Putting Things in Perspective. Oilers Come Back to Town.

First, Congrats to Avs for ending the Blackhawks streak. They were prepared and fired up to play the Blackhawks, seeking retribution for Wednesday’s loss at the Madhouse. As I have mentioned many times, the Avs, on the basis of Friday’s and Wednesday's games, is a team that will give the Hawks some problems. As does Anaheim, St. Louis and Vancouver. These teams are all big, fast and physical. You want to know how physical, go back and watch Friday’s second period and note how many times the Avs finish their checks and hit everything is site.

The Blackhawks have room for improvement and with Sharpie out 3-4 weeks, I expect even more so now that Stan will be busy at the trade deadline. This team can win the Cup this year however to do so, some changes must be made. They must get better in the face-off dot. (Hey Stan, Ben Smith can be called up.) The Power Play must improve as it is the same as it has been for the past two years and lastly, this team must get physical, finish the damn check. Wait, first you must check to finish a check. In 2010, the Blackhawks had Big Buff, Burish, Brower, Soepel, Ladd and Madden just to name a few that would pound opponents all night long. This year, they have Carbomb, Bollig, and Bicks. Sorry Shaw, you have a big heart, but you are not going to scare a 235 skater from the opponent. If you go back and listen to all of the post game comments from Blackhawks Coaches to players, they all had a common theme during the streak, “we look to continue to improve.“ The time to improve is now!

Ok, I vented. To tonight’s contest against the Oilers…Tonight the Blackhawks need to go out and play the type of game that got the them to where they are now, high energy, speed, D-Fence and all four lines contributing. For the Oilers, its been about a week since Edmonton last scored a goal. The Oilers have been outscored 9-0 in the past two games after being blanked in Detroit and Nashville. They are now 1-4-2 on their current nine-game road trip and are at the bottom of the Western Conference standings. And before there's talk of a new streak, the Hawks just need to go out and win one. And then focus on the next game after that.

Below are the NHL Rankings of the two teams:

Oilers 8-11-5 21pts:

Goals for: 2.17 (29)

Goals against: 2.88 (19)

PP%: 20.8 (7)

PK%: 84.2 (9)

Hawks 21-1-3 45pts:

Goals for: 3.08 (6)

Goals against : 1.96 (2)

PP%: 17.4 (14)

PK%: 87.2 (4)

Tonight's expected Hawks lineup

Offense:

Saad Tazer Big Hoss

Bicks Rat Kaner

CarBomb Shaw Stalberg

Krugs Mayer Frolik

Defense:

Seabs Keith

Hammer O-do-ya

Rozsival Leddy

Netminder:

The Crow

Go BLACKHAWKS!