Sports with Megs

CHICAGO, IL — The title of this blog might be a little weird to you. But, carousel rides have to go down to go back up—and, as the carousel moves forward, it goes up and down a lot. That’s kind of how I’m trying to look at the Blackhawks’ season at this point. There are some definite highs (ie: the OT win over the Florida Panthers on Saturday) and definite lows (ie: the horrific loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday), but they do keep moving forward. And honestly, I do think they're making small improvements in each game, even if the outcome doesn't necessarily reflect it each night. I’ll get more into the games below, but I just wanted to try and put a positive spin on this sort of lackluster season. I think us Hawks fans could all use some positivity these days. Anyways, let’s do this thing. BLACKHAWKS @ TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING - L, 2-4 I think this loss was a bit expected, to be honest, since it was against one of the top teams in the leagu

CHICAGO, IL -- I'm a little disappointed, but not surprised. The whole Nick Schmaltz trade-talks thing has been poked around on both Twitter and in the hockey media circle, so I'm not overly surprised that he was dealt around 11pm EST last night. And, honestly, I don't really mind this trade, but we'll get to that in a second because I really need to get something off my chest first. Stan Bowman is really starting to piss me off. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way, and he even kind of addressed it in an interview with Scott Powers on The Athletic. But, I'm sorry--this 'win-now mentality' and 'we're 100% a playoff team as it stands' stuff the front office is spewing out is crap. See the below tweet from Mark Lazerus (The Athletic) this morning: All we've heard from Bowman (and the front office, honestly) the past year or so has just felt like lies. I hate being this person, I hate putting blame on people, but

CHICAGO, IL -- I'm undecided on this week, honestly. Certainly not their worst week of outings, but not really their best, either. I just kind of... wished it'd gone better? Especially since the Hawks' schedule is getting kind of gnarly here. I don't think they're in the dark, or completely out of it at this point--as I've reiterated a gazillion times to family, friends and the interwebs: they don't hand out the Cup in November. I really do think that they'll be okay, even if this week wasn't great. It also wasn't the worst week they've had to date (8-game losing streak, anyone?), and I really think they're still trending up. Let's just hope they keep trending that way. Anyways, let's get into some games, shall we? BLACKHAWKS V. LOS ANGELES KINGS - L/SO, 1-2 I'll be the first to admit that this wasn't the prettiest of Hawks games. But, at the same time... It wasn't the worst I've ever seen. The

CHICAGO, IL -- Don't sing it. Don't sing it. Don't-- WEEEEEEE ARE THE CHAAAAAMPIONS, MY FRIIIIEEEENDS! Sorry, had to get that out of my system. If you're not following (I get it, I'm weird), the Chicago Blackhawks won their first game after an eight-game skid. We'll get to that game in a minute, but unfortunately, we have to touch on two other games first. On the bright side, I just celebrated my birthday on Monday at the Blackhawks and Carolina Hurricanes game, so that was exciting-slash-stressful-slash-fun as hell. Anyways, let's get into this. BLACKHAWKS @ PHILADELPHIA FLYERS - L, 0-4 Yeah, this one was messy. I'll be honest, I was terrible about watching this game--my mom was in town for my birthday (hi, Mom), and we were out running errands all day so I really didn't catch much of this game. I don't think I missed too much. When I did go back and watch the highlights of the game, it didn't look like the Hawks were

CHICAGO, IL -- A lot has happened this past week--I'm not going to touch much on the whole Coach Quenneville situation, since I wrote a blog on it on Tuesday ( see here ). But, wow, was this week a mild nightmare for the Blackhawks. From the terrible loss to the Flames on Saturday, to Coach Q getting the boot, to Brandon Saad taking a puck to the face in practice on Wednesday, to Jonathan Toews getting a high stick last night against Carolina and nearly losing an eye--it's been a rough week to say the least. Bad bounce after bad bounce. But, I think there are some gems to be found among the debris and the wreckage, so let's just suck it up and get into it. BLACKHAWKS @ CALGARY FLAMES - L, 3-5 Can I first start by saying that the refereeing in this game was all over the place? I don't think there were a whole lot of good calls in this game on either side--there was a way-too-long power play (I think that was more on the team than the refs, but it was du

CHICAGO, IL -- Well. This has put me in a terrible mood. Let me start by saying that as soon as the Los Angeles Kings fired their coach just a few days ago, I worried this would happen. I worried a lot, actually, even though most reporters and writers were looking to the St. Louis Blues or Detroit Red Wings to toss their coaches to the curb. For once, my overthinking proved me right. See you all in therapy. In all seriousness, this is a joke (wow, what an oxymoron). I was going to try and be professional about this, but I can't. If Hawks GM Stan Bowman thinks this is going to magically fix everything wrong about this team, he's sorely mistaken. This team has been doomed for the past few years, and every little misstep leads back to the front office. Trading away key players like Niklas Hjalmarsson, Bryan Bickell, Andrew Shaw, Artemi Panarin, Ryan Hartman, Vinnie Hinostroza, Teuvo Teravainen, and Trevor van Reimsdyk, and signing basically useless players like Brand

CHICAGO, IL -- Aw, crap. I really thought we didn't have to go back down this road. But, this is starting to look suspiciously like last year, and let me tell you--I hate it. It's early, and they certainly have time to turn things around, but they need to be quick about it. Wasting too much time playing sloppy hockey early on can ruin a team down the road. I don't have anything else for this section, aside from the fact that Jonathan Toews is infuriatingly close to 300 goals--sitting at 299 as of last night. Let's just... start, I guess. Oh, boy. BLACKHAWKS @ ST. LOUIS BLUES - L, 3-7 I mean, yikes. Have I said that a lot this season? Yeah, but it's been warranted. Why did the worst loss of the season have to come from one of the few teams in the league that I just can't stand? To make things worse, it's not like the Blues are even that good this year (even though they should be--that's a story for another day)--the Hawks really should