Couple notes today:
-Seabrook was on the ice, Toews wasn’t. No surprise there, as Toews concussion had to be the worse of the two. Tazer certainly won’t be playing tomorrow. Jake Dowell will be on the shuttle, which is just fine, he’s looked ok. But would someone covering the Hawks ask why Hossa isn’t on LTIR? PLEASE? PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR ON TOP? This Rockford shuttle thing has deprived Skille and Dowell of practice time with the big club, which can only help. We’d like answers.
-Speaking of Hossa, he practiced with the team for the first time today, save contact drills. Do you sometimes forget that Hossa is going to join up with the team in a month? It’s kind of scary.
-Our Power Play still sucks.
-Finally, I’ve gotten a couple emails complaining about the atmosphere at the UC after Monday, and several this season. On one level, this is pretty hilarious because I have no power to change it, but thanks for thinking I do. Anyway, most of the fear comes from the fear of the UC turning into Wrigley-West. Let’s all remove our tin foil White Sox hat for a sec and ask ourselves, “Why is that so bad?” Wrigley is a wonderful place to watch a game, not necessarily play one. It’s full every day. Aside from the bleachers, almost everyone is intently watching the game. Don’t tell me Cubs fans don’t pay attention when a succession of players and managers have been booed out of town here. Cubs fans have to pay a price for the perception of the bleacher creatures, which is slightly unfair. Don’t even for a second try and tell me that everyone at the Comiskey Bullpen Bar of party deck is highly involved either.
Look, we can’t have it both ways. The building won’t be filled with 20k of passionate, knowledgeable hockey fans every night. It never was. It never will be. Outside of Canada, there isn’t a building that would be. The “w” flags? That’s not a McDonough production. That’s just people on their own. Intermission and stoppage entertainment? We may not like it, but there isn’t an arena anywhere that isn’t doing it. You don’t like the intermission stuff, do what McClure and I do and go have a smoke and fight with each other.
Moreover, do not judge the atmosphere by games in October. I was at the Old Stadium lots, and Game 1 against Calgary or Games 4 and 6 against Vancouver were as loud as anything I heard there. We really need to calm down about everything that’s going on off the ice with the Hawks. I know it’s jarring, it’s all happened at breakneck speed. It was two years ago only that I was walking up and getting tickets on a visit home from Los Angeles. Think about that, TWO YEARS. So please, in the words of Richard Pryor through Eddie Murphy, have a coke and a smile and…..