From: scholvin@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (John Scholvin)
Subject: Hawks News 12-24
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 18:01:39 GMT


The Hawks got an early Christmas present from the Ottawa Senators
last night, beating them 4-2 in Ottawa.  The Hawks didn't play a
60 minute game, but got out of there with two points anyway. 
Their performance was a continuation of their disturbing habit of
playing at the level of their opponents. They seem to think that
games against expansion teams are freebies, and the work ethic
isn't there.

All of them, that is, except Steve Larmer. Larms' hot streak is
now about 5 weeks old and showing no signs of fading. He notched
his ninth career hat trick last night and passed Jeremy Roenick
for the team lead in goals with 20. Roenick also had a solid
evening, notching assists on all four Hawks goals. The other guy
who showed up to play last night was Belfour, who faced far more
quality chances against the Sens than he probably figured he
would.

Larmer started things off early, scoring on the power play at
2:39 (Smith, Roenick). His shot was from the right circle after a
nifty pass through the box from Smith. The Senators tied it up 
four minutes later, also on the power play. Mike Peluso, showing
offensive skills I had no idea he possessed, put on a skating
clinic in the Hawks' zone and ended up getting an assist on the
goal by Brady,  The game went into the first intermission tied 1-
1, but the Senators badly outplayed the Hawks for the last 15
minutes of the period. Only more sparkling work from Belfour kept
the score tied.

Sutter must have had a long chat with the boys in the locker
room, because they came out in the second *flying*. Larmer scored
1:14 into the period (Lemieux, Roenick), and then again at 9:55
on the power play (Sutter, Roenick). Incidentally, the up and
down power play went 3 for 3 last night. On this power play goal,
Larmer reaped the benefits of Sutter's hard work in front of
Sidorkiewicz, batting in a rebound to notch the natural hat
trick. The Hawks outshot the Sens 15 to 6 for the period. The hit
of the year was delivered in the second by Roenick. He caught
Mark Freer admiring a pass he had just made, and put his shoulder
into Freer at center ice while he wasn't looking. As Dale Tallon
put it, "Freer was out cold before he hit the ice." He was
knocked unconscious and lay motionless on the ice for several
minutes. He came to and left the ice on his own power, but I
don't think he returned to the game. Watch for it on the Power
Stick hits of the week segment on SportsChannel Saturday: it will
be the number one hit. Guaranteed.

The Hawks were again surprised by Ottawa in the third, apparently
thinking this game was in the bag. Lazaro scored at 9:38, and the
Hawks were being outplayed again by a wide margin. Belfour came
to the rescue, keeping the Hawks in front until Roenick made a
spectacular pass to Chelios (Roenick, Smith) at 11:09 to finish
the scoring. That goal took the wind out of Ottawa, and the Hawks
controlled the game to the finish.  I haven't seen any reaction
by Sutter yet, but I'm betting that he is not at all happy with
the effort the Hawks put in. I figure they played about 45
minutes of hockey last night, and against any other team in the
league, they would have been cooked and eaten like so many
Christmas geese.

They have the next two days off, and then they play  St. Louis
and Detroit Saturday and Sunday, both games at the Stadium.

OBSERVATION: The media here in Chicago are *really* pissing me
off. The Hawks are the hottest thing in the NHL right now, 8-1-1
in their last 10 and their goals against average is miles ahead
of everyone else's and dropping. But what do we see in the
Tribune and Sun Times? Endless wailing and whining about the
Bears, and worse, the Bulls, who everyone says are "slumping."
Right: 17-7, second best record in the league. Some slump. What's
more outrageous is TV coverage. Last night's 10:00 news, which
was a good 45 minutes after the game ended, had next to no
highlights of the game (I did see the Roenick hit, but only one
of Larmer's goals). They still have time to weep and moan about
Greg Maddux leaving, though. THIS IS INSANE! Belfour is having a
career year, Larmer is blistering, the team defense is almost
invincible right now, and they are putting distance between
themselves and the rest of the Norris division. But the media
here still want to piss and bitch about whether Harbuagh and
Ditka will be here next year. The only hope, and this is a
terrifying thing to say, is Mike North on WSCR.

All I want for Christmas is some respect for hockey in Chicago!
(World peace would be nice, too. :)

-- 
John Scholvin                           |  "Sometimes I wish I was Catholic
scholvin@casbah.acns.nwu.edu            |   I don't know why"
echo Y | del c:\windows\*.*             |       -Cracker
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey