Blackhawks: The People's Choice

Tommie Lee
Jan 6, 2015
2 min read

I have to get this out of the way first because it’s just too funny to save.

Vote Quimby

The fan vote is in for the NHL All-Stars, sponsored by Sirius XM. Leading the Forwards in votes was Zemgus Girgensons of the powerhouse 15th Place Buffalo Sabres, whom it should be noted are only 23 points out of first place right now in the East as of this writing.

The other five spots out of the six that the fans voted on…all went to Chicago Blackhawks.

Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews round out the Forwards. Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook led the voting among Defensemen. And the Goalie spot went to Corey Crawford.

As you might imagine, Twitter has been flooded with complaining hockey fans of the other teams — comments like “this is why we shouldn’t have a vote,” “Crawford starting in goal…I’m done,” and several others that I can’t really repeat here. They may have a point with Crawford. There have been some amazing performances from several goalies in the league this year, and Crow has spent some time on the bench nursing his boo boos and watching his two sturdy backups mind the net. For Keith, it’s trip #3 to the All-Star Game, and Seabs & Crawford will be making their debuts.

The game will be in Columbus on January 25th.

Blackhawk Down

On to other business from the holiday break. January 1st came and went, and saw the Capitals become only the second home team to win a Winter Classic as they got the better of Chicago. Despite the loss it was a great game, though we did see the Blackhawks falter and lose energy in the final period. It’s unfortunate that if they did have to lose so late it couldn’t happen in OT and salvage a point, but so be it.

The bigger loss in that game may prove to be Kris Versteeg, who left with a hand injury. Shortly after the game Coach Quenneville said he would be evaluated and could be out “for a while.” That while has now been narrowed down to a month.

Paging Teuvo

Teuvo Teravainen was called up to help plug the hole in Q’s scheme. He didn’t play much in the game against Dallas, spending time on the 4th line before getting lost in the Wheel of Hockey Lines that spins in Q’s head. Patrick Sharp took a great pass from Keith to wrap up the Sunday night Salute To Scoring with an OT goal that gave Chicago a 5-4 win against a key division foe. As to how much Teuvo we will see in the coming games, no one can say. One can only wonder how long it takes the young man to look for work elsewhere… someplace where he can start.

Some big games are coming up before the mid-winter road trip gets underway on the 21st. It will be interesting to see where Teravainen fits in with Q’s vision for the team.

Go Hawks!