Kane won't play Sunday
Posted by TimS on Sat, 01/03/2009 - 13:51
Patrick Kane won't be in the lineup Sunday against Calgary after aggravating his right ankle injury in the Winter Classic.
Kane and coach Joel Quenneville called it a day-to-day situation with Quenneville saying the Hawks' leading scorer would accompany the team on its three-game road trip to Phoenix, Colorado and Nashville.
"It's nothing long term," Quenneville said.
Kane hurt his ankle on Tuesday in Detroit when he was hit by Dan Cleary. Kane said he didn't attempt to play Thursday just because it was the Winter Classic.
It's official
Kane, Jonathan Toews and Brian Campbell will start for the Western Conference in the Jan. 25 All-Star Game in Montreal after being voted into the starting lineup by the fans.
I agree with you, Cubdrama, Toews stepping it up will be crucial to the Hawks on the coming 3 game road trip. He still seems to make a spectacular rush almost every game, but he isn't finishing most of the time. Toews playing like he did last season could be a huge factor in the second-half playoff push.
Havlat continued to look good Sunday night, and his consistency (or lack of it) will be another huge factor for the Hawks. Vertsteeg, Ladd and Byfuglein also need to keep up thier play.
It will be interesting to see how Eager responds playing with Sharp and Broweur....he didn't look too out of place Sunday, but he has some big (small) skates to fill.
Time for Toews to step it up and do what he should as a captain at a time like this. My biggest fear was losing Kane because he leaves a HUGE void. All-Star voting is a complete joke in every sport. I see Kane deserving a starting spot but Toews will probably be embarrassed to be there and Campbell hasn't had an All-Star first half. Mr. Media McDonough has done it again in getting 3 Blackhawks to start in the game. Does everyone buy what this guy sells?
The Hawks have unrivaled potential and the future looks bright.
This team should still make the playoffs, but the Hawks lack of composure, size, toughness, and consistency is blood in the water around the league as the games take on a more playoff-like character from this point on.
washington & boston have some great young players and there are teams like phoenix & columbus that also have some very good up & coming young talent that might be a year or two behind the hawks in terms of development. and i'm not sure i would regard san jose aside from blake & roenick as "old".
but imo, you are dead on regarding the hawks current roster weaknesses - and there is nothing Tallon can (or should do) to try to address them now other than through an incremental approach - i.e., deal guys who won't be back for a meaningful return that can help the current roster and in the future.
the biggest lack on the hawks imo, is experience and in particular proven playoff experience - just like a baby needs to learn to crawl before it can walk, a young team needs to go through the playoff process and gain individual & colllective experience about the playoffs & what they are all about, before it can be successful at them.
guys that I would target to help the young inexperienced hawks gain some playoff composure, size & toughness include
weight at center, (UFA at the end of the year)
lw stillman on florida has a couple years left @$3.5M per, but was a key contributor to two different cup winning teams or failing him, gary roberts (UFA)
shanahan, recchi or chris neil at rw (all UFAs)
for defense, i would target witt for size & toughness - another 2 years @ $3M per, or nick boynton (another UFA) - and possibly also look at kyle maclaren.
hawks have enough prospect depth in their system to afford giving up some of it to acquire some of the above guys - in fact, it is doubtful they can sign all 17 of their pending RFAs at the end of this season - may as well move some of them to help the current roster.
Good call southpaw, it iwll kill the hawks in the playoffs, even a team they are better than , like say an Anaheim could cause problems.
There was a play in the winter classic where they were digginfor the puck and hossa just shoved versteeg out of the way...it was way to easy for him to do that, it was almost humorous to watch.
Plus they need defence, campbell is TERRIBLE in our end.
sorry but barker & matt walker aren't exactly top 4 dmen in their own zone - Q puts campbell out with them because he has the mobility to be able to cover up for these slow footed guys a lot of the time but his own play suffers because of it (or he looks out of position when often in reality he's trying to cover for the guy who was out of position initially).
i'd like to see Q try wiz with campbell, that would leave johnson/barker & walker/sopel to fight it out for the last 5/6 pairing.
That would be Lisin (first rounder I think) and the fast, skilled (briefly Blackhawk) Lindstrom.
Hopefully Kaner will be a go on Tuesday, of course no Coyotes will try to hit him anyway. The posse will be out looking for Versteeg, because of the comments by Worthless Wayne the former #99 crybaby. Good for the all-stars, hope Duncan Keith still gets in and Khabby should make it too.
Now that the season is basically near the 40 gp mark, look for tougher games. Calgary is looking for revenge after loosing twice and Phoenix, as Gretzky has noted, is surely ready for retaliation. I say we need to be aware of the additional toughness and speed both teams have added to their lineup this year. It will be more evident in these games than in the earlier matches. While many of Phoenix's younger players are still far back on the learning/adjustment to NHL curve, this Calgary team is able to turn it on and off like a faucet. About ten games over .500. Interesting as for Calgary: just gave Darryl Sutter's son, Brett, a cup of coffee up here; Aucoin apparently has settled in under Keenan, but his goals scored I thought would be higher; beware what seemingly lesser players like R Bourque, Glenncross, Moss, Boyd, Lombardi, Nystrom bring. And Pfanuef, Bertuzzi are tough against us. Since last meeting, Phoenix has implemented even more speed to line up. Some veteran d-men and Mueller looks like he is ready to go on goal spree -- he has the shot, learning game much like a Shanahan was. Three first round choices last two drafts in Coyotes lineup. Also in line up: last year's Hobey Baker player (Porter); two recent #1 round Hanzal, Mueller. Then their two best: Jokinen and Doan. The On the Fly segment on Doan and his christianity quite interesting -- even Gretzky talks about it.