Author Archives: Chris Block

IceHogs struggles continue, Peoria snaps 7-game losing streak in Rockford

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Chris Block| 9 Comments

By Chris Block

Rockford let a good opportunity to get back to the .500 mark slip away on Wednesday night when they hosted Peoria, the team that had scored the fewest goals coming in as well as owning the worst record in the AHL.

The IceHogs received goals from Martin St. Pierre, Pete Leblanc, Brandon Saad and Jeremy Morin but four were not enough and Peoria stunned a sparse crowd of 2,205 at the BMO Harris Bank Center in defeating Rockford 5-4.

Wednesday’s game started out promising enough.

Although the IceHogs penalty woes surfaced early when Brandon Bollig added to Rockford’s league-leading total when he was sent to the box for tripping Evgeny Grachev inside the Peoria zone three minutes into Wednesday night’s contest, the IceHogs still managed to strike while short-handed. Read more »

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The Rockford Files: Dent on the Jimmy Hayes Center Experiment, Notes on Beach, Saad’s return, Bad starts, the offense and more

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Chris Block| Leave a comment

By Chris Block

Each week from now until the end of the season we will bring you a first-hand account of the latest news, developments and analysis of this season’s Rockford IceHogs, the Chicago Blackhawks’ American Hockey League affiliate.

Conflict of Interests?

“Well, we’re 1-3.  So, that’s my assessment.”

That was IceHogs coach Ted Dent this past Saturday night after a 4-2 loss at home when asked to give his assessment of Jimmy Hayes’ performance in the four games after the decision was made to move Hayes from his regular spot at right wing, over to the center ice position.

Eight games into the season, the edict came down from Chicago Blackhawks management that they wanted to see how Hayes would do at center.

Little forward thinking went into this decision either, apparently.  Blackhawks Director of Player Development Barry Smith was quickly dispatched to Rockford to go over film and one-on-one instruction over three days with Hayes, who admittedly hadn’t played the center position since he was a kid.

Not during training camp.  Not over the summer when Hayes was a part of a group of 12 top Blackhawks prospects who traveled to Sweden for a five-day August mini-camp.  No, during the last week of October was when the IceHogs coach received word he was to play Hayes at center until further notice.

“No, I haven’t played there in a long time,” Jimmy Hayes said last week. Read more »

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PuckChatter~Radio, Ain’t No Party Like A Kyle Beach Party…

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Chris Block| 4 Comments

 By Chris Block

Puck Chatter~Radio returned Monday night to recap a full weekend of Rockford IceHogs hockey.

Kyle Beach, two weeks removed from being a healthy scratch for two consecutive games, emerged as one of the bright lights in an otherwise strange and alarming weekend for the IceHogs.  After posting 3 goals and 2 assists in two games over the weekend, Beach was named AHL Player of the Week on Monday.  We’ll discuss Beach’s weekend and his impact in Saturday’s huge comeback win over Lake Erie as well as listen to his own thoughts discussing Saturday night’s wild victory.

We also discuss Jimmy Hayes at his new position, how that came to be and what may be the thought process behind it.  You’ll hear Ted Dent’s thoughts on the officiating in Saturday night’s affair, in which the IceHogs were short-handed a total of nine times.

Also we delve into listener emails on topics such as Alexander Salak, the accurate story on Rostislav Olesz‘s current status, more on Kyle Beach, Jeremy Roenick‘s new book, big Birthdays upcoming, NHL13, update on bonertime~! and much much more.

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IceHogs carry 4-game win streak into this weekend; Dent on sitting Dylan Olsen; Leddy, Saad injury update and tons of news and notes

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Chris Block| 3 Comments

By Chris Block

After getting off to an auspicious 0-3-0-1 start to the 2012-13 season, the IceHogs rolled off 4 straight wins over eight days last week to vault themselves into second place in the AHL’s Midwest Division and two points behind the first-place Chicago Wolves.

Those same Wolves will travel up Interstate 90 tonight to face the Rockford IceHogs at the BMO Harris Bank Center.  Puck drop is scheduled for 7:05pm.

In the only other two meetings between the two teams this season, the Wolves bested the IceHogs back on opening weekend, both times at Allstate Arena in Rosemont.  The Wolves begin their annual November road trip with tonight’s game.  They’ll be on the road for their next five games due to the annual circus stint at Allstate Arena.

Chicago defeated the IceHogs 1-0 in a shootout on October 13th and then again 5-3 the following day. Eddie Lack was in goal for the Wolves both nights and is expected to start between the pipes again for Chicago tonight. Read more »

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PuckChatter~Radio, e.119, Game Off

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Chris Block| Leave a comment

By Chris Block

Monday night, PuckChatter~Radio returned to discuss the fallout from Gary Bettman cancelling 26 percent of the 2012-13 NHL schedule through November 30th, the Rockford IceHogs 4-game winning streak, the presidential election, fantasy football, the big golf challenge, the big tennis challenge, bonertime~!, first impressions of Jeremy Roenick’s new book, the people he supposedly hates most, Roenick’s account of the infamous 1999 Tony Amonte slashing incident, WWE and much, much more.

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PuckChatter~Radio, e.118, Crazy Uncle Gary

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Chris Block| Leave a comment

By Chris Block

Listen at your own risk.  And with the sound low or through headphones if at work.

Gary Bettman got up on a podium Tuesday afternoon and made a point to declare he wasn’t one to negotiate through the media…. while he did just that.

However, the NHL did offer a potential major step forward to making a deal with the NHLPA on Tuesday to save the 82 game season and we break that down.

Also, the Rockford IceHogs opened their regular season with several Blackhawks in the lineup and came up on the short end in both of their games over the weekend.

We’ll also discuss Kyle Beach, Marcus Kruger, Nick Leddy, what we’ve been up to, the TTMI Fantasy Hockey League, bloggers and mysterious hand impressions over the urinal in the men’s room.

All this and much more on this edition of PuckChatter~Radio.

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IceHogs victorious in 3-2 preseason shootout decision; Notes on Clendening, Svendsen injuries and two releases

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Chris Block| 1 Comment

By Chris Block

Once night removed from a 6-1 clobbering at the hands of the Chicago Wolves in their first preseason game, the Rockford IceHogs returned home to clip the Milwaukee Admirals 3-2 in a shootout victory.

In the end, the three deciding IceHogs’ goals all came off sticks of players who played or finished last season with the Blackhawks.

Carter Hutton started the game for Rockford and gave up a deflating goal against to Milwaukee’s Jani Lajunen at 7:30 of the period.  The goal defined the first period for the IceHogs.  Lajunen picked up a puck along the goal line to Hutton’s left and tossed a weak backhand attempt toward the Rockford goaltender.  Hutton was a couple feet off the post and was caught off guard by the shot, which hit him in the left pad and trickled over the goal line to give the Admirals the early lead.

The period as a whole was largely forgettable for the IceHogs.  With 11 players seeing their first game action of the preseason, nearly everyone seemed sluggish and the team was out of synch.

With four and a half minutes left in the first period, Daniel Bang (apparently pronounced “Bong”  So, Dan Bong-banged in the rebound.  Okay, I’m done.) scored a power play tally for Milwaukee when he picked up a rebound and beat Hutton to give the Admirals a 2-0 lead.  A hooking penalty to Brandon Pirri had sent Milwaukee to the power play.  Marcus Kruger and Jimmy Hayes were sent out kill the first portion of Pirri’s penalty.  But the trouble began when Kruger was kicked out of the circle on the defensive zone draw.  Hayes then came in and lost the draw, pinning Rockford against it in their own zone. Read more »

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An update

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Chris Block| Leave a comment

By Chris Block

Quickly checking in with a few notes….

First off, there hasn’t been a podcast yet this week because I’ve been playing sick and have mostly lost my voice.  Hopefully we’ll be able to do one over the weekend, if not then this Monday.

This weekend I’ll begin previewing the 2012-13 Rockford IceHogs by profiling each individual player.  I’ll also have a new post up sometime on Friday discussing our interview last week with IceHogs’ broadcaster Mike Peck.  I encourage you to check it out if you haven’t heard it yet.

The IceHogs will officially open their training camp on September 30th.  The season begins with a weekend set in Rosemont, Illinois on October 13-14 against the Chicago Wolves.

Lastly, I participated in a roundtable Q&A with several others that should be posted over at the newly-launced TheCommittedIndian.com shortly.

ChrisBlock@TheThirdManIn.com
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PuckChatter~Radio, Rockford Preview with Mike Peck, Voice of the IceHogs

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Chris Block| 2 Comments

By Chris Block

This week we’re joined by Mike Peck, play-by-play voice of the Rockford IceHogs, to preview the 2012-13 IceHogs’ team.

On this show we discuss the progressions made in the games of prospects Carter Hutton, Brandon Bollig, Dylan Olsen, Ryan Stanton, Joe Lavin and others. We take a look at who will emerge as the IceHogs team leaders and captains for this season, the changes in Jeremy Morin‘s game, the impact Rob Flick can have in the Rockford lineup, Pete Leblanc‘s journey to an NHL contract, Rostislav Olesz‘s status as well as the potential IceHogs roster should the NHL Lockout proceed as expected.

Mike also gives us the scouting report on Rockford signing Martin St. Pierre.

We discuss the ramifications of today’s Michal Rozsival signing by the Blackhawks and how that move will impact Rockford’s roster. [see Depth Chart]

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PuckChatter~Radio will return next week with the first show of the dreaded NHL Lockout period.

**Next week seems like the perfect time to do some Blackhawks prospects / Rockford IceHogs Q&A from you, the listener.  So if you have any questions in general about this season’s IceHogs, or follow ups to anything Mike and I discussed on this show, post those questions in the comment section below, or its probably better to email those to me directly at PuckChatter@Gmail.com.

And again, if you missed last week’s interview with former Blackhawk Steve Ludzik, check it out!  Ludzy is a tremendous interview and was very generous with his time with us.  As always, he told some great stories and dropped some interesting nuggets down for us.

**I should point out a correction from the show.  I misspoke.  Michal Rozsival’s deal is a 1-year, $2M agreement.


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PuckChatter Radio: 75-minute interview with former Chicago Blackhawk Steve Ludzik

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Chris Block| 4 Comments

By Chris Block

We were so pleased tonight to be joined once again on PuckChatter~Radio by former Chicago Blackhawk and National Hockey League coach Steve Ludzik.

In this candid 75-minute interview, Ludzik discusses his recent announcement that he’s been battling Parkinson’s disease for the past twelve years.  Ludzy talks about the concussions and punishment he incurred during his playing career and why he believes it contributed to his illness.  He also shares his thoughts on today’s game and his advice for players such as Sidney Crosby.

Over the course of our discussion Ludzik shared his insight, thoughts and little known behind the scenes stories on many of the various players and personalities from the 1980’s Blackhawks including Bob Pulford, Orval Tessier, Steve Larmer, Al Secord, Denis Savard, Tom Lysiak, Rich Preston, Darryl Sutter, Curt Fraser, Terry Ruskowski and many more.

Ludzik also recounts the story behind a trip he and Steve Larmer made a year ago to visit their first pro coach, Orval Tessier.  [See the video at the bottom of this post]

Ludzy tells us why Steve Larmer should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and how, had it not been for Tessier, Larmer may never have been a Blackhawk.

This is truly a great interview that’s worth checking out.

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*You can buy Ludzik’s book “Been There, Done That” at Ludzy.com

*Check out the new social networking site we discussed on the show of which Ludzik is a part of at – OldTeammates.com


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Steve Larmer and Steve Ludzik visit Orval Tessier at his home in Cornwall, Ontario [Video after the jump] Read more »

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