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head coach:
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Dirk Graham
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roster:
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C - Steve Dubinsky, Doug Gilmour, Mark Jansenss, Chad
Kilger, Jeff Shantz, Todd White, Alexei Zhamnov. LW - Dan Cleary,
Eric Daze, Jean-Yves Leroux, Ethan Moreau, Bob Probert, Reid
Simpson. RW - Tony Amonte, Dennis Bonvie, Ty Jones, Craig Mills,
Ed Olczyk. D - Chris Chelios, Paul Coffey, Christian LaFlamme,
Alain Nasreddine, Remi Royer, Cam Russell, Eric Weinrich, Trent
Yawney, Doug Zmolek. G - Mark Fitzpatrick, Jeff Hackett.
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injuries:
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Paul Coffey, d (back, day-to-day); Jean-Yves Leroux, lw
(groin, indefinite); Reid Simpson, lw (broken hand, indefinite);
Todd White, c, (bruised ribs, indefinite).
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transactions:
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Acquired Doug Zmolek, d, from Los Angeles for a
third-round pick in 1999 September 3; named Dale Tallon director of
player personnel September 4; signed Ethan Moreau, rw, September
13; assigned Sylvain Cloutier, c, Andy Johnson, d, Jeff Paul, d,
Colin Pepperall, lw, and Steve Tardif, c to Portland of the AHL;
Chris Herperger, lw, Andrei Kozyrev, d, Marko Makinen, rw, Nathan
Perrott, rw, and Marty Wilford, d to Indianapolis of the IHL; and
Alexandre "Haute" Couture, lw, Chris "X" Feil, d, Jason "My Friend"
Flick, g, Sean "Merv" Griffin, d, Jonathan "Free Leonard"
Pelletier, g, Jerad "Vivian Smith-Smythe" Smith, d, Jason "Sing a
Song of Six" Spence, lw, and Dmitri "Nice Guy But He Doesn't"
Tolkunov, d, to the juniors September 17; Signed Eric Daze, rw,
September 20; assigned Mark Bell, c to Ottawa of the OHL and Geoff
Peters, c, to the Canadian National Team September 21; assigned
Casey Hankinson, lw, to Portland of the AHL; Bryan Fogarty, d, to
Indianapolis of the IHL; and Kyle Calder, c, and Jeremy Reich, c,
to the juniors September 26; assigned Jean-Pierre Dumont, rw, and
Todd Rohloff, d, to Portland of the AHL September 29; assigned
Justin Hocking, d, to Indianapolis of the IHL October 2; claimed
Dennis Bonvie, rw, from Edmonton in the waiver draft October 5;
assigned Marc Lamothe, g, Rob Mara, d, and Ryan Vandenbussche, rw,
to Indianapolis of the IHL October 6; assigned James Black, lw, to
Chicago of the IHL October 7.
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game results:
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10/10 New Jersey W 2-1
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standings:
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Central Division GP W L T PTS GF GA
St Louis 2 1 0 1 3 7 5
Chicago 1 1 0 0 2 2 1
Nashville 1 0 1 0 0 0 1
Detroit 1 0 1 0 0 1 2
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team news:
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by Tom Crawford, Chicago Correspondent
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Here We Go Again . . . Or?
Around 8 o'clock Saturday night the mood at the United Center was
ugly. Some five months earlier the beloved Blackhawks had been
eliminated from playoff contention, and since then promises of
change, change, and more change had issued forth from every member
of the organization.
And changes had indeed been made. Visible ones. The mousy, vaguely
unsatisfying presence of Craig Hartsburg had been replaced behind the
bench by the solid form of Dirk Graham. (Can you believe people try
to give this guy a nickname? Come on fellas, you ain't ever gonna do
better than "Dirk Graham".) Career underachievers and defensive
liabilities had been shipped out in favor of, well, different guys at
least.
But Hawks fans couldn't help feeling a bit uneasy as the new
occupants of the Indian-head sweaters loafed through an exhibition
season painfully reminiscent of the regular season they were trying
to forget. Worse still, the new man in charge was having the same
old problems:
"They're not playing hard."
"Not seeing any intensity out of ... the veterans."
"These guys are in position to lose jobs."
So please forgive these United Center fans if they thought more of
Graham's scouting than his coaching ability. Because the Hawks
looked awful in the first period Saturday (or so I'm told by those
lucky enough to witness the carnage). Not just your garden-variety
awful either, but record-book awful.
For the first time in the history of the franchise, the Blackhawks
were held without a shot for an entire period. You don't have to
be particularly old to remember some Blackhawk squads that were
mind-numbingly dull and talentless, but no Tom Lysiak or Cliff
Koroll-led team ever managed a full 20 minutes without disturbing
the reverie of the opposing netminder.
Nor did this landmark occur during a defensive chess match of a
hockey period. In fact, while the Hawks struggled to recall the
function of that piece of lumber squeezed in their mitts, their
opponents managed 18 shots on net. That's a full night's
production for the Hawks on all too many occasions.
And then they won the damn game.
Turns out they just had a bad period. "We were nervous and back on
our heels," said Graham.
"We were all over the place," added new acquisition Doug Gilmour.
After that, it was pretty much what you'd expect from the Hawks and
New Jersey -- except for an Eric Daze 70-footer that went through
Martin Brodeur's legs. The only explanation can be that Brodeur
was asleep at the time -- and who could blame him?
Fights Aplenty
The Hawks came out firing with their fists in the first period
Saturday. Rookie Alain Nasreddine and recently anointed assistant
captain Ethan Moreau dropped the gloves within a minute and a half
of each other early in the Hawks' 2-1 victory. Both were pummeled,
but that's beside the point. Coach Dirk Graham had stressed the
need for greater intensity and physical play going into the game
and backed up the talk by benching a number of veterans he felt
weren't paying the price in favor of rookies like Nasreddine, Ty
Jones and Remi Royer, all of whom eventually found sparring
partners Saturday night.
Apparently eager to show the young ones how it's done, veteran
enforcers Bob Probert and Mark Jansenss then found their way into
third-period bouts, with Probert scoring a decisive victory over
sometime roller-hockey bruiser Sasha "The Masha" Lakovic.
Amonte Toughs It Out
He's not the perfect hockey player. His hair is funny. He doesn't
pass so much on the 2-on-1's. But Tony Amonte is fast, has a nice
one-timer, and plays so damn hard you can't believe Mike Keenan
gave up on him as some rich kid from New England. Amonte took
another step up on my personal hockey ladder Saturday night by
playing the Hawks' opener with a torn ligament in his left elbow.
Evidently, the pain didn't affect his shot too badly, as he scored
the game-winner and had another apparent goal wiped out by an
offsides call.
Olczyk Sits It Out
It's a bit early to start second-guessing coaching moves, but this
one was a bit of a head-scratcher. The Hawks signed Ed Olczyk this
summer for a variety of reasons, but the top one was almost surely
the veteran leadership they hoped he could provide. And during
training camp Olczyk said all the things a coach loves to hear,
expressing his joy at being back in his hometown, vowing to take on
former teammate Alex Zhamnov as his personal project, even offering
to play defense when injuries started to mount. Then comes opening
night, and who's watching from the press box? Eddie O.
Predictably, Graham claimed it was nothing personal to Eddie, and
Olczyk for his part was disappointed but refused to criticize the
decision. But were Craig Mills, Ty Jones, and Chad Kilger such
standouts at right wing that Olczyk just couldn't crack the
lineup? Perhaps Graham wanted to send a message that the best 12
forwards in practice that day would suit up that night, no room for
sentiment. While that's an admirable message, the dozen or so of
Eddie's friends and family at the United Center Saturday probably
found it unduly harsh.
Captain Kid
At the end of last season, Ethan Moreau was a free agent coming off
a year of injury, poor production, and some criticism from coaches
for playing much smaller than his 205 lbs. Long, perhaps bitter,
contract negotiations were foreseen for him and fellow young
forward, Eric Daze. Then one day Ethan said "to hell with it,"
told his agent to do what he had to do to get him into training
camp on time, and started working on making 1998-99 a better year.
His coach has rewarded this effort with a share of the assistant
captaincy with veterans Doug Gilmour and Tony Amonte.
"I think Ethan is ready to evolve into the role of leader for us,"
Graham said of his 23-year old assistant captain, while Moreau
called it "an honor" to be selected. And how about getting in that
referee's face when one too many calls have gone the opposition's
way? Said Moreau: "I'll leave that to Cheli."
News and Notes
Jeff Hackett erased the memory of a mediocre postseason by stopping
35 of 36 shots Saturday, including 17 of 18 in a potentially
disastrous first period ... The sight of Doug Gilmour placing a
perfectly flat puck on the tape of Tony Amonte's stick during a
Hawks' power play was especially sweet to Hawks fans who haven't
enjoyed the talents of a true power-play setup man since Bernie
Nicholls left town ... A nice new (well, new to me) Hawks website
can be found at www.geocities.com/Colosseum/3815/index2.html. It
lacks the wit and personal insight of your LCS home, but it does
scary things like update line combinations and summarize
interesting newsgroup activity.
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