Blackhawks night in Rockford & The Goalkeeper Swap (Icehogs GM comments)

So the trade of Joe Fallon from the Chicago Blackhawks (Icehogs)  in exchange for goaltender Hannu Toivonen (Rivermen)  and defenceman Danny Richmond. (rivermen) has gone down.

I heard Icehogs GM Marc Benard on Rockford's 104.9 WXRX talking about the Blackhawks night and the trades.

via www.icehogs.com

Video of Blackhawks night here http://blackhawks.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=894&id=61310

His comments after the jump

If you've never been to an Icehogs game in Rockford here's a quick rundown.

The Icehogs came to Rockford in 1999 at a UHL team, the Blackhawks brought an AHL team in 2007 and moved them to Rockford and kept the Icehogs name.  In the final year of the Icehogs in the UHL, the team won their first and only championship in a 7 game series. (which was amazing)

The Blackhawks signed a 10 year 100 Million deal to have their affiliate in Rockford.  The money quickly went to fixing up the arena which is now really nice.  It seats around 6100 to capacity for hockey, more for concerts and other events.

On Saturday night, the Icehogs held, Blackhawks night.   Former Icehogs Fraiser, Versteeg (icehogs PIM leader, lol), Hjalmersson, Brouwer, Niemi, and coach Mike Havland all came to Rockford for the game.  After the sellout game (I didn't get tickets, I was parking and was told it sold out :/ )  the Icehogs GM was on the radio the next day.

He had some interesting comments.

The two hosts of the radio show Jim Stone and Double T, both work for the Icehogs.  They are on the ice for the intermission games, and promos.  Stone also interviews players during intermission and give live comments during the game at ice level. The games are broadcast on 1330 WNTA.  It's a weak signal even in Rockford, but the online streams are great.  ( I listen on my iphone with WnderRadio).

On the radio Monday, Stone said that he heard complaints about the players not signing long enough.  People waiting in line and not getting autographs.  This is when GM Marc Bernard was brought in to comment.

He said that this is the first time the Hogs did something like this, and it's unprecedented.   Have 5 NHL players and a coach come to their AHL team, for free, really hasn't been done.   He said they had the idea and called the Blackhawks PR office.  He was told to just call the players directly, so he did.  All the players agreed.  They did this for free, on probably the last Saturday night they'll have off this season.  So this was pretty awesome, he said, especially knowing that players usually make some nice cash for personal appearances.  The plan was to have the guys come out, sign before the game, drop the puck, and sign after the 1st period and then drive home.

What ended up happening was that the guys had a great time, stayed the whole game, and it was a very special night.  The Hogs played The Peoria Rivermen (St Louis Blues) that night and won the close one in a shootout.  Tickets sold out 3 hours before the game, which I believe is the 2nd sellout this season.  (Rockford leads the AHL in attendance).    During the game Marc Benard said he was sitting with the Rivermen's GM Kevin McDonald.  He said McDonald was blow away at the energy and turnout at the game.  He said they tried to do something similar with the Rivermen alumni now playing with the Blues, and basically the players refused.  This says a lot about the character of our Blackhawks, we keep talking and hearing about how great these guys are off the ice, and this is a nice example to point to. 

(photo gallery of Blackhawks night in Rockford Saturday Feb 27, 2010 http://blackhawks.nhl.com/club/gallerylanding.htm?id=13716 )

They said they would be doing it again, but it might be harder next year because the olympic break helped a lot this year.  He said most AHL teams average 10 promotions a season, and the Icehogs average about 30. They also do the most giveaways in the league, and the quality of the items are exceptional.  Which again is impressive and why they get the fans and attendance they do.  Bernard said they will learn from this event, address the complaints and make it better next year.

The talk then turned to the trade between the Blues and Hawks.

He basically stated that they wanted some goalkeeping depth for the playoffs.  It sounded to me like they were worried that if Crawford gets hurt or called to the Hawks if Huet or Niemi goes down, they didn't feel Fallon was ready to carry the team in the second season.  He also was happy to get the defensemen Richmond to help the depth on defense as well.

Again I got the feeling this was to keep the Hogs defense strong should a Hawks D man go down (yes I'm looking at you Sopel, I'm surprised you haven't missed more time with the damage you take night in and night out).  Should the Hawks need a D man to come up in the stretch run the Hogs will have players ready to fill in. 

The Hogs are 3rd in the West right now (77 pts), behind Hamilton Bulldogs (86 pts) and the Chicago Wolves (81 pts).  The Hogs are also tied for 5th in the league with the Worcester Sharks.  So they are prepping for the playoffs as well. 

After Benard explained the trade, Jim Stone replied that he thought it was BS, and he wasn't going to believe a word he said until Wednesday night, which made me laugh.  We all know anything could happen before Wednesday, so for Stone to make light that the dealing is probably not done yet was comical.

Overall, the interview was great, and Bernard is a wonderful GM in Rockford.

If you haven't caught an Icehogs game I recommend it to anyone that enjoys hockey.  Tickets run $10(end Mezzanine) to $25 VIP (On the Glass).  On Wednesdays you can get the 4/$44 pack, (4 tickets, 4 hotdogs, 4 sodas, 4 popcorns, for $44).    Tickets are $1 day of game, and you can get them at the box office at the Metro Centre or at www.centreevents.com

Parking is available in a few lots or streets nearby, there are parking garages for $5, so that's a sweet deal too.

Check them out.  In fact it'd be a lot of fun to get a group together of SSC and go watch a game featuring our future Hawks.

www.icehogs.com