Chicago Blackhawks fans, I’d like to introduce you to ….. Radek Smolenak?
Yep, Smolenak is officially a Blackhawk — for now, anyway. With Adam Burish and Marian Hossa starting the season on IR, Joel Quenneville decided to go with Smolenak over Jack Skille and Rob Klinkhammer. While I’m surprised, let’s not get our panties in a bunch over the choice. But as ridiculous as the whole thing seemed to be leading up to the preseason, you have to wonder if Skille’s $1.275M cap hit factored into the decision to send him to Rockford. Well, whatever.
Jordan Hendry claimed the eighth defenseman roster [...]

Throwin’ Spray, a phrase from “Here Come the Hawks” and title of the semi-daily post on BlackhawkUp.com, will feature quick-hitting Chicago Blackhawks- and NHL-related news and links.

Even though most Blackhawks fans have finally put Patrick Kane’s “20 Cent” days in the past, it finally looks as if Kaner himself has done the same.
The kid scored two goals in each of the past two preseason games, including Monday’s 9-2 romp of HC Davos in Zurich. Maybe I’m looking too much into this, or I’m not looking deep enough. Kane still is going to hear all season about The Cabbie Incident, but [...]

Anything else, hockey gods? You assholes.
Chicago Blackhawks forward Adam Burish will miss six months after tearing his ACL during Sunday night’s 3-0 exhibition loss against the Minnesota Wild. And if I run across the asshole that sent Burish into the boards hard enough to rip his ACL in half, I’m going to tar and feather him immediately after I attempt to carefully shave all of his body hair with a high-powered chainsaw.
The ‘Hawks have been lauded for being so deep at forward, and now they have to start the season without both Burish and Marian Hossa. More importantly, one of the best [...]

Tonight’s Game
Chicago Blackhawks (0-0-1) at Minnesota Wild (1-1-0)
Preseason — 5:00 p.m. CST, no local TV

As strange as it will be tonight for Blackhawks fans to see Martin Havlat in a Minnesota Wild sweater, let’s remember we really only saw him wearing the indian head for one full baseball season.
Over three injury-plagued years in Chicago, Havlat played in only 162 regular-season games. And after a career-high 77 points, it was the same old story with Havlat being sidelined for nearly all of the Western Conference Finals against Detroit after getting Kronwalled.
After a widely publicized exit from Chicago, Havlat will make his [...]

Washington Capitals at Chicago Blackhawks
Preseason — 7:30 p.m. CST, Comcast Sports

Watch out, ladies. Alexander Ovechkin is bringing his pre- and post-game sexual routine to Chicago. You can’t call him heartless, though. The guy’s got two of them. Don’t get mad ’cause his sex is on fire. Let’s just hope he doesn’t undress Cristobal Huet.

Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals visit the United Center tonight for the Blackhawks’ first preseason game, giving fans their first taste of what the 2009-10 version of the ‘Hawks has to offer. With the team pretty much set and this game being overall meaningless, I’m not going [...]