Blackhawks again jack up already high ticket prices

April 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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For the third time since 2008, the year that the Cubification of the Chicago Blackhawks started, the team is raising ticket prices. That was the year snake oil saleman John McDonough and his lickspittle Jay Blunk came to the team and took over the front office.

Hockey may be the sixth or seventh favorite sport, or at least the NHL is the sixth or seventh favorite league in United States, but the insane consumer demand in Chicago actually justifies the Hawks’ obscene price hike.

Hard to believe that for every year of the preceding decade up until 2008, the team was averaging just 6-7,000 fans a night. Just five years ago, you could get a 300 level seat for $8 if you had a college ID.

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With Duncan Keith suspended, Blackhawks positive momentum gone?

March 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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The Chicago Blackhawks have been the National Hockey League’s (NHL’s) second hottest team, behind only the scintillatingly-hot Pittsburgh Penguins who have sported a 13-0-1 record recently.  The Blackhawks have blistered their way up the NHL’s Western Conference standings at an 8-1-1 clip, including a recent 5-0-0 run, all of this being done without the services of their captain and leader Jonathan Toews, who has missed the past 14 games with a concussion.

In spite of this devastating loss, the Blackhawks are only one point out of the Western Conference’s 4th position.

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Derrick Rose buys $2.7 million 84th floor condo; now neighbors with Patrick Kane

March 20, 2012 By 1 Comment

trump_tower

Talk about the top of the Chicago food chain. It seems Chicago Bulls franchise player Derrick Rose and his counterpart on the Blackhawks (although technically Jonathan Toews is the better/more important player) now live in the same building.

And not just any building: Chicago’s most recently built skyscraper of skyscrapers, Trump Tower. Rose just bought himself a $2.7 million crib on the 84th floor with a southside downtown view.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times “Hot Corner,”

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Blackhawks trade John Scott to Rangers; acquire Oduya in separate deal from Jets

February 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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In a last second before the 2012 NHL Trade Deadline deal, the Blackhawks sent their main protector, defenseman John Scott to the New York Rangers. TSN reports the Blackhawks received a fifth-round pick in exchange for Scott. Getting rid of Scott leaves the Hawks without a true “enforcer” to retaliate against the hits that will be made against Hawks star forwards Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp, and Patrick Kane.

It also negates deal made earlier in the day in terms of upgrading their defensemen depth.

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Wayne Gretzky skating in a Chicago Blackhawks jersey? Yes, really

February 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

wayne-gretzky-hawks

No that’s not an airbrush or a photo shop. It’s truly The Great One Wayne Gretzky in a Chicago Blackhawks jersey. It’s a vision every Hawks fan dreamed of in 1986.

Upon further inspection of a pic that is pure blasphemy to Los Angeles Kings and Edmonton Oilers fans…

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Patrick Kane Wins Shootout Contest With Superman Homage

January 28, 2012 By 1 Comment

The NHL All-Star Game, as is the case with the rest of professional sports’ mid-season clashes, is often derided as being a meaningless exhibition that people take way too seriously, but for those fans that can appreciate the fun that the players have with it, it is actually a cool spectacle.

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Sunday’s Three Stars: Shaw, Stalberg Shine in Win Over Sharks

January 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Patrick Sharp has been out of the Chicago Blackhawks’ lineup for the past four games, but it hasn’t slowed them down one bit. Buoyed by performances from guys up and down the roster, the Hawks have been scoring goals, playing solid defense, and most importantly, picking up points. This weekend was no different, as they got a point yesterday against the Detroit Red Wings, a team with an insane home record this season, and they did it again Sunday night as they took down the San Jose Sharks 4-3 at the United Center.

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2011-2012 NHL General Manager Rankings

January 15, 2012 By 7 Comments

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In comprising a ranking of the Top 10 National Hockey League (NHL) General Manager’s (GM’s), I assessed the GM’s by a series of factors:  Overall performance – cumulative and trending; drafting and development; trades and acquisitions; capology – the ability to efficiently manage their respective salary cap; variable factors – ownership, organizational legacy, the situation they’ve inherited.

So, this list is not linearly-related to the team’s current record or whether they recently won the Stanley Cup as so many rankings of this type tend to do.

With that, here are the rankings of NHL GM’s:

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Blackhawks’ Late Surge Gains Pity Point, But Wings Prevail

January 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Some sporting events have momentum swings that seem to occur in nearly every minute of action, but the tilt between the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks was not one of those events.

Through the first 40 minutes of Saturday afternoon’s matinee between the Red Wings and Blackhawks, there was little doubt as to who the better team was on the ice. Sure, the Hawks got a huge break when Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard flipped a puck from behind the net directly to Andrew Shaw, but the Wings were the class of the Central for those 40 minutes, outshooting Chicago 29-11 and outscoring them 2-1. As soon as the third period started, however, it became a hockey game.

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Blackhawks Fan Tells On-Air Reporter Sarah Kustok: “I Love you, You’re so Beautiful”

January 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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“Greg from Lemont” is an ex-baseball player, who’s becoming the next sports blog viral video star.

The Chicago Blackhawks fan was given a chance to play “Shoot The Puck,” an period intermission goal shooting contest during Hawks home games at the United Center. The formula is simple: a kid, really hot chick, and adult white guy (sometimes celebrity). Rinse and repeat. The hot girl always gets cheered, the kid and the celebrity can get cheered or booed, the adult white guys always gets booed. But this isn’t about the shooting competition; it’s about Comcast SportsNet Chicago reporter Sarah Kustok, and what she was told by Greg.

I do enjoy publishing stories on people from my hometown becoming stars.

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Meet Sarah Kustok- CSN’s Beloved Blackhawks Reporter

January 13, 2012 By 14 Comments

sarah-kustok

You may have seen the video of a hockey fan telling the sideline reporter “how pretty she is” and how he loves her“…that’s Sarah Kustok

Paul M. Banks has an exclusive discussion with Comcast Sports Net’s Sarah Kustok.

You’ve undoubtedly seen the DePaul graduate on TV covering the Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs, and Chicago Bulls. She’s had the opportunity to cover a lot of high profile playoff games in multiple sports, and after the jump she’ll tell us all about her amazing experiences, as well as her own backstory.

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Sharp Out 3-4 Weeks; Is it Panic Time for Stan Bowman?

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

 

Patrick Sharp in pre-game warmups

After going largely unscathed on the injury front for the first half of the season, the Chicago Blackhawks have been getting bitten by the bug in a big way in recent weeks. You have Marcus Kruger out with a concussion (although he is skating now and should be back soon), Daniel Carcillo down with a knee injury that he sustained on his incredibly stupid hit on Tom Gilbert against Edmonton, and Steve Montador just came back from the injured reserve list. Although those guys are all supporting characters in the narrative the Hawks have written so far, one of the prime time players is going to have to be replaced with an understudy for a while.

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