A closer look at the BlackHawks

As usual, real life crept in and kept me away from this blog site for a while. I am back though and hoping to get back on track with my posts. In fact, I may do more than one right now as I have several things I want to update.

I am starting once again with the pro groups and figure I should catch up on the Chicago Blackhawks. These posts likely won’t bring anything earth shattering as far as information as far as the NHL teams are concerned. This is the one level where there are plenty of other websites out their with info. But for now, here is a look at the Chicago Black Hawks and how things are going, heading into training camp this weekend.

The Hawks entered the post season as the favorite to win back-to-back Cups this past spring — at least that was my feeling. The team however fell in the Conference championship series against the L.A. Kings in seven thrilling games.

After making sure they didn’t touch the Clarence Campbell Bowl as they celebrated a year earlier following a Conference championship win against the Kings, the Hawks had to stand and watch the same team standing behind the Bowl at the United Center this past season. Don’t think the players haven’t spent an entire summer thinking about that humiliation and the team should come to came fired up this fall.

There has been some fairly major off season moves, the most notable being the addition of Brad Richards to an already potent offensive unit.

There is also a lot of off season excitement centered around Teuvo Teravainen, the team’s top overall Draft pick a year ago as he is expected to get a good long look at the training camp that began this weekend.

One of the things working in Teravainen’s favor is the fact the team is already over the salary camp and will need to make some kind of roster move — likely a trade in the days ahead. There were rumors of Patrick Sharp being on the block earlier this summer, but there hasn’t been much talk since Free Agents signings began July 1. As of right now though, the team appears to be a little over $2 million above the cap.

In the week leading up to camp, the Hawks took part in a four-team Rookie tournament at London Ontario along with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins. The Hawks came up short in all three of the pre-training camp event, starting with a 4-2 loss against the Leafs (two goals by Ryan Van Stralen, two assists for Phillip Danault), then back to back 5-4 shootout losses against the Penguins (Matt Carey, Dennis Rasmussen, Danault) and Senators (Mark McNeill 2, Viktor Svedberg and Brett Welychka).

The Hawks invited 52 players to camp, including 27 forwards, 19 defense and a half dozen goaltenders.

Normally, teams make a first cut relatively quickly and those players will form the core of the training camp for the Rockford Ice Hogs, the Hawks’ AHL affiliate which is scheduled to open camp Sept. 28.

The Hawks will play a half dozen pre-season games beginning Tuesday night with a visit from the Detroit Red Wings.