Chicago Blackhawks Notes: Hawks Singing "O' Canada" and All-Star Updates

Two Wins Have the Hawks Singing “O Canada!”

The Blackhawks began a three-game Canadian expedition on Tuesday night in Edmonton, home of the surging Oilers. The team of Gretzky and Messier features stalwarts such as Ales Hemsky and Sheldon Souray, and was thought to pose a big challenge to the Hawks.

Yeah, the challenge was pretty much over from the start. The Blackhawks thrashed the Oilers 9-2 in front of a packed house of disappointed Edmontonians. They got two goals from Troy Brouwer, and a goal and two assists from Patrick Kane.

This was their fifth win in a row, and the first time they had pulled off that feat since the 2001-02 season, which also happens to be the last time they made the playoffs.

It also marked the first time in the franchise’s long history that eight different players scored a goal in a game.

On Friday, they continued the trip against the Calgary Flames, who are third in the Western Conference playoff standings. It was a hard fought game between two excellent teams, and the Hawks prevailed on an excellent drive by Jonathan Toews and a garbage pick-up by Duncan Keith to win it 3-2 in overtime.

Dave Bolland and Patrick Kane also had goals in the contest. Furthermore, the win improved Nikolai Khabibulin’s record as goalie this season to 10-1-4, while that one loss came in his first start of the season. Khabby has a goals against average of 2.44, and a save percentage of 92.2.

The win, and the team’s sixth in a row, came at a great time. The team is a mere five points behind Detroit in the division. They are also 7-2-1 in their last 10 games, which is second best over that stretch to only the Sharks.

Statistically, the team is doing great as well. They have scored 111 goals this season, which is the third most in the NHL, and they’ve given up only 81, which is second in the conference behind only San Jose.

The Blackhawks will wrap up their Canadian trip against Vancouver at 9pm Saturday night. The game will be on WGN, and also on CBC in Canada.

All-Star Voting Updates:

As of 5:00am Saturday morning, Patrick Kane is maintaining his N.1 ranking with a 15,000 vote lead, currently sitting at 423,753 votes. Ryan Getzlaf is second in voting, and Jonathan Toews is in third, with 348,455 votes. Toews has jumped from seventh to third in recent days, and he and Kane are widening their leads on their challengers.

On the defensive side of the All-Star ballot, Brian Campbell is still in third place, but in the past three days has closed the deficit behind Dion Phaneuf from over 100,000 votes to 34,000 votes. He is sitting at 353,146 votes, and is looking to move into the top two defensemen spot for the All-Star start.

Voting closes on Jan. 2, and you can vote up to 1,000 times a day between now and then. Visit vote.nhl.com, or text your votes to 81812.

Road Becoming Hawk-Friendly:

When the Hawks started the season, they were by no means a road-tested club. In fact, they didn’t win a road game in the month of October.

Since then, however, they have really picked up their performance. They are 7-2-2 in their last 11 road skates, and those losses came to good teams like the Ducks and fantastic teams like San Jose and Detroit.

They have given up 11 goals and scored 20 in their four road games in December, a far cry from their early season lack of production on the road.

This road-tested skill will need to be on full display for the rest of the year, as the Hawks play three of their final four games of 2008 on the road against Vancouver, Minnesota, and Detroit.

Winter Classic Preparations Progressing Nicely:

Even with the bad weather the Chicagoland area has experienced over the last week, the preparations for the Winter Classic at Wrigley Field are going ahead of schedule, according to Don Renzulli, Senior VP of Events and Entertainment for the NHL.

The boards are currently being erected, and they have also set up the scaffolding that will support the recreated ivy. The platforms for the team logos have been set up, and the NHL Network booths are in the process of being erected.

There was a bit of a snag when the Zamboni’s were delivered, however. One of them had a pair of wonderfully frozen brakes, and it fell off of the truck. According to Dan Craig, the Zamboni (and it’s driver) were fine.

On a quick side note about the Winter Classic, Reebok will be hosting a contest on the day of the game. The contest will be a simple one: find the player who doesn’t have a Reebok logo on the back of his jersey, enter it online on the contest page, and you could win the Ultimate Stanley Cup Finals experience.

Quick Note:

If you haven’t heard the song “Keys to the City” by the band Ministry, you have to check it out. It is a rock-filled metal song about our favorite Chicago hockey team,and it can be found on MySpace. Check it out!