The Two MVPs

I just thought I would write about the two players in Chicago that are making a big impact on their teams, so much that they are MVP candidates, at least in my book. The first is Jonathon Toews. Lately he has led the team on an eight game winning streak and has scored a goal in the last three games. This is not the only reason that I think he should be MVP. It takes all year to earn the award. All year long Toews has been stepping it up as the team's captain. Together with Sharp they have helped the blackhawks get back into the top of the standings and into playoff position. Toews recently gave a big speech during intermission in St. Louis that fired up the whole team and really helped them get out of their slump. He has stepped up and really showed that he deserves his captain role. Right now he is scoring goals, getting assists, pumping the team up, and just flat out playing good hockey. I think that qualifies him for MVP.

The next player is a guy that I have been talking about being the MVP for a while now. Derrick Rose has had a great year. All year long he has stepped it up and has put up major stats. He is a great player to begin with and this is one of his better years. The Bulls are now 2nd in the east because of him and they are rolling. Every game that the Bulls play against a top team he steps up and scores tons of points. While scoring all those points he also gets little turnovers and a lot of assists. Derrick Rose is MVP and I don't think anybody can truly argue that. Everywhere he goes he gets MVP chants and everywhere he goes he deserves them. He is a scoring machine and also plays the point guard position well by getting a lot of assists. He is the real deal. I won't be surprised if the Bulls win the NBA Championship this year, but I really think that next year is their year. Derrick Rose can change that, he can make what I think the Bulls aren't ready to handle into something they handle very well. He is the NBA MVP. No question.

Blackhawks Struggles

I was planning on posting this basic post about four days ago, when the Blackhawks were making me very mad and they were not playing well at all. Now they won last night and they won earlier today, against pretty good teams, but not great teams. This is a step in the right direction, but we still need a lot more wins and not to lose a couple days after a win. There is something in hockey called a winning streak. Apparently the players don't understand what that is this year. The Blackhawks players can't seem to get it in their head that just because they won last year doesn't mean that they will automatically be in the playoffs this year. It doesn't work that way. They have to play like they want it, they have to play like it is last year. I have a feeling that Johnaton Toews' speech pumped up this team in a major way, no matter what he said. If we get a 10 game winning streak starting with these two games I would not be surprised. People say that Toews is not a good leader for our team. They must be kidding. He was the reason we won the game today and he is the reason we win many games. Just because he isn't a bitch like Crosby and doesn't have a big personality like Ovechkin doesn't mean that he isn't a good leader. He is a big leader for our team and a lot of the players on this team say that.
Back to the Blackhawks struggles. One of the reasons I think they are having a bad year is the beginning. They are a young team. I am as old as Patrick Kane. I know if I won the Stanley Cup the next year I might not play as well; I would feel invincible. I think that is what happened to a lot of these players. They won and therefore thought that nobody could ever beat them now. That caused the beginning of the season to be not such a great start and now we are in a tough situation as we get into playoff push mode.
Another reason for the slow start and not great season is that we have had a lot of injuries. Kane has been injured once for a long time. Toews was out for a little while. Hossa has been out for a lot of this year. Those guys were the first line last year. If you expect a team to win a lot of their games with those guys gone at points, you are crazy and have very high expectations. I knew from the point when they all got injured that this wasn't going to be a fabulous year. You can't blame a team for that, and I know I sound like a Cubs fan pulling the injury excuse, but Kane, Toews, and Hossa??
I'm going to end on a positive note. My favorite player since 2008 when I started paying attention the blackhawks again is having a monster year. He is, obviously, Patrick Sharp. He has 30 goals and most of those were while the other big parts were injured. He stepped up in a big way this year. He knew that some of the better players were injured and the Blackhawks would have an even worse year if somebody didn't step up. He knew this and he stepped into that position and scored like crazy. @blinkfink182 even made a great photoshopped picture of him. Everyone reading this follow him on twitter at that name.

(visit blackhawksdl.com for more)
I think that picture sums it up well.

Blackhawks Season Preview

Yes, I know it seems weird to be writing a blog post about the preview of a season that has already started. Well, there are two reasons why I am doing this. The first is that I just plain didn't have time to write a blog earlier this week about the start of the season before it actually started. And the second reason is because I thought I would do something a little different for my season preview. I will give my idea on how good the Blackhawks will do, but I want to talk about the pressure on these young guys and the expectations in Chicago. So first, my outlook on the season.
Even though we were forced to get rid of a lot of our good players we kept the core five. Yes, we got rid of our goalie which isn't a smart idea, but we got possibly a better goalie and he is more of a veteran. A lot of fans keep saying how good Niemi is. That's because all they remember is the playoffs. During the playoffs, he was great. But during the regular season, he wasn't that great he was our weak point. So now I think we have a good team, its not better, but I don't think it is much worse. Looking at the two games we have played it looks like we aren't very good, but both games were close and its only the beginning of the season. So I think the team will do very well this year. They are definitely a playoff team, and when you get there you never know what will happen. So I can't really make an accurate prediction other than that they will make the playoffs.
Most fans in Chicago if they are reading this are saying just making the playoffs isn't good enough. We have to do better than last year. You may think that is impossible, but it is possible. We could do better we can lose less games in the playoffs. We have a team that is built for the playoffs, but when you get there you never know who is going to win. The Capitals are a good team that got knocked out in the first round, so don't make high expectations. Remember Jonathon Toews is only 22 years old. When you put too much pressure on a young person like that they may explode. I know you are probably thinking now, Toews can handle pressure very well and I agree. I'm just saying to be careful. But the Blackhawks expectations for the year couldn't be higher.