Tonight’s game

Home Game #12 – Wednesday October 31, 2007 – American Airlines Center

Chicago Blackhawks 5-6-0, Overall 10 pts, 4^th Central (2-2-0, on Road)

at Dallas Stars 5-4-2, Overall, 12 pts, 2^nd Pacific (3-1-1, at Home)

Denis Savard coached his first NHL game against Dallas, November 29, 2006 at the United Center.  The Blackhawks won that game 2-1 over the Stars.

Savard is 24-30-7 as coach of the Blackhawks.

Hawks expected line-up

Sergei Samsonov will sit for the second consecutive game.  He’s perfectly fine; just punished for being bad.….  Danny Richmond will sit as well.  This is not news…..  Martin Havlat is out until at least November 14 rehabbing his right shoulder.  Havlat is supposed to rejoin the team for light on-ice workouts in Chicago tomorrow…..  David Koci had his face rearranged by Zdeno Chara last Thursday in Boston.  He’ll miss 3-4 more games….  Andrei Zyuzin is on IR with a posterior-muscle tear….

Dallas Stars anticipated line-up

Mike Modano will see time with wingers Todd Fedoruk and Antti Miettinen as well.  Modano joins Lehtinen, Morrow, and Ribeiro on the first power-play unit with Sergei Zubov as the point-man.

Steve Ott #29 could replace Todd Fedoruk in tonight’s lineup.  Ott was a healthy scratch on Monday vs. San Jose….. Brad Winchester #16 and Krystofer Barch #13 are expected to be the other scratches.

Mike Ribeiro and Matt Niskanen (1^st career goal) scored the Stars’ two goals at American Airlines Center on Monday, a 4-2 loss to San Jose.  Niskanen is a native of Virginia, Minnesota and following high school, he attended Minnesota-Duluth (NCAA) for two seasons before turning pro last March with the Iowa Stars.

- Mike Modano is one point shy of 1,232, the mark for most points attained by a U.S. born NHLer, currently owned by Phil Housley.  Jeremy Roenick stands with 1,175.

- Modano’s career: 1,249 games played, 509 goals, 722 assists, 1,231 points

- Roenick’s career: 1,262 games played, 498 goals, 677 assists, 1,175 points

- Stars’ backup goaltender Mike Smith was out with an injury when Dallas visited Chicago October 13.  He was activated off IR on Oct. 17.

- Ex-Hawks forward Ulf Dahlen is an assistant to Stars’ head coach Dave Tippett

- Brett Hull had a front office position created for him this past off season with Dallas, he’s the ‘Special Advisor to Hockey Operations.’  I suppose that means he talks to Director of P.P. Dave Taylor

- Brendan Morrow is off to the best start of his career (11gp, 4g, 7a – [2g, 3a-PP)

- Morrow’s career stats (502gp, 140g, 171a, 311pts, 802pim)

- Jeff Halpern is four goals shy of 100 (525 NHL games played)

- Mattias Norstrom, LA Kings captain from 2001-07, has just 16 goals in 848 gp.

- Ex-Hawk Stephane Robidas has scored 18 goals in 418 career games.  The Hawks traded Jon Klemm to Dallas in exchange for Robidas in November of 2003.  Robidas finished out the season with the Hawks and resigned with Dallas after the lockout.  Robidas with Chicago (45gp, 2g, 10a, 12pts, 33pim, +6)

- Stars have been outscored 11-7 in the third period.

- Hawks have been outscored 11-7 in the first period

- One goal games: Dallas is 1-4….. Hawks are 3-3

- Sergei Zubov, 37, 15^th NHL season (1,023gp, 150g, 587a, 737pts)

- Stu Barnes, who turns 37 on Christmas Day, 16^th season (1,068gp, 249g, 329a, 578pts)

- Marty Turco’s career: 178-85-26-14; 2.12 GAA, .914 save%, 30 shutouts (327 gp)

Hawks notes:

- 8 of Jason Williams 10 points, including his 4 goals have come on the power play

- Jim Vandermeer is appearing in his 200^th NHL game tonight (153 Hawks, 47 Flyers)

- Chicago has not given up a power play goal on the road (0-15, 1^st NHL)

- Thru 11 games: Hawks are averaging 2.54 goals per-game.  Dallas averages 2.64.

- Thru 11-GAA/gm: Hawks are giving up 2.91.  Dallas is averaging 2.54.

- Chicago is 10^th/NHL on the power play (20%).  Dallas is 13^th (19.6%)

- Chicago is 26^th/NHL on the penalty-kill (77.6%).  Dallas is 5^th (88.2%)

- Hawks are 2-for-9 with a 5-on-3 advantage.

- Duncan Keith is playing in his 175^th game tonight (12g, 42a, 54pts, 161pim, -10)

- Nikolai Khabibulin’s career: 254-244-58-32; 2.70 GAA, .907 save%, 36 shutouts (594 gp)

Leading after 2 periods:

Dallas: 4-1-2

Hawks: 1-0-0

Fight~!

October 13 at UC:  Trevor Daley vs. Kevyn Adams,  Krys Barch vs. David Koci

April 8 at Dallas:  Brent Seabrook vs. Steve Ott  (That was the only fight in four meetings between the teams last season)

Tonight’s Officials

Referees: Kerry Fraser #2,  Don Koharski #12

Linesman: Lonnie Cameron #74,  Brian Murphy #93

Savard not ready to give up on Bourque Tim Sassone, Daily Herald

* Nikolai Khabibulin will be in net tonight against Dallas.  The game will be televised on Comcast SportsNet-Plus.  Sassone notes the Hawks haven’t won in Dallas since March 7, 2001.

Blackhawks Vandermeer benefits from suspension Chris Kuc, Chicago Tribune

* Martin Havlat says he still feeling discomfort in his shoulder.

Hawks power play on the rise Len Ziehm, Sun-Times

Hawks wasting favorable early schedule Tim Sassone column

Hawks look to right the ship

Enforcer Koci out at least two more weeks Sassone 10/30

Koci eager to rejoin fight Ziehm 10/30

Winds of change blowing in Chicago Ken Campbell, THN

New-look Metro Centre nearly ready for Friday's opener RRStar.com

'Hogs home opener sold out 

Rockford opens the Metro Centre, 7:30pm Friday night against San Antonio.  Beware of State Troopers if you plan on making the trip to Rockford any time soon.

Theo Fleury hates hockey, he really does Eric Duhatschek, Globe & Mail

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm has declared Saturday "Steve Yzerman Day"

** Steve Williamson’s 30 games in 30 nights.  Here’s Steve’s schedule from Oct. 26 to Nov. 24.  Steve is the Vice President of Marketing for Universal Studios Japan.  He visits the UC on November 9^th.   

If you’ve been following John Buccigross’s columns this season, it’s easy to tell who his new favorite player is.

** Jonathan Toews went to the Blackhawks’ Halloween party dressed as Nacho Libre.  Patrick Kane was decked out as a pimp.

** I’ll have tonight’s game preview up later this afternoon.  Both Kerry Fraser and Don Koharski are in Dallas to officiate tonight’s game.

You’ve gotta read this.  Tuesday's practice notes Adam Kempenaar, blackhawks.nhl.com

Kempenaar: Rene Bourque will remain on the 4th line with Kevyn Adams and Martin Lapointe until he shows that he can bring a consistent power forward presence every night.

Savard is looking for the kind of effort Bourque displayed last December against Toronto in which he tied for the team lead in shots (4), led the team in hits (3) and was second among forwards in ice time (19:31) ...

December 22, 2006 = 10 months and 59 games ago.  Now that’s patience!

In addition, Adam Burish (zero points in 20 NHL games) has been moved to the ‘top line’ with Robert Lang and Jason Williams.

Burish: "I can't worry about scoring. I'm there to help those guys. I'm not there looking for points for myself. They may help me get some points because of the way they play. But I'm not trying to do things myself. I'm there to help them and create space and energy for them."

So Robert Lang and Jason Williams need someone to instill energy in their games’ again?  Fantastic.  Didn’t we just go through this four games ago?

More Burish:  "Langer said to me today, 'Hey, you just go out there. You just go fly around’,” Burish added.  “He can find guys. If I'm stretching things out with my skating and speed, that's going to give him some more space too."

If anyone didn’t have the chance to watch Versus’ telecast of the San Jose/Dallas game last night, the great Eddie Olczyk managed to insult a bunch of Mike Modano’s GREAT  former teammates.

Falling over himself attempting to compliment Mike Modano and lend superfluous credence to the achievements Modano has attained in his career with the Dallas Stars/Minnesota North Stars organization, the great Eddie No-czyk tried to insinuate Modano’s numbers would be even better had Modano, according to Olczyk, played with better linemates.  Eddie stated Brett Hull was the only great goal-scoring winger Modano ever had.

Now sure, Brett Hull was the best right wing Mike Modano ever played with, but saying Modano never skated with anyone of Hull’s caliber at any point of his career is ridiculous when you consider Modano has played with five 500-plus goal scorers to this point (Joe Nieuwendyk, Hull, Pat Verbeek, Pierre Turgeon, Mike Gartner) and another, Brian Bellows, who finished 15 goals shy of that milestone.  Niewendyk and Turgeon were centers, but Modano saw power-play and key-situational ice time with them as well.

It took Brett Hull a year and a half to adjust the system in Dallas, and by Hull’s own admission, he hated the Stars’ approach.  Hull’s best years were spent with the Blues.  If anything Mike Modano, along with Ken Hitchcock deserves credit for instilling a new life into Hull’s game.  It’s feasible the Red Wings would’ve never touched him had he not gone through the career renaissance he enjoyed under Hitchcock and as a teammate of Modano’s in Dallas, and Hull would’ve not gotten that second Cup with the Wings.

Below is a listing of the ‘higher end’ forwards Modano has teamed with in Dallas/Minnesota.