beat Hedman and fellow defender Matt Walker to the corner. Hossa’s speed caught Hedman and Walker out both out of position and Hossa made a backhanded centering pass to a wide open Ben Eager in front of Niittymaki. Eager was able to redirect Hossa’s spot-on pass for his second goal of the season.
Hossa one-upped himself in the final seconds of the middle frame with a goal that he described as lucky in a post-game interview. Breaking out with speed Patrick Kane attempted to make a cross-ice pass to Hossa. The puck was deflected and popped up above the boards. Hossa gloved the puck and dropped it. Before it hit the ice, Hossa knocked the puck out of the air and it beat Niittymaki for the Blackhawks’ third goal of the game. Hossa’s reinvention of the slap shot was his fourth goal of the season.
The Blackhawks would score once more when Jonathan Toews, moving the puck out of the defensive zone found Dustin Byfuglien with space on the right-wing boards. Byfuglien attacked the lax Tampa Bay defense and fired a shot on Niittymaki. Toews, bisecting the ice into the Tampa Bay zone crashed the net and received an early Christmas present from the Lightning goaltender. Niittymaki was unable to control the Byfuglien shot and the rebound went, as if magnetized, right to Toews in front of the net. Toews easily scored his ninth goal of the season. Toews has now scored five goals in his last seven games.
Oh, and on the other end of the ice, the Blackhawks only allowed 18 shots on goal, all of which were stopped by Niemi. The Blachawks’ rookie goaltender now has a has a 1.50 goals-against average and .937 save percentage in eight appearances to go along with his three shutouts. That shutout number is good for second in the league. Now comes the next question for Antti Niemi, is he still the second goaltender on the Blackhawks?
The Blackhawks and Penguins only get together once a year, hardly frequent enough to consider this '92 Stanley Cup match-up a rivalry. But in this year's get together the levels of hostility was raised within seconds and stayed up to the level of rivalry for three periods and an overtime.
Backup goaltender Antti Niemi was the story of the game. Playing for the first time since Nov. 22, when he posted a shutout Vancouver, Niemi was one minute and 32 seconds away from his third shutout of the season. Off an offensive zone face-off, Evgeni Malkin fired a slap shot from the right point. Niemi gave up a rebound on the shot; a rebound that an unmarked Jordan Staal was able to put in over Niemi's outstretched right pad, tying the game.
The Blackhawks had scored in the first period in similar fashion, when Patrick Kanekept a play alive on the Pittsburgh right wing halfboards and hit trailer Brian Campbell with a cross-ice tape-to-tape pass. Campbell skated to the left wing face-off circle and fired on Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury directed the puck to the left wing circle, but that direction was intercepted by former Penguin Marian Hossa, who was able to score past Fleury before falling into the net.
Niemi kept the Penguins begging for until the very end, as each outstanding scoring chance of Pittsburgh was answered by the 26-year-old Finnish rookie. Number 31 had 32 saves on 33 chances. The Penguins put 17 shots on goal in the second period and hit three posts during the game.
With the game tied in regulation, the teams headed into overtime. 2:38 into that extra period, Kris Versteeg's active stick in the crease gave the Blackhawks the winning goal. Again, it was a Brian Campbell shot that led to the goal for the Blackhawks, as his time the defenseman fired a flare of a shot on Fleury from below the left wing circle. Fleury was unable to control the puck immediately and a net crashing Kris Versteeg was able to poke the puck out from under Fleury and across the goal-line.
It was the Blackhawks first win against the Penguins since Jan. 13, 2006. The last time the Blackhawks had won in Pittsburgh before Saturday night's victory was Feb. 22, 1997.
Feathers in the Headdress:
Third Star: Marian Hossa
Hossa was booed every time he was on the ice by the Pittsburgh faithful. Perhaps it was motivation to be the best offensive player on the ice for the Blackhawks. Saturday's one goal performance proved that Hossa is confident in his surgically repaired shoulder, as he was tossing his weight around on the forecheck and was crashing the netwith reckless abandon. He had numerous scoring chances, something no one else on the Blackhawks could honestly say in the second end of back-to-back games.
Second Star: Brian Campbell
Here's a fact the average Brian Campbell hater might not know, he now has 15 assists on the season. That's tied with Norris Trophy winner Zdeno Chara for seventh in the league amongst defensemen. When Campbell is on the top of his game, wheeling and dealing, there are few offensive weapons like him in the league. With short shifts, it was hard for the Blackhawks to fully utilize Campbell, who also had three blocked shot in 17:09 of ice time. When Campbell was able to do his work was on four-on-four, the situation where he assisted on both of the Blackhawks' goals. Open up the ice and Brian Campbell is a lethal offensive weapon, Saturday was a reminder of that talent.
First Star: Antti Niemi
The Blackhawks might have a goalie controversy. Niemi held down the fort while Cristobal Huetgot his act together early in the season, but when called to duty this year, Niemi has been a wall. In six starts Niemi is 4-1-1 and boasts two shutouts (and early three) to his name. Heading into the game Niemi has a 1.85 GAA, that will only go down with the performance he posted on Saturday. Right now the Blackhawks have two NHL-level goaltenders and the more I see Niemi play, the more I wonder if he might be the guy who is the best option for the Blackhawks, no offense to Huet. As someone who predicted that Niemi would be thrusted into the starting goaltender position by February, I for one am very interested to see how the Blackhawks' goaltending situation sort out. One way or another, Niemi has all the talent of an NHL starting goaltender and put up the performance of a star goalie Saturday.
Essentially how it works is this. To extend the contract for an existing SPC (standard player contract) the team is allowed to use three figures:
- Player's base salary for the current season - Total of the team's available Current Year cap space as of signing date - Amount of available moneys under following season's salary cap [The Hawks had 12 players under contract for next season before today totaling $42,484,207. The NHL uses this year's cap max $56.8M to calculate next season's tagging room.] So....
= $18,138,461 [total cap hit combined for 2-19-88 in 2010-11] minus $3,625,000 [total base #'s on 2-19-88 SPC's this season] minus $1,091,307 [estimated cap space a/o 12/3/09 c/o capgeek.com] minus $14,315,793 [estimated 2010-11 cap space]
= ($893,639) or $893,639 in approximate remaining "tagging room" on Hawks 2010-11 cap
These numbers are not exact, rather rough estimates as to where the Blackhawks sit cap-wise as of today.
What's important to note here is now, as the Hawks sit today, they have no room to acquire or call a player up from Rockford who has a contract extending into 2010-11 when you consider entry-level bonuses for Toews and Kane, some which will certainly accrue, don't yet figure into the Hawks' cap statusl. For example, Corey Crawford ($800,000 cap hit next season] can't be recalled from Rockford in an emergency situation (one night, Huet or Niemi have the flu type thing) unless a player who is under contract for next year; Brent Sopel ($2.33M cap hit], Dustin Byfuglien [$3.0M], Cam Barker [$3.083M], Troy Brouwer [$1.025M] or Kris Versteeg [$3.066M] is moved.
This would not affect Jack Skille, Mark Cullen or Rob Klinkhammer (all have contracts expiring this summer) other than how it plays into this year's cap situation, which specifically for Skille means the likelihood of him being called up is very slim no matter how well he may play there.
Trading for a player who has an existing contract for next season would involve exchanging a contract on the Hawks' current NHL roster of nearly equal or more value.
I'll have much more on this tonight up on the site I'm sure.
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