A Good Flying Bird*
12-15-2003, 06:33 PM
http://www.suntimes.com/output/hawks/cst-spt-jenn12.html
* * * * * * * * *
Earlier in the day, Joseph sat in the dressing room and politely answered questions about his saga.
"Not having your family with you must make it even more difficult,'' he was told.
"Yep,'' he said.
"What do you do to cope with all this?''
A long pause.
"Go to the mall and listen to Christmas carols.''
* * * * * * * * * *
Having played SIX more games than St. Louis, thank you NHL scheduler, every two points is helpful.
•Cujo played very well. Nice to see the crowd applauding his effort. Like Mickey said, it did seem like an unusually rowdy crowd tonight. Did they drop the price of swill? Anyway, he's been pretty good since driving back to the team in that Chevy Cavalier. Teams around the league are taking notice. I guarantee it.
•Holy crap. We've played six more games than the Blues. So we play Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday? What's that? TWENTY freakin' back to back games now? This is insane! What's with all the back to back games?
Perhaps that has something to do with the contagious groin injury bug.
•Ho hum. Datsyuk picks up two more points. And boy, if that puck doesn't jump, all he needed to do was raise the puck six inches for another goal. Sweet back hand goal too.
Anyone else here Ken Daniels mention him in a sentence with Gretzky?
Settle down, Kenny.
•GRIFFIN WATCH:
Nik Kronwall looked a little shakier tonight.
I'm still not seeing Hudler do anything that really foretells his upside. Bootland played, barely. But how about Barnes?
Mark Mowers wants to be a city boy. Screw life on the farm.
• What's the status of Zetterberg. The News said he would have played tonight, pending the results of X-rays? Where does he play when back. Centering Shanahan? IMO, Yzerman, if his knee can handle it, is better suited for wing. I think Shanny would benefit from Z playing center? Or does he return to Datsyuk and Hull?
• We've got too many forwards.
Personally, I love seeing Datsyuk get all this icetime. But when everyone returns, and guys like Thomas and Holmstrom play thefourth line, it's going to be hard to give them 4 minutes a night like Bootland and Miller.
Oh well, we need that depth for the playoffs.
But Lewis seemed to have a hard time finding the right combinations when everyone was healthy. These days, it's "send Pavel out every other shift" and good things will happen.
• I'd take Olli Jokinen on my team (that was a rumor from Garrioch, i believe). But at what cost?
• Why does Lidstrom have just 1 point in 12 games (despite a huge increase in team scoring)? How many times did he miss the net today? That's one reason.
• One one shift, Jamie Rivers looked like a mob snitch getting gunned down in the alley. First he blocks a shot off his leg, and in obvious pain, he's limping around. Then goes down and blocks another shot. He was in a lot of pain when he peeled himself off the ice and dragged himself to the bench. Those are the kind of shifts that coaches remember.
• Anyone know why Schneider went and got the puck on the empty netter? That was kind of weird.
A milestone souvenir? A going away present?
* * * * * * * * *
Earlier in the day, Joseph sat in the dressing room and politely answered questions about his saga.
"Not having your family with you must make it even more difficult,'' he was told.
"Yep,'' he said.
"What do you do to cope with all this?''
A long pause.
"Go to the mall and listen to Christmas carols.''
* * * * * * * * * *
Having played SIX more games than St. Louis, thank you NHL scheduler, every two points is helpful.
•Cujo played very well. Nice to see the crowd applauding his effort. Like Mickey said, it did seem like an unusually rowdy crowd tonight. Did they drop the price of swill? Anyway, he's been pretty good since driving back to the team in that Chevy Cavalier. Teams around the league are taking notice. I guarantee it.
•Holy crap. We've played six more games than the Blues. So we play Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday? What's that? TWENTY freakin' back to back games now? This is insane! What's with all the back to back games?
Perhaps that has something to do with the contagious groin injury bug.
•Ho hum. Datsyuk picks up two more points. And boy, if that puck doesn't jump, all he needed to do was raise the puck six inches for another goal. Sweet back hand goal too.
Anyone else here Ken Daniels mention him in a sentence with Gretzky?
Settle down, Kenny.
•GRIFFIN WATCH:
Nik Kronwall looked a little shakier tonight.
I'm still not seeing Hudler do anything that really foretells his upside. Bootland played, barely. But how about Barnes?
Mark Mowers wants to be a city boy. Screw life on the farm.
• What's the status of Zetterberg. The News said he would have played tonight, pending the results of X-rays? Where does he play when back. Centering Shanahan? IMO, Yzerman, if his knee can handle it, is better suited for wing. I think Shanny would benefit from Z playing center? Or does he return to Datsyuk and Hull?
• We've got too many forwards.
Personally, I love seeing Datsyuk get all this icetime. But when everyone returns, and guys like Thomas and Holmstrom play thefourth line, it's going to be hard to give them 4 minutes a night like Bootland and Miller.
Oh well, we need that depth for the playoffs.
But Lewis seemed to have a hard time finding the right combinations when everyone was healthy. These days, it's "send Pavel out every other shift" and good things will happen.
• I'd take Olli Jokinen on my team (that was a rumor from Garrioch, i believe). But at what cost?
• Why does Lidstrom have just 1 point in 12 games (despite a huge increase in team scoring)? How many times did he miss the net today? That's one reason.
• One one shift, Jamie Rivers looked like a mob snitch getting gunned down in the alley. First he blocks a shot off his leg, and in obvious pain, he's limping around. Then goes down and blocks another shot. He was in a lot of pain when he peeled himself off the ice and dragged himself to the bench. Those are the kind of shifts that coaches remember.
• Anyone know why Schneider went and got the puck on the empty netter? That was kind of weird.
A milestone souvenir? A going away present?