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Game Time: 6:30 Central
TV/Radio: Comcastl/WGN 720
Opposition Blogs:Silver Seven
Don’t Forget: Your SPG Picks
Once again – an apology for our mistake on Sunday. As you can guess, we don’t really plan out these posts too much so there’s no set schedule for who writes what. Combine that with some other circumstances and we just dropped the ball (cue Ron Santo). We’ll do our best to make sure it doesn’t happen again, but a huge thanks to ChiBlackhawks and everyone else for stepping up. You all kick ass.
On to tonight’s game, anyone else surprised to hear that the Senators have as many points as the Bruins? I’m not sure if that’s good for them or bad for the Eastern Conference (specifically Boston). Ottawa’s 54 points would put them 10th overall in the West but is good enough for 5th in the East.
Both teams are riding 3 game winning streaks coming into tonight, with the Senators getting a big boost from the return of Daniel Alfredsson. The Captain netted a natural hat trick in their stomping of the Bruins last night. Other than Alfie though, the Senators have been getting surprising results out of former Blackhawks draft-pick, Mike Brodeur. The man who will always be doomed to be “that other Brodeur” has three starts and three wins. He wasn’t in the net against Boston last night but backed up the team for the two wins before that. He’s got a SV% of .966 and even got his first shutout. Brodeur’s got the flu-bug though, so the Sens are planning to go with Brian Elliott tonight according to Left Wing Lock (via Twitter). This will be a back-to-back start for Elliott and with Alfie’s shoulder probably not 100%, the Hawks should look to take advantage of any signs of fatigue.
It’ll be worth keeping an eye on Marian Hossa tonight (as if it’s not every night). Hossa has 18 points in only 12 games against his former team. It’s likely that Huet will get the start for the Hawks – and he’s coming off a game where he gave up 5 goals. As I said last time, Huet has a way of stepping up after a disappointing game. The Hawks still won but 5 goals against ain’t pretty. Lets hope he can keep his steak alive.
I’m running out of much to say about Ottawa though – I don’t think I’ve seen a single game of theirs this year. Looking at the stats they’ve got the worst power play in the entire league, yet are right up there with the Blackhawks in not allowing many shots (only 27.9 per game – third overall). They’re 4-4-1 against the West while the Hawks are 9-1-1 against the East.
I guess I’d get yelled at by our friends from up north if I didn’t say that the Senators are quite possibly the worst franchise in the history of professional sports. I’m not really sure why though. It must be a canadian thing because I don’t even think about the Senators, much less hate them.. but still… in the words of Herb Brooks (portrayed by Kurt Russell) screw ’em!
Lets Go Hawks