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GAMETIME: 6pm Central
TV/RADIO: CSN, WGN Radio
BROAD STREET BULLHORN: Broad Street Hockey (otherwise known as UndeliveredCheesesteaks.com)
WHERE YOU ARE WATCHING IT: At The Bottom Lounge (1375 W. Lake St.) with us
It’s going to be hard it ignore. You know it’s been a while now. A full season has passed, and this one has already taken shape. Your dreams and fantasies have probably moved on to the next one instead of soaking in the last one. Every reason to. But still. You’ll see the Hawks’ whites against the Flyers Orange on the Wachovia or Whatever The Fuck Center it is now. You’ll see the mostly orange in the stands dotted with the red for those touched in the head enough to be an opposing fan in Philly. You can’t help it, you’ll remember. So will the players. You’ll remember where you were, what you did, when you figured out it was a goal. Can’t be avoided.
But that goes both ways, and this will be the first time Flyers fans and their players welcome the Hawks back since they twisted their minds and smashed their dreams. The guess is this date has been circled on the calendar for some time. Then again, the Hawks could see a letdown from the Flyers after a Winter Classic loss. Or the combined juice of anger from that and the Hawks return to the scene of the crime means they’ll see one ornery orange-clad gathering. Hope it’s the former.
On paper, this is a nightmare matchup. The Flyers are big and unpleasant pretty much everywhere you look. The Hawks have never had an answer for Scott Harntell. Glaude Giroux is turning magic tricks. JVR, Simmonds, Read, Couturier, Talbot, all provide a balls-on-fire forecheck that the Hawks haven’t always dealt with well. Dear Leddy and Hammer, you’re going to get pounded tonight. Deal. And Danny Briere is going to score from a foot and a half out and do his annoying fucking celebration with his annoying fucking face that you just want to punch repeatedly with fucking barbed wired wrapped around your knuckles.
Ah, but it’s still the Flyers. It is written on a stone tablet somewhere that they’ll always be just good enough to be let down by their goalie and stupid penalties. This team is no different. The Universe has had trouble stopping small planets when he isn’t this generations Aristotle. Sergei Bobrovsky is middle of the road at best, and will leave the corners of the net so open you’d swear there’s a wasps net in each.
You already know the Flyers will lose their mud at the drop a hat. Now if only the Hawks had a power play, that would mean something.
We know Quennevillie is going to get cute with his matchups, even on the road. But this is where the Kane-at-center thing really becomes a problem. Who do you get him out there against? Giroux will eat him. Briere’s entire game is down low where Kane struggles. Couturier is a monster, though a rookie. The other line just doesn’t play that much. And the Flyers will get first choice. The other problem is that Q will try and get Bolland out against Giroux. But the way Bolland’s line has been going, they’ll be taking on water all night even with Jagr out. Only solution is to get Toews and Hossa out against Giroux as much as possible and attempt to make him play defense, where he hasn’t convinced yet. But now Hossa and Toews aren’t playing together so what do I know?
Andrew Shaw leaps up to pay with Sharp and Toews in Q’s never ending bid to prove he can turn straw into gold. Dylan Olsen will skate with the windburn that will be Sean O’Donnell.
Tasty one awaits, no? See you at BL.