On Saturday, the Blackhawks lost forward Andrew Ebbett to a Minnesota Wild waiver claim.

Bryan Bickell’s been a better player, and Ebbett never established a role with the Hawks.

Thanks for stopping by, Ebbett. We’ll look forward to beating you a couple times later this year.

Jake Dowell dropped the gloves with Minnesota's Shane Hnidy in the first period Monday.

After a miserable game against Dallas, Chicago coach Joel Quenneville put his goalie on notice that his poor play wasn’t good enough, especially with Antti Niemi playing well behind him. Cristobal Huet’s coach wasn’t the only person questioning his abilities; it seemed that all 20,000 fans in their seats wanted to tell Huet how well he was playing.

Maybe some healthy competition is doing the Blackhawks some good.

In his last two starts, Huet has stopped 47 of the 48 shots he’s faced and has picked up two much-needed wins against teams the Blackhawks needed to beat.

Both Nashville and Minnesota came to the United Center playing bad hockey, and neither improved their standing against the Hawks. Despite Chicago being without two of their better players, captain Jonathan Toews and defender Brent Seabrook, the Hawks were able to play sound defense in front of Huet and generate enough offense to win both games.

Monday night’s game was impressive on a number of fronts, one of which was not the Hawks’ composure. The Blackhawks drew seven penalties in the game, many of which were easily avoidable.

The dumbest penalty of the night was drawn by Cam Barker in the third period, who’s play continues to confuse and frustrate fans. At 14:54 in the third, Benoit Pouliot was hit with a penalty. After play was stopped, though, Barker took a shot at Pouliot and was called for a worthless interference penalty. The Hawks and Wild would skate four-on-four instead of having an advantage. It was Barker’s second penalty of the night.

Despite the Hawks taking so many penalties, there was a lot to take away from this game that was positive. Troy Brouwer scored his third goal of the season on a Hawks power play in the first to extend the Hawks to a 2-0 lead on a great put back off a shot by Tomas Kopecky.

Brouwer isn’t the cover boy that Toews, Patrick Kane, Brian Campbell or Kris Versteeg have become, but his play early this season has been exceptional. In every part of the game, Brouwer has been a solid player, and his stats are starting to reflect hs abilities.

The first goal of the night was scored by Dave Bolland, and the third was a ridiculous shot by Patrick Kane. Kane circled out from behind the net and found a gap about the size of a postcard in the top left corner of the net.

Another great effort was from the Hawks penalty killing units. The Hawks killed six penalties on Monday night, and received solid contributions from the entire active roster on the kill.

The defense was a strong theme throughout the final two periods of the game for the Blackhawks. The Wild were credited with 11 shots in the first, and only ten in the final two periods. Niklas Hjalmarsson had an especially solid game, covering Campbell’s tail on a couple occassions after he got worked by a couple Wild.

One of the Wild players that made a number of solid moves early in the game to avoid a pressing Hawks defender was returning favorite son, Martin Havlat. Havlat was a non-factor in the game, ending up at -2 on the night and only getting one shot on net.

But the win circles back to the goal, where Huet again played like the guy the Hawks gave a $5.6 million salary to before last season. Even though the two wins have come at the expense of two of the worst teams in the NHL, it doesn’t take away from the numbers.

In his post game interviews, Huet appeared to be more confident in himself and Quenneville appeared to be happy as well.

Jake Dowell is bouncing back and forth between Rockford and Chicago.

For the first couple weeks of the season, it was Jack Skille burning up the roads between Rockford and Chicago. Now, it looks like Jake Dowell has become the in between man.

Because of the Blackhawks’ salary cap situation, the Hawks have been running a shuttle between their minor league affiliate in Rockford and the United Center between games all season. Dowell, who made his first appearance of the season for the Hawks on Saturday night, was temporarily demoted for Sunday, but was recalled on Monday morning for the Hawks game against the Minnesota Wild.

Dowell, who played with Adam Burish at the University of Wisconsin, was the final roster cut before the season started. Coach Joel Quenneville opted to keep Colin Fraser over Dowell when the rosters were set to begin the season, but now both will see playing time together on the fourth line.

Because of the injury to Toews, still listed as an “upper body” issue, Dowell bring more versatility to the roster. His natural position is center, but he played wing exclusively on Saturday night. Andrew Ebbett played center in place of Toews, and both Dowell and Tomas Kopecky can play center as well.

On defense, Seabrook’s “upper body injury” is a concussion, suffered when he got kicked in the head in last Wednesday’s loss to Vancouver. Ben Eager is already missing from action with concussion-related issues, and hasn’t played since being placed on injured reserve October 8.

The decision on Toews and Seabrook’s eligibility for Monday night’s game has not yet been determined. Minnesota has struggled this season and is dealing with injuries, and the Hawks don’t play again until Thursday night in Nashville. Because the Hawks’ schedule isn’t necessarily loaded with top-tier opponents, saving Toews and Seabrook’s health for another few days might be the best option for the rest of the season.

UPDATE (5:05 pm CST) – Per Twitter, Quenneville has decided that both Seabrook and Toews are OUT vs. Minnesota tonight, and are still considered day-to-day.

In May, Martin Havlat went wild for the Blackhawks. Monday, he'll just be a Wild player.

In May, Martin Havlat scored an unbelievable game-winning goal in overtime to defeat the Calgary Flames in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I caught the following photo on my Blackberry just after he hit gold:

Havlat played three seasons for the Blackhawks, coming in with all the promise of a rising star in the league taking a chance on a struggling franchise. His red hair and beard made him the perfect emblem for the rising phoenix fans hoped the franchise would become with him leading the way.

There was never a question about the talent with Havlat; he had been an electrifying forward in Ottawa and got the puck to the back of the net better than anyone the Hawks had put on the ice since perhaps Tony Amonte.

But in his first season in Chicago, Havlat was injured for a good part of the season. He would only play in 56 games, but scored 25 goals. He teased the Hawks’ fans with his skill, but spent too many games watching in street clothes.

Hopes were that, in 2007-08, Havlat would become a mentor for an emerging young roster. The Hawks would promote two babies, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, to the big time to start the season and many observers thought they could be the perfect teenage compliments to Havlat.

The kids would have loved to have played with him more, but Havlat was injured again. Havlat only managed to play in 35 games that second season in Chicago, but still found a way to score ten goals. The Hawks missed the playoffs by a narrow margin, and hopes were again that, if Havlat could stay healthy, the Hawks could maybe make the playoffs.

Havlat only had a three year deal with the Hawks, so 2008-09 was his last chance to give the fans a full season. He did that, getting on the ice for 81 games. Between the maturation of Toews and Kane, a better roster, and Havlat being healthy, Chicago finally got some magic on the ice.

In a full, healthy season, Havlat contributed 77 points. Fans were split on whether or not the Hawks should bring back the popular wing; fans never questioned his ability, but the cost and health concerns were why the decision was taxing.

As the summer began, the Blackhawks claimed to be trying to work out a contract with Havlat. Because Toews, Kane, and Duncan Keith need new paper after the 2009-10 season, the organization didn’t want to lock themselves into a longer term deal with Havlat. The organization’s preference was a one-year deal.

When the two sides couldn’t reach an agreement, the Hawks shocked the hockey world by instead reaching out to, and winning, Detroit’s leading goal scorer from last year, Marian Hossa. Despite the Hawks public stance that they wanted to maintain flexibility with the salary cap long term, Hossa got an enormous deal that will, in theory, pay him into his 40s.

Adios, Marty... Hello Marian!

It’s safe to say Havlat felt burned by the Hossa signing. What followed, though, was unexpected.

Havlat, the model of professional composure during his tenure with the Hawks, started blasting John MacDonough and Hawks management on Twitter. Between his own rejection and the removal of Dale Tallon as General Manager, Havlat took every opportunity to get his shots in at the expense of his former team.

Many in the media began postulating that how Havlat was handled by management, specifically by Stan Bowman, could end up hurting the Hawks attempts to negotiate long-term contracts with Toews and Kane, who looked up to Havlat.

But as Havlat’s online rants continued, and he landed in Minnesota with the Wild, it became clear that Havlat, not the Hawks, stood to lose in their divorce. And so far this season, the production on the ice has shown that to be true.

The Blackhawks are in first place, despite being without Hossa until mid-November. Meanwhile, Havlat and the Wild are in last place in the Northwest Division with a 3-7-0 record (6 points).

Havlat hasn’t rewarded Minnesota for giving him the contract he desired, either. He’s already missed two of the Wild’s 10 games, and is -8 on the season with only five points to show for his action so far.

So as he returns to Chicago on Monday night, it’ll be interesting to see what @martinhavlat has to say for himself. It will also be interesting to hear how the fans greet their departed favorite son.