Two blogs on the same road trip…uh oh hockey fans, somebody must be bored…

So on Thursday’s non-game day I rented a car and drove an hour-plus (without traffic) from Rockford to Chicago with assistant coach Mark LeRose and head equipment manager Doug Tretiak to catch the Blackhawks / Blue Jackets tilt from United Center. Here are some observations:

The pre-game atmosphere at UnitedCenter is unreal. They play several intro videos – displaying historic footage, new highlights, some extremely digitalized (almost looked animated) clips of current players skating through downtown Chicago – think pond hockey – all before the team hits the ice. The entire crowd was standing minutes prior to the anthem and the pre-game presentation as a whole was “clean” and inspirational. The team honored Troy Murray during the pre-game ceremonies (12 seasons with the ‘Hawks, highlighted by 99 points in 85-86) and there was a ceremonial puck drop that followed before the anthem got underway. When talking with Texas Stars GM Scott White the other night, he mentioned that the National Anthem at UnitedCenter was a must-see. Well, he was on point. The crowd was going bonkers to the point where the anthem singer had to belt out every line or he’d be drowned out. I’ve never witnessed anything like that before!

As for the game, the ‘Hawks scored 61 seconds into the first period on an odd-man rush goal by defenseman Brian Campbell. That’s the last thing the Blue Jackets needed given the ‘Hawks are 20-5-1 on home ice. The skill and speed of the game was very impressive as always. So many shots get blocked that it’s almost unbelievable. Players’ sticks are always in the proper lanes and the physical play / one-on-one battles are intense. At the end of the first stanza, the ‘Hawks led 1-0 and could have easily been up by three or four goals.

Here are a couple of other random notes: One of the referees (there are two for each NHL game unlike the AHL) was Frederick L’Ecuyer who has worked some Aeros’ games this season including Jan. 10 vs. Rockford. Some of scouts in attendance included former NHL’ers: Dave Brown, Rob DiMaio, former ‘Hawk Dirk Graham and Pat Verbeek. As I mentioned last night during the Aeros’ broadcast, there were nine scouts at the Rockford Metrocentre for the Aeros contest including Blair Mackasey, the director of pro scouting for the Wild (you can catch my interview with him in the multimedia section of aeros.com). The attendance was 21,884 – a new season-high for the ‘Hawks this year (and the Blue Jackets were in town for crying out loud…they could have had a “guaranteed win night” promotion). Aeros’ fans may know current ‘Hawks Jordan Hendry, Niklas Hjalmarsson and goaltender Antii Niemi from last year’s Ice Hogs squad.

I’ll try and bust out another blog from Oh Canada next weekend when the Aeros are in Abbotsford – it’ll be my 30th birthday, so I may be a touch sentimental…

- Aero Joe