Chicago 4– Los Angeles 1

Vs game – feels like every Monday game is a Vs game
Both Toews and Eager back in the lineup!

On to the game…

Not shockingly…  Toews looks tentative — a lot of pucks in his skates
Line switches to start – Versteeg with Kane
Late offsides calls…  Strange.  Multiple times!
Crap match call with Eager and Brown.  Eager was on his feet and dragged down by Brown…

Second Period:

Madden – 3 on 2 – backhand from deep in – five hole
Tip and then clean up off a double screen point shot – swept in stick side – Kopitar
Ebbett with break set by Kane inexplicably goes backhand
Sharp break – jumps through two defensemen…  Draws penalty.

Third Period:

PP – Sharp wrist pass redirect on post by Brouwer – stick side
PP – Toews working hard from the corner strings in front and pots it low stick side on the backhand
Huet gets totally run – no penalty?
Ebbett – weird body carem off a circle wrister from Soupy – first goal – Kane grabs the puck!
29-18 in shots – I think only 2 for LA in the third…

Chicago 3– Montreal 2

Price in net for the Habs
Halloween night at da UC!  I personally liked the Gumby with the Hawks jersey…

On to the game…

Great pressure to start…
Ladd with a bone crushing head blow (looked high, but the crushee also ducked – could be a suspension) – fight at the Habs bench – game misconduct for Ladd
Killed a 3 min net penalty from the Ladd 5/game penalty
Versteeg – from behind the net! – tapper off the back off Price’s pad – stick side
Lotsa penalties

Second Period:

Early PP
Huet with a series of great saves around the 11 min mark – finally iced – followed by a TO
PP – Barker slapper from mid circle – Kopecky screen
Screened pinball – Cammileri camping glove side for the easy wrister
Horizontal over line – barely – right at end of period

Third Period:

Lackluster PP
Second sick tip by Ebbett of the game without a goal
Sharp mid slot bang wrister on sick pass from Kane
Totally weak icing but Habs take two anyway
Toews and Burish – dressed up as the guys from Dumb and Dumber!!  Awesome!

Chicago 3– Minnesota 1

Dad in the house!
Havlat in the house!  (mix of cheers and boos)
White jerseys – old skool!

On to the game…

Bolland to Ladd – Bolland with a moving rebound five hole
Huet with a sweet high glve save off a low circle wrister
Dowell and Hnidy scrap to a draw
PP – Brouwer cleans up in close – great tie up by Kopecky

Second Period:

Slashng on Bakstrom – ouch
PP ineffective, but…
PK = awesome
Clutterbuck!  Heh.

Third Period:

PK – ping pong down low lobbed in by Brunette on the glove side post
Good fourth meal pressure
Kane razzle dazzle coming round back of net turn around wrister – impossible high stick crner
MN = super stick chippy
Madden rings the post on a 3 on 2 (while on PK)

Chicago 2– Nashville 0

Hockey Fights Cancer night – kid drops puck and gets Kane’s stick
Toews and Seabrook out
My birthday!! 

On to the game…

Sopel gets hit and gets his stick broken in half
Keith with a spin-a-rama!
Comedy of errors – errant passes, checking each other ….

Second Period:

Buff on a second effort flips it home – pass from Kane on the half wall
Ladd!  In front off a rebound – Barker shot
Hammer – WOW hit at the line
Madden stoned backhand on a PK breakaway

Third Period:

Dumont getting some serious icetime
Huet with some great stops – especially on PK
Lotsa in close on Huet – very physical

Chicago 2– Vancouver 3

Niemi in net.  Canucks still trying to get their act together — especially without two healthy Sedins.  At home.  Rested.  This should all be good news, right?

On to the game…

Very weak early PP
Some nice Niemi stops — felt like stops that Huet would not have made
Keith – point shot – center – redirected by a Canuck
Buff takes a roughing penalty on a scrum – while battling Canucks 1 on 3

Second Period:

Bernier puts home a close in rebound after a nice Niemi stop – PK
Kesler lucky hendry did not put him thru post
No look Kane feed to Keith from corner – slapper from line wide – redirect by Brouwer on stick side post – textbook

Third Period:

Down in shots – 20-14
Niemi with nice screened glove save
Nice luongo save off Versteeg redirect on PP
5 on 3 – Vancouver takes timeout
Luongo with superman save!
Toews gets blindsided by Mitchell out of the box – ouch!  Tough time getting up — straight to the room…
Versteeg goes after Mitchell – gets an extra two
Harsh – after so many good saves – stick side circle wrister – PK – Grabner
Another penalty!
29-18 in shots – Vancouver
Kane giveaway and poor Soupy coverage = left circle wrister mid glove – Samuelsson

Chicago 3– Dallas 4

These are the games you are supposed to win — against a team that is coming off a home loss the night before, against a team that traveled overnight, against a team playing with their backup goalie…

On to the game…

Auld is in – no Turco tonight
Chances are outside and/or long
Hawks not taking advantage of tired stars
Glass with mike pushed out in Stars zone
PP – nothing happening….
14-5 in shots

Second Period:

Pressure to start
In close pinball – no cover by Huet- backhand by Morrow
Backfoot slapper – screened – Ribiero tip
Brouwer – wrister from circle – top stick side
Boards top circle slapper – high glove – Petersen
Auld gets tripped up behind net – Toews – wrister from low circle on an empty net

Third Period:

Killed an early 5 on 3
No penalty on Hawks rush takedown however…
One called immediately the other way?
Off a shoot in – off boards carem – off Huet and in – Robidas – ugh
Hjarmallson – center blue line slapper – screened by buff – high glove
Chances late – no dice

Chicago 4– Edmonton 3

Third game in five nights.  Playing against Khabi.  (who got lots of cheers from the UC crowd)  Niemi in net.  We spent a bit of time at WestEnd before the game — nice place, TONS of Hawks fans and the most efficient bar staff I have ever seen!

On to the game…

Ladd to Toews to Sharp – wrister stick side – less than 2 min in
Skille breaks glass on icing
2 on 1 – high stick side on nice saucer pass – Cogliano
Skille picking up rebound glove side

Second Period:

Versteeg bangs home short range on Soupy feed stick side
Sharp penalty shot! – nope (wrister stick side)
30-10 in shots

Third Period:

Versteeg on the short break backhand stick side – nope
Tight Oilers goal under review – good – off a skate
PP – Barker slapper screened – high stick – Khabi never saw it

Chicago 6– Calgary 5 (OT)

A bit of a weird feeling going into a game against one of last season’s playoff opponents.  Would the Hawks be able to bring the kind of pressure they did during the playoffs?

On to the game…

Giveaway behind net floats to center slot – ripped stick side by Boyd all alone
Slider short wristed across the crease from glove to stick by Nystrom
After faceoff – breakaway ripped five hole by Iginla
Niemi replaces Huet
Brouwer breaks the glass with a Flames face!
Direct from faceoff pull – high glove wrister – Bourque
Weak knuckle wrister from the blue line by Jokinen
Five to zip.  Not even half way through the period!
Madden – kick to stick in close dropping it in behind stick side post

Second Period:

Coming out hard
Double pinch at all times
Kane walks the line and drops a screened wrister stick side
Everything in Flames zone
2 on 1 – Kane to Buff with the backhand slips it five hole
Bolland with four chances stuffs stick side
Brouwer v iginla – Iginla drops him with quick punches
Chances and pressure — all over the place — possessed!
27-16 shots in favour of Hawks

Third Period:

Sharp tips off a Keith point shot
Tied!
Pressure everywhere – continued….
Lotsa posts and crossbars…

Overtime:

26 sec in – Seabrook with a top circle wrister!

Chicago 4– Colorado 3 (SO)

Home opener in Chicago!  Woot!  Well, it was the “Chicago” home opener — technically, one of the games in Helsinki was a Chicago “home” game.  Great energy at the UC!

Savard, Hull, Esposito and Mikita all came out on skates and in full (period) uniforms!  The UC went nutso!  That has to be one of the coolest things I have seen at a hockey arena!

On to the game…

Tucker – not shockingly – will not shut up
Tucker gets post slammed in the Hawks zone – ouch!
PP – Barker slapper – Kopecky providing a great screen in front

Second Period:

Hendricks picks up the trash – backhand glove side – fail by huet to cover
Fraser – wraparound to glove side – video review says NOPE – ugh
Wolski – sitting on the stick side post takes a one time redirect from the mid point
Madden – mid slot wrister off a rebound – double screen
Great fourth meal shifts – on fire!
5 on 3 after stupid elbow from Foote – just no reason for it – how can you be the captain and lead like that?
PK – tic tac goal – stick side post AGAIN – 5 on 3 – Hejduk
Short handed – Keith to a wide open net on a SICK no look feed from Versteeg

Third Period:

Lotsa rough stuff to start – both ways
Kane with a total line up hit puts him in the box
Agreession level toned down in last 7 minutes
Versteeg just misses one timer at end of regulation

Overtime:

Some chances / a lot of push to the outside – and a bunch of tired players

Shoot Out:

Wolski – lotsa moves nothing
Toews – had him down early – top shelf backhand
Hejduk – down early and in
Versteeg – same as Toews
Avalanche – high stick side wrister
Kane – glove side backhand – nope
Avalanche – Never got a shot off!
Sharp – same as Toews… and missed
Stastny – low glove – nope
Bolland – low glove stuff attempt – nope
Avalanche – Stop move – nope
Buff – wrister five hole – nope
Avalanche – Mid glove wrister – nope
Brouwer – backhand stick – nope
Tucker – five hole – ack!
Kopecky – wrister five hole
Avalanche – Player went in the net!
Ladd – wrister wins it!

I did not have anything on my schedule before 230pm.  That, coupled with two days of festival going plus the oppressive heat and humidity put me (and Matt) exactly where you think we would be in the Noon-ish hour:  at the movieplex catching GI Joe! 

It was another crusher in terms of heat and humidity.  So much so that the awesome CFD had a massive mister tossing water out over the crowd toward the Playstation and Budweiser stages.  Nice!

Everything was leading up to Jane’s Addiction for me…

Kaiser Chiefs — Playing the Bud stage at the height of the afternoon heat.  Total rock outfit with a bit of clang to the guitars.  I did not know the songs, but it didn’t matter — everyone around me (even as far back as we were) seemed to be singing along.  I had sworn off a lot of clangy guitar rock from across the pond.  Perhaps I should reconsider?

The Raveonettes — Musical epiphany, baybee!  It was the perfect (bastard?) combination of The Swirlies and Dickie Dale to me.  I was entranced by the male/female voices wafting through the fuzz of the layered guitar sound.  I bought the entire catalog when I arrived at home.

Neko Case — This was a tough time slot conundrum for me.  Vampire Weekend was on the Chicago 2016 stage, but I opted to catch a bit of alt-country.  They did not disappoint!  Super melodies with cloud like harmonies accompanied by some pedal steel, bass, guitar and drums.  Certainly mellow, but they connected with the growing crowd they had.

Cold War Kids — I admit that I was not listening intently, but they ended up to be background music to me.

Snoop Dogg — I did wave my hands in the air.  Like I did not care.  I think this one of the largest crowds I saw for a single artist at this year’s Lolla.  Crazy awesome live drummer.  Great supporting stage rappers.  Snoop was totally tight — as if you would expect anything less — driving me and the crowd from old jams to new stuff and back again.

Lou Reed — Totally unintentional.  I heard “I’m Waiting for the Man” and “Walk on the Wild Side”.   They sounded great.  Not as great as all the newspapers and blogs are saying.  And he went over his time slot by almost 20 minutes.  Which really pissed me off.  Not because I was waiting to see Band of Horses, but because he should know better.  It is the height of ego to steal time from an up and coming band at a festival — especially for someone that has been around so long.  If a band had tracked into his time slot in the 70’s, he would have stabbed them with a dirty needle.  Bordering on classless.

Band of Horses — After seeing them do the Kidz stage, I added them to my schedule.  Although they got a late start, they REALLY connected with their crowd as the sun was coming down.  Layered guitars and a singer with an amazing voice took us on a bit of a ride.  I cannot stop listening to “Is There A Ghost”.  Bad side?  The late start encouraged them to try to battle the start of the Jane’s Addiction show on the Bud stage.  That could be a seriously career limiting move…

Jane’s Addiction — What I was waiting for.  Woot!  I wish that the first two songs had not been complete noise as Band of Horses was competing for the ears of the folks in the field.  Both of them failing miserably.  Nifty low flying helicopter stunt shining a big spotlight on the masses.  Perry still has it.  Maybe he whispers a bit more, but it does not matter as he is the showman to rival all showman.  Navarro was just right on.  Avery was nothing short of brilliant as he stomped around like a hard core mosh pit.  Perkins provides the base for everything — and in an intricate way.  They tore through most of the songs I wanted to hear with the exception of “Had A Dad”…  Barely clad backup dancers.  Perry drinking out of wine bottle.  A wave stunt in the first few rows of the crowd for “Ocean Size” with Perry “swimming” through.  And finishing up with Joe Perry joining them on “Jane Says”.  Nice!  Two proposals at the very end…  One a marriage proposal on stage:  nice going Barry — whoever you are!  And the other as support for the Chicago 2016 movement.  Perfect.