Every sports team, at every level, has a list of goals they set for themselves throughout a season. For a team like the Blackhawks, they probably have, shockingly, more than “One Goal,” but rather a list of goals that start with simple, broad goals like having a winning record each month, improving their power play scoring, winning faceoffs, and playing strong defense. As the calendar moves along, though, there begin to come specific goals. Professional athletes generally won’t say they focus on one team or week on the calendar, but any Blackhawks player has had this week circled since July.
Twice, in one week before Christmas, the Blackhawks get to play the hated Detroit Red Wings for the first time since early October. Sunday will be the first time the Wings come to Chicago this year.
For decades, the Blackhawks have watched as the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup. Painfully, Chicago fans watched as Chris Chelios raised the Cup over his head in the hated Detroit sweater. These are two Original Six franchises, the only two in the Western Conference, who have hated each other for as long the franchises have existed. Indeed, seconds after the National Anthem ends on Sunday night, you’ll know exactly how Blackhawks fans feel about the visiting Wings.
In the 2008-09 season, for the first time in 15 years, the Blackhawks got close to challenging the Red Wings’ stranglehold on the Central Division. The up and coming Blackhawks, in the first playoff appearance for most of the players on the youngest roster in the NHL, streaked all the way to the Western Conference Finals as the fourth seed, knocking off heavyweights from Calgary and Vancouver along the way.
But in the Conference Finals, it was Detroit. Big Brother was waiting, and the youth of the Hawks finally failed as the deep, experienced Red Wings eliminated Chicago.
In July, however, Detroit found themselves in a strange position. Their leading goal scorer, Marian Hossa, left for greener pastures… in Chicago. So did Tomas Kopecky. Goalie Ty Conklin left for St. Louis, and Jiri Hudler made the biggest move, heading to Russia for the year. Detroit wasn’t as deep any more.
Meanwhile, the Little Brother in Chicago added Hossa, Kopecky and veteran center John Madden to an already-stacked offense. Could the balance of power in the Central Division be headed south and west a few hours?
Back on Oct. 8, the Hawks lost in Detroit 3-2 in the first of a string of poor performances from Cristobal Huet. With Hossa in street clothes after summer shoulder surgery, the veteran Red Wings dominated the Hawks in a game that looked too familiar for comfort.
Which is why, on Sunday, the red hot Blackhawks host the Red Wings in a game that is absolutely a must win.
Detroit is a tough team to break down because they keep winning games despite their inability to stay healthy. They will be without a list of players that sounds more like a Western Conference All Star lineup than an injury report: Johan Franzen, Henrik Zetterberg, Valterri Filppula, Dan Cleary, Jason Williams, Niklas Kronwall, Jonathan Ericsson and Andreas Lilja will all be in street clothes.
And yet the Wings had won four in a row before losing to Dallas on Saturday night. In that game, the Wings got some help back from the IR, as Darren Helm returned from a wrist injury to play 19 minutes.
The Blackhawks come into Sunday night’s game in first place, at the top of the Western Conference, with a Huet playing exceptionally well in the net and an offense starting to click with a healthy Hossa scoring as regularly as his salary would indicate he should. They’re 6-2-0 in December, and have only allowed more than two goals in three of the eight games.
What makes Sunday a must win for the Blackhawks is simple: just like Michael Jordan’s Bulls needed to step on Isaiah Thomas’ Pistons and make a statement, so now the Blackhawks of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Hossa must take the next step in their maturation with an emphatic victory.
Yes, the Red Wings are the most injury-plagued roster in the NHL. But that’s precisely why the Hawks must handle their business. Allowing a team without nine of their top players to sneak out of the United Center with a victory would do as much to perpetuate Detroit’s stamp on the division as it would keep the the Big Brother-Little Brother mentality in the two locker rooms.
The Blackhawks must take care of Detroit at home on Sunday.
With just under two minutes left in the first period on Thursday night, Detroit star forward and leading scorer Henrik Zetterberg needed help to leave the ice. After a hard, but legal, hit from Mattias Ohlund, Zetterberg was taken to the dressing room with what’s being called an “upper body injury” (of course). TSN is reporting that the initial prognosis isn’t good, however.
For a video of the hit, click here.
The Red Wings are also skating without injured forwards Johan Franzen, Valterri Filppula, Jason Williams and Dan Cleary. Defenseman Jonathan Ericsson was hurt on Monday night, joining Niklas Kronwall on the sidelines from Detroit’s defensive group.
As the injury to Zetterberg, and his timetable for return, are made more clear, we’ll update the story.
UPDATE: Reports on Friday morning are that Zetterberg will miss at least two weeks with a “slight left shoulder separation.” In the next two weeks, the Red Wings have a crucial stretch of games where they play two home-and-home series with Chicago and Columbus.
According to reports out of Detroit, Red Wings’ coach Mike Babcock has confirmed that forward Dan Cleary will be out for a month with a separated shoulder. Cleary was injured Wednesday night in Detroit’s loss to St. Louis.
Cleary joins Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula, Jason Williams and Niklas Kronwall on Detroit’s injury report.
Only Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datysuk have more points so far this season than Cleary, who had 16 before getting hurt.
Detroit is currently 14-11-5 (33 pts), putting them eight points behind the Blackhawks in the Central Division and in fourth place in the five-team division.
Niklas Kronwall sprained an MCL when he took a cheap shot from Montreal’s Georges Laroque on November 21 and is expected to be out until late December.
Jason Williams broke a fibula in early November and is expected to miss eight weeks. He is scheduled to return in early January.
Valterri Filppula broke his right wrist at the end of October expected to keep him out six to eight weeks. His cast was removed on Tuesday and he skated with the team that day. He is still scheduled to return by mid- to late-December.
Johan Franzen had surgery to repair torn ACL on October 16, beginning a six month recovery. The best-case scenario for Franzen is a return after the Olympics, but late-March might be more likely.
Detroit right wing Jason Williams has a broken fibula.
After Saturday night’s 5-1 loss in Toronto, Detroit Red Wings forward Jason Williams revealed that he has a fractured fibula in his right leg. If he doesn’t need surgery, the best case scenario, he should be out 6-8 weeks. He has not yet consulted with doctors for a recommendation, though.
Williams joins Johan Franzen (torn ACL), Valtteri Filppula(broken wrist) and Andreas Lilja (concussion) on Detroit’s growing injured list.
After the game, Detroit coach Mike Babcock said about Williams’ injury: “Losing Willy was a blow to us. He was playing way more minutes than we expected. There is no sense worrying about the guys who aren’t available. We have to dig in.”
The Red Wings had won three straight and four out of five before Saturday night’s loss to the struggling Maple Leafs. They have climbed back to third place in the Central Division, just one point behind the Blackhawks. Detroit and Chicago have both played 15 games, while division-leading Columbus has played 16 and leads Chicago by two points.
Is All Star center Peter Forsberg on his way back to the NHL?
A number of sources are reporting that 36-year old center Peter Forsberg, currently playing with Team Sweden in the Karjala Cup, is trying to make a comeback to the NHL. Reports are that he’s as healthy as he’s been in at least three years, and is skating well enough to draw interest from a number of NHL clubs.
Among the teams that reportedly have scouts watching Forsberg are a couple of his former teams, the Philadelphia Flyers and Colorado Avalanche, as well as the Montreal Canadiens, Washington Capitals, Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks.
Perhaps the hottest rumor surrounds the Red Wings, who are playing without two of their top three centers because of injury. Johan Franzen is out for most of the season with a torn ACL, and Valterri Filppula is expected to miss up to eight weeks with a broken wrist.
The Blackhawks potentially scouting another center raises at least my eye brows for a number of reasons. When healthy, the Blackhawks have three solid centers in captain Jonathan Toews, Dave Bolland and John Madden. Whether or not Forsberg, who has scored 885 points in 706 career NHL games, would want to return as a third or fourth line center is questionable.
But my eyebrows stay in an upright position considering the health of the Hawks centers. Toews has now been out over two weeks with concussion-like symptoms, and Bolland has been dealing with a bad back for the entire season. The Hawks are currently playing well, but have been mixing up their centers on the third and fourth lines every night because of injuries. Andrew Ebbett, Colin Fraser, Tomas Kopecky and Jake Dowell have all spent time in the faceoff circle, and even Jordan Hendry has been asked to play forward because of the injuries.
How, when, and where Forsberg returns to the NHL will be interesting. If it’s in Chicago or Detroit, the balance of power in the Central Division could shift with his arrival.
Detroit C Valterri Filppula broke his wrist and will miss 6-8 weeks.
Various media outlets are reporting early Friday morning that the Detroit Red Wings have lost center Valterri Filppula for between six and eight weeks.
Filppula broke his right wrist in Thursday night’s shootout loss at Edmonton. He had five points (two goals, three assists) and was averaging 18:24 in ice time in ten games before the injury. Filppula was third among Detroit centers in average ice time, behind only Pavel Datysuk and Johan Franzen.
Franzen, however, is out for the next four months with a torn ACL.
Detroit is now down two of their top centers, and were already dealing with summer losses of Marian Hossa and Jiri Hudler. The Red Wings loss to the Oilers on Thursday drops their season record to 4-4-3 (11 points), which ties them with Nashville and St. Louis for last place in the Central Division.
Yes, there are only five teams in the Central, and three are tied for last with 11 points (four behind the first place Blackhawks), but there’s just something about saying it that sounds so good.
The Detroit Red Wings are tied for last place in the division.
In two separate pieces of “breaking” news, two Eastern Conference leaders will be without star players for the next four to six weeks.
The Boston Bruins announced that center Marc Savard, who has led Boston in scoring each of the last three seasons, has been lost to a broken foot. Savard already had tallied seven points on the young season, again leading Boston’s offense.
Meanwhile, the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins lost blue line All Star Sergei Gonchar to a broken wrist Tuesday night. The 35-year old already had eight points on the young season for Pittsburgh.
Savard and Gonchar join a list of All Stars that will be missing a significant amount of time early this season. Vancouver is without Daniel Sedin and Sami Salo, Detroit is without Johan Franzen, Chicago hasn’t seen anything yet from Marian Hossa, Columbus is without Jan Hejda, and Edmonton is without Sheldon Souray.
After three home games this season, the Blackhawks have made a powerful statement to the rest of the league: they’re for real, and a force to be reckoned with in the coming months.
The 2009-10 NHL season is set up so that the first few months of the season will go a long way in determining playoff positioning at the end of April.
Because of the Olympics in February, the schedule is front-loaded with significant games against conference and divisional rivals because, with a two week break in the middle of the season, there just isn’t enough time to spread the games out.
The front-loaded schedule brings this season into focus now especially because of the injuries hitting the rest of the Western Conference.
Detroit lost Johan Franzen last week, Columbus announced they’ll be without Jan Hejdafor the next few weeks on Wednesday, and the Vancouver Canucks announced that they’re going to be without both Sami Salo and Daniel Sedin for over a month as well. The Blackhawks, of course, are starting their season without Marian Hossa and won’t get him into the lineup until mid-November.
As key players continue to drop like flies all over rosters in the Western Conference, the Blackhawks have the luxury of getting their young nucleus off to a strong start before adding Hossa to the mix. And they’ve done just that, starting the season 4-1-1.
But what’s equally important is that the Hawks are beating good teams they’ll face in important games later in the season as well. After a tough loss in Detroit’s home opener, the Blackhawks came home to Chicago and scored the maximum six points in defeating Colorado, Calgary and Edmonton.
Even without Hossa, the Blackhawks have started the season in a statistically dominating fashion.
They rank second in the Western Conference in goals per game on offense, are second in the NHL in fewest penalty minutes per game and are second in the league in shots on goal per game. They are averaging ten more shots on goal per game than their opponents through six games as well.
Patrick Sharp and Patrick Kane have already scored seven points each, while Kris Versteeg has six, all ranking among the top ten scorers in the Western Conference. Meanwhile, Brent Seabrook’s five points and Brian Campbell’s four rank among the top ten for defensivemen in the West as well. Seabrook also ranks third among Western Conference blue liners to date in average time on ice and hits.
On Thursday, the Blackhawks will place Cristobal Huet back in net against a struggling Nashville team that has only scored seven goals in their first five games. Antti Niemi improved to 3-0-0 on Wednesday, putting additional pressure on the expensive Huet to have a strong performance against the Predators.
Johan Franzen reportedly tore his ACL during the Red Wings 3-2 win over the Blackhawks on October 8.
In a stunning development out of Detroit on Friday afternoon, the Red Wings announced that Johan Franzen tore his ACL in Thursday night’s victory over the Blackhawks. Ironically, Franzen was credited with the game-winning goal in the second period Thursday night before leaving the game injured.
The loss of “The Mule” subtracts another star from Detroit’s offense. Marian Hossa, now on the Blackhawks, led the Red Wings with 40 goals last year: Franzen was second with 34. Tomas Kopecky, also on the Blackhawks now, was second on the Wings in hits last year.
The Wings also lost Jiri Hudler to a Russian team and Ty Conklin to free agency this summer.
Darren Helm is already on the IR for Detroit with a bad shoulder, and is reportedly at least a week from returning.
To counter their shallow roster, the Red Wings added Brad May to their roster before the game Thursday, but his role figures to be more physical than on the score sheet. This injury will put additional pressure on Pavel Datysuk, Dan Cleary and Kirk Maltby to carry the load, and will make every save from Chris Osgood mean more.
The Blackhawks certainly don’t have a healthy roster, but the Red Wings had compromised their depth this summer when they lost Hossa, Kopecky and Jiri Hudler. Despite the loss on Thursday, the Hawks have a schedule loaded with divisional games to begin the season and can make a serious statement in the absence of some of Detroit’s better players.
