Dear Habby: Chicago Game Preview and Open Thread

Dear Habby,

I have a real problem. I'm a life long Canadiens fan. I live and die with them. I even write a blog about them (and strippers). It's killing me that they are struggling as usual, and I want nothing more than for them to clinch a playoff birth, go into the second season and bring home Stanley Cup number 25. A part of me even believes enough in miracles to think it could happen. I love this franchise. I agonize over the 18 year Cup drought. I compose massive, expletive laden diatribes against this version of the team because I am so invested in their success. But here's the problem: The Habs are life and death to make the playoffs (still), and I kinda want the Chicago Blackhawks to win tonight.

I'll admit it, I like the Blackhawks. I like that their name has a cool origin. I think their red home jersey is the best looking in all sports and their whites aren't far behind. I loved the absolute bedlam that was the old Chicago Stadium, with the organ blaring, the nutcases in the cheap seats with the massive US flag, the moment of silence at the All-Star game for the troops overseas in Iraq that ended with one leather lunged Blackhawk fan screaming "KICK THEIR FUCKING ASS!!!!" before the roof blew off for the anthem. I like the city itself. Blues Brothers. Wrigley Field. Ferris Bueller. Da Bears. Upton Sinclair. University of Chicago. Perfect Strangers. The Road Warriors. The Blackhawks and the Windy City are cool.

I loved Denis Savard's goal versus the Oilers. Murray Bannerman's cool but scary Indian head mask. Steve Larmer's amazing work ethic. Picking Jeremy Roenick, Ed Belfour, Chris Chelios and the Blackhawks in EA Sports NHL 92 and kicking the crap out of anyone else.

I always appreciated that the Hawks played balls out, offensive hockey from day one, lead by guys like the Bentleys, Hull, Mikita, then Savard, Roenick and now Kane and Toews.

FYI, Jonathan Toews might be my favourite player in the world right now. That kid is FUCKING AMAZING. Patrick Kane is hilarious and a dead-eye scorer. Marian Hossa? Patrick Sharp? Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook? C'mon. All fantastic. Rookie goalie Corey Crawford is a Montrealer. He looks great.

Growing up in Leafs country, I saw a lot of Blackhawks/Leafs wars. I loved that the Hawks used to put beatdowns on the Leafs pretty regularly. Chelios and Steve Smith! Loved that even though our hometown rep teams were called the Bracebridge Bears, we wore Blackhawks colours. My hockey gloves today are still red black and white. I loved the watching the final game at Maple Leaf Gardens and spending the night calling our Leafs fan law school classmate and screaming every time the Blackhawks scored to spoil the party a little more. It's even better when you know Chicago won the first game in that horrid, ugly, pedophile hangout back in 1932 too.

I love that the Blackhawks keep dumping smug, overrated Vancouver out of the playoffs, and I love that Canucks fans wake up in a cold sweat thinking about meeting the Blackhawks this spring. I thoroughly enjoyed Chicago's whacking of the thuggish, asshole Flyers and their fans in last year's final. I liked that they broke a long drought to do it, and hung the "longest Cup drought" albatross on Toronto.

I love that this Blackhawks team, lead by Toews and Keith and Sharp took the time to board a bus to Huntsville, Ontario to attend a wake for then General Manager Dale Tallon's father - without telling Tallon they were coming - on one of their rare days off during the season. I love that on the way back from Huntsville to Toronto to catch a flight they put off for 24 hours they stopped at the Gravenhurst, Ontario McDonald's to grab a bite to eat still in their suits . These guys are guys you can cheer for.

I love that this team has rekindled the rabid love affair that Chicago used to have with its hockey team, after years of mismanagement by Bill Wirtz threatened to strangle the life out of the franchise. Of course, Stanley Cup wins tend to do that, but not all those people at the parade were bandwagonners. Chicago's a hockey town. There's no Bulls logos carved into the metal on the aisle seats at the United Center, but there sure as hell are Blackhawks logos.

Long story short, I like the Hawks. More than any other team than the Canadiens. And I want them in the playoffs with a chance to defend their Cup. Is it wrong for me to feel good if the Hawks beat the Habs tonight, starting at 7:30 in the Bell Centre, on RDS and TSN Habs in the Canadiens last home game of the regular season? With Toews continuing his MVP like season? With Corey Crawford starting for like the 25 straight game? With Price starting for like the 100th time this season? With Patrick Sharp hurt, and Markov and Gorges still out but Spacek getting close to a return? With Mathieu Darche earning raves for his effort dragging the Giant Mexican Americans out of their funk (at least temporarily)? With Plexxe and Cammy still finding their legs again, with Benny Pouliot still frustrating, with PK reigniting the first unit on the PP? Is that wrong? Is there a solution? Is there any way I can cheer for the Hawks without betraying the Habs?

Signed,

Torn (and possibly Traitorous) in Toronto

Dear Torn,

Cheer for a Montreal win in overtime. Hawk's get a point and go three up on Calgary for 8th with a game in hand, Montreal clinches. Win win. PS - I think the Hawks jerseys are kick-ass too.

Best,

Dear Habby

Patrick Kane will fuck you up over 20 cents

"The 20-year-old Kane and his cousin, James M. Kane, 21, were taken into police custody at about 5 a.m. ET after allegedly punching the driver and taking $15 in fare they had given him after he said he didn't have 20 cents in change"

(ESPN.com)

Theft, robbery and criminal mischief charges to a top-line NHL'er are a great way to brighten up a boring off-season Sunday. We can only hope for the story's sake that at 5 AM they were coming home from a strip club.

Monday morning update - be sure to check out TSN's video report which includes an interview with the cab driver, "J.R.", who is straight out of central casting.

A Primary Win - Clinton 4, Obama 3 OT

Something was decisively different at the Bell Centre last night. Sure, the fans came to watch a hockey game but on this evening, it would be set against a larger backdrop.

The evening would begin with another trivial, if altogether insignificant tribute to an original six (add forgotten) rival. I have no problem with this raising of the glass to Blackhawk legends. One can't help but wonder however what set of circumstances divorced these two once were fierce adversaries to begin with. Chalk it up to a mix of mediocrity and estrangement. While both teams enjoyed interesting times in the early 90's (shout out to my homies, Boyz II Men, ABC, BBD, the East Coast family), with each making an appearance in the finals, they then fell from grace and began competing for who can miss the playoffs more often. Only recently have the Habs and Hawks enjoyed a resurgence fueled by young talent. There is hope still.

The retirees left the ice, the personnel removed the ugliest plants ever used for on-ice ceremonies, and place au match.

It was a back and forth type of night, with no team ever holding a larger than one-goal lead. It was played openly with plenty of skating room afforded to the many speedsters on each side. The Dance à Dix line continued to provide the menace worthy of the number 1 line. The Habs power play maintained its ranking as the best in the league. And Andrei Markov thanked the fans who voted him into the All-Star game by showing every dimension of his game in All-Star calibre mode. Easily one of the best games of his career.

There was plenty of action in this one, with excitement to spare. Mark Streit was awarded a penalty shot after having broken loose at the red line and done his best to jump rope over the desperate stick swinging antics of a René Bourque caught on the wrong end of a breakaway. Streit missed.

The crowd looked on in agitation.

Then the scoreboard flashed the score: Clinton 101 764, Obama 98 672.

A palpable discomfort muffled the buzz in the crowd. The Bell Centre had always been known as an ecumenical, apolitical venue where fans of all walks gathered to cheer for their favorite team. It did not harbour political dialogue. But on this night, as New Hampshire went to the polls to support the party candidate that would then maybe win the party leadership at the national convention and possibly win the presidential elections barring a voting scandal in Florida, hockey took a back seat. All of a sudden, the people in the crowd were not just Montreal Canadiens' fans. They had political preferences. They had their own thoughts on Iraq, on the subprime credit crunch, on the Federal Reserve.

The fans, who for the longest time could look at each other with complete confidence in the camaraderie shared in loving the same team, suddenly saw these facades come apart. That guy on your right that you would always salute at the game, the one who you would share amusing hockey banter with, well that guy was a Clinton supporter, or an Obama admirer, or a center of left voter, maybe a liberal, maybe even a right wing conservative, or a left wing moderate toward the center progressive religious reformer. Whatever the case, he was no longer just a hockey fan. The reaction to the story in New Hampshire peeled off private political affections and created a never before seen discomfort and divide in the crowd.

As coaches drew the players' attention to the only score that mattered, both teams knew instantly that the game had just become as irrelevant as the ceremony that had preceded it.

During the second intermission, as America's native son Francis Bouillon rushed to call his wife for the results at the polls, Luc Gélinas asked the defenseman if he was satisfied with his play. Bouillon immediately downplayed the question: "The important comeback tonight is occurring somewhere else. It's in New Hampshire, Luc. Mrs. Clinton’s victory came after her advisers had lowered expectations with talk of missteps in strategy and concern about Mr. Obama’s momentum after his first-place finish in Iowa. Her team is now planning to add advisers and undertake a huge fund-raising drive to prepare for a tough and expensive fight with Mr. Obama in the Democratic nominating contests over the next four weeks. I gotta call my wife Lolita."

"Obviously it's hard for the players to keep their focus", said coach Carbonneau. "I have to admit, even I didn't really care about the game anymore. How can you? We really had to dig deep in overtime, but in all honesty we just wanted to get off the ice as quickly as possible to see what was going on. We had the big screen tuned to CNN all night, and the players would just sit there in front of it. You had to pull them away from Blitzer and the boys to start the periods. I understand them. I just want to go home and hug my kids."

The home boys got it done in overtime. Maxim Lapierre knew the team had a job to do. He was torn between getting off the ice after a long shift to regain the action in New Hampshire - as the Habs' trainers had now installed little personal screens for every player on the bench - and going for a last gasp attempt at goal with friend for life, Guillaume Latendresse. "Of course it was a hard decision", said Lapierre in the dressing room. "Obama wins it and the race, at least on the Democrat branch of the equation is over, it means everything. But I thought, if we could just score now, at least we can go back to the TVs right away." And so Lapierre chose to follow Latendresse who had parked himself at the side of Patrick Lalime's crease, and to whom he delivered a beautiful pass. Latendresse ended the wait. The fans filed out nervously.

Never had an overtime win in Montreal seemed so insignificant.