By Sean Gallagher
For those of us who are fortunate enough to have seats for tonight, we'll get to say it plenty tonight.
Black Hawks Suck!
We'll chant it. We'll scream it. We'll say it as a greeting to one another. We'll whisper it to the guy in the bathroom wearing the indian headdress followed closely by, "Now shut the fuck up."
Not that we don't expect a few fans of the Indianhead to show up here, as they usually do. In fact, we welcome them. The Blues/Blackhawks rivalry is always fun, unlike that one we share with the douches from Detroit, who have no idea how to have fun ribbing one another.
Most of us will be down there and unable to live blog this, plus, when we checked in with Brad Lee this afternoon, he was at about his third winery and kept wanting to talk about a bouquet. Whatever the fuck that means, we don't know. But we can guess that it means he's probably not going to be exactly "blog ready" by the time the puck gets dropped.
So this will be your open thread if you're watching this one from home or work or a bar or your girlfriend buddy's house. In case you missed it, here are the story lines that the broadcast team will likely beat into your brains throughout the game:
This is the first professional game where U of North Dakota linemates and friends TJ Oshie and Jonathan Toews will be facing one another.
This is the first game in Joel "Who wants a moustache ride?" Quenneville's career as head coach of the Blackhawks. Let's see, our supposedly high-flying young offense is struggling. You know what we need? A coach who doesn't trust youngsters in key positions during the game and who preaches a stifling defensive mindset. Quick, call Quenneville!
Oh, and Cam Janssen is from nearby Eureka, MO!
Enjoy the game, everyone.