Three Stories From Sunday

The Chicago Blackhawks put in a period and a half of solid effort Sunday night in their last pre-season outing of the 2010-11 season, with a 4-3 win over the St. Louis Blues. We’ll skip the part about blowing the 4-1 lead, and how the first period was a less-inspiring repeat of the first period against the Penguins from two days ago.  Instead, here are the stories you should pay attention to.

With Brian Campbell out of the lineup 4+ weeks with a knee injury, Coach Quenneville decided to give rookie defenseman Nick Leddy time on the same pairing as the vet he is replacing alongside Niklas Hjalmarsson. Leddy logged 19 minutes of ice time and ended the night a minus-1, and looked jumpy. He was trying to get rid of the puck too fast when it landed on his stick, his usual patience nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t catastrophic, it just wasn’t what we are used to seeing from him.

This is probably just nerves, suddenly being handed shoes he feels ill-equipped to fill. But hopefully as he gets a few more games under his belt he’ll settle into this role, as there truly isn’t anyone else in the remaining blue line corps who can take up that torch as well as Leddy can. The games against Colorado and Detroit will tell the tale. If he hasn’t settled down by this coming Saturday, he’ll likely be in the press box or even in Rockford.

Then there’s Jeremy Morin. He’s been the surprise of the pre-season so far, and has been handed the opportunity of his career playing the left wing with Patrick Sharp and Patrick Kane. Sunday against the Blues was a continuation of Friday night’s game with Pittsburgh: Kane and Morin seem to be a good match, and appear to be having more than a little bit of fun.

They’re still learning where each other is on the ice, and Morin still has to get used to the “cycle” that the Blackhawks use so effectively in the attacking zone. But it appears to me that later on this year we could see some eye-popping, highlight-reel goals from these two. I’m looking forward to seeing if this seed that Coach Q has planted will blossom.

And finally, I’m giving goaltender Marty Turco a new nickname: henceforth he is to be known as “Myocardial Marty.” Every time that guy leaves the crease I get heart palpitations. His behind-the-net expeditions make me clench my fists and dig my nails in so hard I’ve popped two blow-up dolls already this season.

There is an up-side to this ramblin’ spirit of his, as for the second time in three outings he whipped a saucer pass up the ice to the opponent’s blue line, right on the tape of his right winger, this time starting a 2.8-second tic-tac-toe set-up for Jonathan Toews to bury it behind Ty Conklin. This effectively gives us a third deep defenseman during our power play, and will give us an extra 10 to 20 seconds in the attacking zone.

But then, there’s the down-side, when Myocardial blows the clear around the boards, gets caught with his pants down behind the goal line, and gives up an empty-netter to the fourth-line weasel on the opposing team. After the game the guy sends him a muffin basket to thank him for the thoughtful gift.

If Blackhawks Assistant Coach Mike Kitchen knows his stuff, right now he is on the phone with the Invisible Fence people, and on opening night Myocardial Marty will be wearing one of those collars that zaps him whenever he strays too far from the mesh.

All right, folks. The Indian Head is now a bulls-eye as far as the rest of the league is concerned, everybody will be gunning for us. We open the season on the road against Colorado this Thursday, puck drops at 9pm Central. The defense of Lord Stanley’s Cup starts in 72 hours. Make sure there’s a sharp edge on the skates and tape up the sticks night and tight.

From here on out, it matters.

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