Hawks Fall to Jackets, Drop to A Game Under .500 In Post-Olympic Play

Sunday night the Chicago Blackhawks fell 4-2 to one of the worst teams in the conference, the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Hawks’ back-to-back losses to the Jackets drop their record to 5-6-2 since the Olympic break and 2-4-2 in their last eight contests.

For much of the game, the Hawks were lacking spark and energy. The team seemed half-asleep down 3-1 until a short-handed goal by Patrick Sharp late in the third period cut the Jackets’ lead to one. A late flurry nearly resulted in the tying goal, but it was too little, too late for the slumping Blackhawks.

With just eight games remaining before the playoffs, Chicago has lost the confidence and swagger they had before the Olympic break. After their two most recent losses the players have acknowledged that something is wrong, but haven’t been able to stop their skid.

For most of the season many considered the Hawks a Stanley Cup caliber team with shaky goaltending, but now it’s clear that the once-invincible Blackhawks have plenty of holes. Joel Quenneville needs to get his guys back on track–and now–so they don’t head into the postseason stripped of all confidence and momentum.

Teams like Detroit and Nashville are just hitting their stride and won’t think twice about ruining the Hawks’ golden year.

Chatting With The Man Behind The Masks: NHL Helmet Artist David Arrigo

After NSNG reader Julie tipped me off to artist David Arrigo’s impressive and extensive portfolio of NHL work, I thought I’d get in touch with the man behind the masks. Arrigo has done work for Blackhawks netminder Antti Niemi in the past and is creating a special mask to be auctioned off at Brian Campbell’s charity poker tournament tonight at the Horseshoe Casino.

Find out a little more about how he got into the business of painting masks, what his experience working with Niemi was like and check out a slideshow of some of his best work.   
SS: When did you first start painting goalie masks?

DA: I first started painting masks only 3 years ago and am lucky enough to
have created a large stable of NHLer’s such as Carey Price, Mike Smith,
Brent Johnson and of course, Antti Neimi, just to name a few. I also painted
masks for Alec Richards and Joe Palmer in the Blackhawks’ farm system. My
contact to the Chicago goalies has been through Troy Parchman, the
Hawks trainer. I met him a few years back during the Blackhawks
convention and begged him for the opportunity and there is nothing more
annoying than a whiner of an artist!

2009-2010 Blackhawks Worth The Worry

Remember back in July when the Chicago Blackhawks were making news for all the wrong reasons? Qualifying offers didn’t get to several free agents in time, beloved GM Dale Tallon was fired amidst controversy, new acquisition Marian Hossa had to undergo shoulder surgery and the team let go of their clutch goalie, Nikolai Khabibulin, and their top scorer, Marty Havlat. Fans everywhere were worried that all the soap opera drama would tear a blossoming team apart.

We’re just about halfway through the 2009-2010 season now and the Blackhawks’ offseason problems seem like a distant memory.

The cap situation is far from fixed, but for now the Hawks are (wisely) concentrating on the season at hand. Tallon is still a part of the Blackhawks family and most people “in the know” are confident that new GM Stan Bowman’s finance experience will pay off when the issue of cap space is addressed. Hossa is putting points on the board (two goals against the Ducks Sunday night) and making the players around him better with each shift. As for Havlat and Khabibulin, well…