Tag Archives: Marty Turco

Blackhawks trade Connelly to Calgary for Morrison

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Chris Block| 4 Comments

By Chris Block

As expected, Stan Bowman pulled the trigger on his first deal well-ahead of the February 27th trade deadline, sending defense prospect Brian Connelly to the Calgary Flames in exchange for veteran center Brendan Morrison.

“He’s a centerman and he’s got a long pedigree of being a good offensive performer,” Stan Bowman said speaking about Morrison on the team’s web site.  “I think having that experience and that ability gives us a lot of options depending on where Joel wants to use him.”

Morrison, 36, has spent the past season and a half with the Flames.  Chicago will be Morrison’s sixth NHL stop in five seasons.  The 5-11 center was drafted out of the University of Michigan by the New Jersey Devils but would move on to spend parts of 8 seasons with the Vancouver Canucks (2000-08).  Morrison was traded in March of 2000 to the Canucks for Alexander Mogilny.

The Blackhawks get a center who can set the table for skilled wingers while being defensively responsible.  While falling down the Flames’ depth chart, Morrison was averaging 13 minutes per night and winning 50.3% of his face offs this season. Read more »

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IceHogs notes: Rockford begins 9 of 10 on the road Monday night in Milwaukee

Posted on December 25, 2011 by Chris Block| Leave a comment

By Chris Block

I continue to receive questions regarding Kyle Beach’s status.  There is no real update other than he’s out indefinitely with a severe right shoulder injury.   His shoulder was dislocated during a fight with Peoria’s Stefan Della Rovere in Peoria back on October 28.

Beach’s right arm is currently in a harness.  He’s been telling people he’ll be back before the end of the regular season.  I don’t know for sure if that’s accurate, but there is hope he’ll return sometime in March.

Season on the brink

With the loss to Toronto this past Wednesday night, the Rockford IceHogs home record drops to a dismal 6-11-0-0.  They are 3-2-0-0 over their most recent five home games.  One of those wins came via the shootout.

I suppose its good news that 9 of Rockford’s next 10 games are on the road.  Last season’s IceHogs turned their misfortunes around and finished strong (17-5-1-1) beginning with an early March 7-game road trip.

That current stretch of 9 of 10 begins Monday night in Milwaukee where the IceHogs will face off with third-best team percentage wise in the Western Conference.  The Admirals are currently second in the division behind Charlotte, but they’ve also played five fewer games than the Checkers and trail Charlotte by just two points in the standings.

Rockford is now 11-15-1-2 overall.

% Points Earned-wise, the IceHogs are the 2nd-worst team in the AHL (.431).

By Goal Differential, Rockford (-16) ranks 25th out of 30 AHL teams.

They are 6th in Goals Scored per game (3.1)

However, the IceHogs are dead-last in Goals Allowed per game (3.7).  The Bridgeport Sound Tigers, in the other conference and have no like opponents with the Hogs, are the next-worst, allowing 3.4 goals per contest.

The only team in the AHL with a worse record is the Binghamton Senators (11-19-1-1, .375), which is Rob Klinkhammer’s new home. Read more »

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Saturday news & notes: David Toews, Tourney starts tonight, Ex-hawks in limbo & former IceHogs’ enforcer now fireman

Posted on September 10, 2011 by Chris Block| 2 Comments


Blackhawks acquired the rights to Jonathan Toews’ younger brother on Friday.

David Toews arrives via the New York Islanders in exchange for future considerations.

It should be noted that David Toews did not have a pro contract with the Islanders and so far the Blackhawks have not tendered him one either.

David Toews is turning pro after completing his amateur career in the Western Hockey League this past spring.  He has joined Blackhawks’ prospects in Oshawa this weekend for the four-day round-robin rookie tournament.  Like his brother, David is a centerman.

“Stan Bowman called me and wanted me to know that they weren’t trying to do Johnny any favors,” David Toews told the Free Press.  “(Bowman) said he liked me as a player and they’re pretty familiar with me because I’ve been training in Chicago all summer.”

David Toews, 21, was drafted by the Islanders in 2008, 66th overall in the third round.  He followed in his older brother’s footsteps attending North Dakota for two years but struggled for ice time and left following his sophomore season.  Toews joined the Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL) last season and as an overager scored 20 goals and 28 assists in 60 regular season games.  Read more »

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The Wearing and Tearing: Hawks no-show in Beantown

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Chris Block| 11 Comments

Boy, let’s hope the NHL doesn’t schedule any games on back-to-back days should the Blackhawks make the playoffs.

The Blackhawks roll-over and play dead act in Boston on Tuesday was widely anticipated and accepted by many before the two teams even took the ice before a nationwide audience at TD Banknorth Garden.

You see, because the Hawks skated so exceptionally hard to earn a 61-minute win over an AHL goaltender in Detroit twenty-four hours earlier, it’s perfectly understandable the team wouldn’t stand much of a chance against the Vezina Trophy frontrunner and the big bad bully Bruins.

Right.

Boston outshot the Hawks 9-0 in the first seven and a half minutes of the contest.  From the onset, the visitors had little to offer.  Apparently, whatever the team had stowed in its ‘care-tank’ was exhausted the night before in Motown.

There’s a good chance Milan Lucic would have scored the game’s first goal at that point had Marcus Kruger not slashed Lucic’s stick on the Bruins’ 15-foot rebound opportunity.  An early gift from referee Paul Devorski as that act was overlooked (because Lucic’s stick didn’t break) but when Kruger and Lucic continued and got entangled in the battle for what then became a loose puck, Devorski called Lucic for holding. Read more »

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Lindbloom: The End Game

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Rich Lindbloom| 1 Comment

Your move Blackhawks. The Clock is ticking.

By Rich Lindbloom

“The winner of the game is the player who makes the next to last blunder.” – Savielly Tartakower

Chess, like hockey, is a game that is divided into three distinct time frames. In chess they are called the opening, the middle game and the endgame. The Blackhawks misfortunes in the third period this year resurfaced some disturbing memories from back in the mid 70’s when I attended Loyola University. Mike McPartlin, (who was quite a hockey player for Mt. Carmel and Loyola in his day), and I used play chess quite often during that span of time. Even though in my mind I always dominated in the first two segments, Mike always took over in the endgame – or at least waited to pounce like a cougar on my inevitable blunder. I’m not sure I ever defeated him, although until this day I remain unconvinced he was the better player. I just had to congratulate him on his immense luck more than I would have liked too. Read more »

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Turco sits, Crawford gets 2nd straight start vs Predators

Posted on October 13, 2010 by Chris Block| Leave a comment

Head coach Joel Quenneville surprised some today when he informed the assembled media after this morning’s skate of his intentions to start Corey Crawford tonight when the Nashville Predators make their maiden 2010-11 season voyage to United Center.

This should come as little shock to anyone.  As we mentioned here last week, this is the same coach who sat Cristobal Huet, a year ago tonight (technically tomorrow, the 14th), when Nikolai Khabibulin made his return with his new team, the Edmonton Oilers.

The rest is history.  The Hawks played spectacularly in front of Antti Niemi, defeating the Oilers and Khabibulin 4-3.  Niemi was nothing special that evening.  But he was good enough.  Huet watched from the bench.  And a goaltending “controversy” was born.

Quenneville’s choice to start Crawford back-to-back after the team’s first win of the season in Buffalo does make sense if you think in logical terms. Read more »

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TTMI~Radio with Preds On The Glass

Posted on October 12, 2010 by Chris Block| Leave a comment

Buddy Oakes, of the Nashville Predators’ site PredsOnTheGlass.com joined us on this week’s TTMI~Radio.

We discuss all-things Predators as we preview Wednesday night’s game between the Predators and Chicago Blackhawks.  This will be the first of six matchups between these two division rivals.

The Third Man In ~ Radio ~ “Nashville Preview w/Preds On The Glass”
Tuesday October 12, 2010 ~ e.56 ~ Right-Click to Download This Episode

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Among the topics discussed on tonight’s show
- 2010 Conference Quarter-Finals – A Nashville Perspective
- Sergei Kostitsyn a Predator
- The greatness of Shea Weber
- Matt Lombardi a #1 center?
- “The Predator Way”
- Ex-Hawks J.P. Dumont and Steve Sullivan
- Fans discontent with Jason Arnott last season
- Barry Trotz’ iron-clad job security
- Acquisition of Shane O’Brien
- How, or if, Nashville franchise would benefit from having a true superstar on the ice
- Would the Preds & their fans accept Alexander Radulov back?
- The rocky career of David Legwand
All this and a bunch more with Buddy.

- Then, we discuss the Niklas Hjalmarsson blind side hit on Jason Pominville from Monday night’s game in Buffalo
- Was the 2-game suspension handed down by the NHL just?
- More on these kinds of hits and Ryan Miller’s reaction
- Impressions of the Hawks first three regular season games
- Including Nick Leddy, Viktor Stalberg, Jack Skille and Marty Turco

Our show returns next Tuesday night, October 19th @ 8pm.

ChrisBlock@TheThirdManIn.com

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TTMI~Radio with John from FifthFeather.com

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Chris Block| Leave a comment

TheThirdManIn~Radio ~ e.47 ~ “The Fifth Feather”
Monday August 2, 2010 ~ BlogTalkRadio.com/TheThirdManIn

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It was my distinct pleasure to finally welcome John, of the fabulous Blackhawks’ site, FifthFeather.com on this episode of TheThirdManIn~Radio.  Hopefully his partner-in-scribe Bob will be able to join us next time we get them on for a visit, which should be much sooner than another year’s worth of shows.

Of course with the big news of today being the signing of Marty Turco and subsequent dismissal of Stanley Cup winning Antti Niemi after his one year $2.75M arbitration award, we covered that story from all angles.

Other topics of discussion:

- This weekend’s Blackhawks’ convention
- Blackhawks still managing to lose money
- John McDonough’s P.R. machine
- Rocky vs McD shaping up
- After the changes – Where do Hawks sit in the West?
- Stan Bowman’s “off-season”
- Predicting the opening night roster
- James Wisniewski’s big deal
- Should fans be banned from prospect camp?
- The 2011 Winter Classic
- and changes ahead at the FifthFeather.com

All this and so much more on an absolutely loaded hour and 1/2 edition of TTMI~Radio.

Thanks as always for listening.  Those who’d prefer to listen on their IPod or through their ITUNES can do so by subscribing through the following link, or by searching “The Third Man In Radio” in the podcast section of the ITUNES store.

SUBSCRIBE to TheThirdManIn~Radio on ITUNES

ChrisBlock@TheThirdManIn.com

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Niemi Number, Amonte 40, Tonight’s TTMI~Radio

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Chris Block| Leave a comment

First off, a reminder. Tonight on TheThirdManIn~Radio, I’ll be pleased to welcome John and BlackhawksBob, writers over at the outstanding Blackhawks blog, FifthFeather.com.

Tonight’s show airs live at 8pm (central) and you can listen live at BlogTalkRadio.com/TheThirdManIn. And if you can’t join us live, the show will be posted on this site and at BTR shortly after we go off the air.

We encourage your phone calls, emails or Tweets as well. The number to call into the show is listed on the show page during the stream.

I’m sure its rather obvious the main topic of tonight’s discussion, so I don’t feel the need for a teaser here. But we’ll also cover how the many alterations to the Cup Champions roster will impact the Blackhawks chance at a repeat; this weekend’s Blackhawks Convention; how the Blackhawks still managed to lose money in 2010 and the McDonough Monologues.

– Saturday, we learned of the arbitrator’s decision in the contract case between the Chicago Blackhawks and their Stanley Cup champion goaltender, and restricted free agent, Antti Niemi. By lunchtime today, we’ll know what the Hawks think of it.

Niemi was awarded a one-year $2.75 million deal for the upcoming season. Next summer he will be scheduled to become an un-restricted free agent.

Over the weekend rumors surfaced of the Blackhawks allegedly having made an unofficial side-agreement with Dallas Stars UFA goaltender Marty Turco for one-year and anywhere between $1.5 to $2.0M. Turco, a nine-year NHL veteran, turns 35 on August 13th. Read more »

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TTMI~Radio “The Waiting”

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Chris Block| Leave a comment

TheThirdManIn~Radio “The Waiting”
Thursday July 29, 2010 ~ e.46 ~ Right-Click to Download Here

Chris Block and Dieter Kurtenbach of Blackhawks Examiner review all the latest news including the Antti Niemi arbitration hearing, Stan Bowman’s conference call, new contract signings and the Cristobal Huet “era” in this edition of TheThirdManIn~Radio.

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TTMI~Radio returns this Monday, August 2nd @ 8pm (central) to review the fallout in the wake of the Antti Niemi arbitration verdict, as well as all the scoop from the Chicago Blackhawks Convention (which we won’t be attending).

For anyone who is heading out to the Convention, we’d like to hear about your experience or anything of note that wouldn’t be evident on internet videos or reported by mainstream media outlets.  You can send those to us at TheThirdManIn @ sbcglobal.net.

Discussed in today’s show:

- Niemi’s arbitration hearing
- A conference call about nothing
- Niemi’s potential realistic, and non-realistic contract awards
- Blackhawks value 3rd line centers higher than #1 goaltenders
- Block’s Niemi mea culpa
- How Corey Crawford impacts Hawks’ play on Niemi
- Jose Theodore = Huet version 2.0
- Rumor Niemi $4.0M demand: Outrageous or about right?
- Theodore/Turco won’t play for free
- Niemi Numbers & where major publication ranks him vs rest of league
- Hawk fans talking 2010 Cup run for granted?
- Misconception that Huet’s contract hurting Hawks
- The Huet “era”
- Dirk Graham and Ted Lindsay celebrating life
- Jack Skille, in fact, takes a paycut
- Stan Bowman OWNS Bryan Bickell’s agent
- The future of Nick Leddy
- AT&T & I-55

…. and much, much more.  And as always, thanks very much to all who take the time to listen. 

ChrisBlock@TheThirdManIn.com

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