Search for your favorite player or team
© The Hockey News. All rights reserved. Any and all material on this website cannot be used, reproduced, or distributed without prior written permission from Roustan Media Ltd. For more information, please see our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
Chicago Blackhawks SIP
The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.
OCTOBER
HINDSIGHT being 20/20, it was serendipitous that Chicago’s season began in Finland. As part of the NHL’s initiative to grow the game, the Blackhawks played their first two regular season contests in Helsinki against the Florida Panthers. With Cristobal Huet starting Game 1, the Hawks dropped the opener in a shootout, 4-3. The next night, a new masked man stepped into the crease – Finland’s own Antti Niemi. Playing in his homeland, Niemi stonewalled the Panthers, helping Chicago to a 4-0 shutout and salvaging a tie in the ultimate “away” series. It was a good harbinger of things to come. Back on American soil, Chicago got off to an impressive start in October, going 8-4-1 and sitting atop the Central Division. But fans knew the team was not yet complete. Prized off-season signing…
DECEMBER
THE Blackhawks entered December hot and continued to sizzle, amassing 11 wins, their highest single-month total of the season. As impressive as that was, however, the month will best be remembered as the time the club locked up its core of young stars long-term. December began with a milestone when Joel Quenneville became the 14th coach in NHL history to earn 500 career wins Dec. 1. And we do mean earn, as the 4-3 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets was the sixth-longest shootout in NHL history, taking 11 rounds to decide. Defenseman Brent Seabrook netted the winner in the marathon tie-breaker. Two days later, the organization made headlines when it announced the signing of key components, center Jonathan Toews, right winger Patrick Kane and defenseman Duncan Keith to multi-year contract extensions. The…
ROUND THREE
AFTER vanquishing Vancouver in Round 2, the Hawks moved on to the Western Conference final against the top-seeded San Jose Sharks. San Jose boasted eight 2010 Olympians, including four Canadian gold medallists and rising U.S. scoring star Joe Pavelski. The veteran Sharks held home ice advantage and were looking to redeem playoff letdowns past by making pulp of the young Hawks. Game 1 was a back-and-forth affair with the netminders proving the difference. San Jose outshot Chicago 45-40, but Dustin Byfuglien’s fifth goal of the playoffs put the Hawks ahead for good 2-1 with fewer than seven minutes to play. A Sharks power play in the final minute made it interesting, but Antti Niemi stood tall in goal. Byfuglien and Niemi, in fact, became the stories of the series. Byfuglien recorded three game-winners…
ROUND ONE
IT’S a good thing the first game – or first goal against – of the playoffs wasn’t a sign of things to come. Most of the anxiety about Chicago’s post-season chances centered around the fact goalie Antti Niemi had absolutely zero experience with this kind of pressure. He did nothing to quell those fears when, after Patrick Kane opened the scoring halfway through Game 1 of the Hawks’ first round series with Nashville, the Predators’ J-P Dumont tied the contest with what seemed like a harmless flip of the puck toward Niemi just 1:31 into the final frame. The Blackhawks never put things back together, while the Preds scored three more times in the third period. In truth, all Game 1’s 4-1 loss at home did for the Hawks was provide Niemi a…
Made possible with the support of
