vs. 
Game Time: 7:30PM
TV/Radio: CSN, WGN-AM 720
Lebron’s Jilted Exes: The Cannon
Well that was a quick refractory period wasn’t it?
After a disappointing loss in St. Louis last night, the Hawks are right back up on that pogo stick tonight, welcoming in the Ohio Fellatios. The BJ’s come into town after getting thoroughly ravaged last night by the Flames, which takes some serious effort. Rene Bourque (yes, that Rene Bourque) dropped three on Steve Mason, who’s still not found his rookie year form, and if he doesn’t soon, he’ll have “one-year wonder” tattooed on his forehead. Given that it’s the back half of a back to back for Columbus also, look for Mathieu Garon to likely get the nod tonight. Mason is again carrying around an engorged GAA of 3.35, but he certainly hasn’t gotten much help from his nondescript defensive corps. Mike Commodore is still out for Columbus, and if you’re relying that much on Mike Commodore in the first place, well, bad things tend to go happen. Up front, the Jackets are predictably paced by Kristian Huselius and speculated wiener tucker Rick Nash, who sits at -5. R.J. Umberger is logging quality minutes though, with 4 points, and sporting a team-best +4. These aren’t Jabba The Hitch’s Jackets anymore, they want to run and gun under Scott Arniel, but the problem still seems to be the “guns” portion of that equation.
For our Men of Four Feathers, as we’re all aware, they too are coming off of a loss last night where things could have been a light tighter. Though the pace and energy were good, things just looked kinda unwieldy from jump street, which culminated in a goofy soft goal being the game winner for the Blues. As of the time of this writing, Coach Q has not announced his starting goalie for tonight, which may lead me to believe that he might let Turco try to redeem himself tonight with three days rest coming up. Elsewhere on the roster, we’ll see how the game of musical chairs for who is to be healthy scratched ends up as well. I want to keep hoping it’ll be John Scott, but I know it won’t be. Just as long as it’s not Skille and Stalberg, who again provided a lot of speed and energy last night. Last night was also the quietest Marian Hossa’s been on the stat sheet all year, with only one shot on goal to show for himself. Given the way he’s been playing, I wouldn’t expect that to be a trend and carry over into tonight. But what is a trend is Jonathan Toews‘ slow scoring starts, and announcing his presence on the scoreboard more frequently would greatly relieve some of the scoring pressure that’s now falling on Hossa and Patrick Sharp. And no one here at the SCH offices knows exactly what the third line does yet, but getting some kind of answer to that tonight would be a welcome sight also. Last weekend the Hawks cock-punched the Jackets in their own building for their home opener, and did so without Patrick Kane. It would stand to reason that a full 60 minute effort would yield a similar result tonight, but that’s always a taller order than it seems.
Let’s Go Hawks.