Hawks Finish Pre-Season 2-4

After today's 2-1 loss to ZSC Lions Zurich, the Hawks finished the pre-season with a record of 2wins and 4 losses. Here are the scores for those 6 games:

Sept.19-WSH3 CHI2

Sept.20-MIN3 CHI0

Sept.23-WSH6 CHI2

Sept.25-CHI4 MIN3

Sept.28-CHI9 HC DAVOS2

Sept.29-(Victoria Cup)ZSC Lions Zurich2 CHI1

The Blackhawks will open up the regular season on Oct.2 vs.Florida in Helsinki Finland.You can watch the game on TSN at 12:00 p.m.

Hawks Fall To Caps

In the Hawks pre-season opener Chicago fell to the Caps 3-2 in overtime. The goal scorers for Chicago were Patrick Sharp and Jack Skille.For Washington Chris Clark, Kyle Wilson and the overtime winner by Mathieu Perreault. In net for the Hawks was Cristobal Huet and his counterpart was Michal Neuvirth. The 3 stars of the game were: 1st-Mathieu Perreault
2nd-Jack Skille 3rd-Kyle Wilson. The attendance was 19 734.

Start Of Regular Season Schedule

Here is the schedule for the first 5 games of the regular season:

Oct.2 vs. Florida12:00p.m(Helsinki, Finland)
Oct.3 @ Florida12:00p.m(Helsinki, Finland)
Oct.8 @ Detroit7:30p.m
Oct.10 vs. Colorado8:30p.m
Oct.12 vs. Calgary8:00p.m

Helsinki Here We Come!

On Friday October 2nd the Blackhawks will open up the regular season in Helsinki, Finland against the Florida Panthers. Over the last few seasons the NHL's regular season has started in Europe. This season Chicago and Florida will start in Helsinki, Finland and Detroit and St.Louis will start in Stockholm, Sweden. Chicago and Florida will play on the 2nd and 3rd of October with the games airing on TSN and TSN2.

Sixth Spot Up For Grabs

Brent Sopel, Jordan Hendry, and Aaron Johnson

Coming into training camp everyone knew that there was going to be 5 guaranteed spots on defence.Those spots were filled by Brent Seabrook, Brian Campbell, Duncan Keith, Nicklas Hjalmarsson and Cam Barker. But the question mark was about the sixth and final spot. With Brent Sopel back from injuries he is in contention along with Jordan Hendry and Aaron Johnson. Although Johnson played the most of the three last year, Hendry and Sopel have also had experience with the Hawks. Last season Johnson played 38 games racking up 8 points. Sopel played 23 games with 2 points and Hendry played 9 games with 0 points. With the regular season starting in just over 3 weeks, expect a tight battle between these 3 defenseman.

Hawks Cut Down On Lineup

These are the minor teams that Zahn, Gilbert and Froese were sent down to.

After a few days at training camp the Hawks have sent 9 players down to the minors. Teigan Zahn, David Gilbert, and Byron Froese have been sent down to their minor clubs. Also, Justin Hodgman, Matt Keith, Maxime Tanguay, Joe Charlebois, Jean-Claude Sawyer, and Joe Palmer have been sent down to Chicago's AHL affiliate, the Rockford Ice Hogs. The training camp roster is now at 50 players.

"Stanley Cup Or Bust"

Tomas Kopecky, John Madden, and Marian Hossa

"It's probably (Stanley) Cup or bust this year", said Patrick Kane. Coming off of a Western Conference Final result last season the only way to go is up. After a heart braking loss to Detroit last year the Blackhawks have Stanley Cup expectations and nothing else. After the signings of Marian Hossa, John Madden, Tomas Kopecky and other players the team has boosted up the incredible lineup from last year. With this stacked lineup of mostly young stars expect an great outing from the Hawks this season.

Tight Battle For Second Spot

Corey Crawford and Antti Niemi

Since the departure of Nikolai Khabibulin to Edmonton the battle has been on for the backup spot in net. With Cristobal Huet the starter, Antti Niemi and Corey Crawford have been battling throughout training camp.Last season Niemi appeared in 3 games to Crawford's 1 game. With training camp in action who come out on top for the second spot?

Too Many Forwards Not Leaving Space For Rookies

Jack Skille, Akim Aliu, and Kyle Beach

For such rookies as Jack Skille, Akim Aliu, and Kyle Beach training camp has been hard. The off-season signings have added many forwards to the lineup who could take there spots.Through the first few days of training there has been about 13 "main forwards" for the lineup, with the three rookies looking in from the outside. Skille, Aliu and Beach will have give 110% to get a spot in the lineup. Will they make it or play another season in the minors?

Pre-Season Schedule

Here is the schedule for the 2009/2010 pre-season:

Sept.19 vs.Washington8:30p.m
Sept.20 @ Minnesota6:00p.m
Sept.23 @ Washington7:00p.m
Sept.25 @ Minnesota8:30p.m
The regular season will start on Oct.1st vs. Florida(in Helsinki, Finland).

Fleury Reinstated

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSRFLUBgvzc

Former Chicago Blackhawk Theuren Fleury has been reinstated into the NHL.After retiring in 2003 Theo says he is,"working towards a comeback."After being reinstated Fleury was offered an invitation to the Calgary Flames training camp.Fleury said he,"intends to come to camp with a strong work ethic and a positive attitude."After 15 seasons and at the age of 41, will this former star be able to compete with today's stars?

Pre-Season Opener

The Chicago Blackhawks will start their pre-season on Sat.Sep.19th at 8:30p.m(ET) against the Washington Capitals at the Verizon Center. Last season the Blackhawks were 0-1 against the caps.

10/11/08 WSH(4)-CHI(2)