So I'm sitting at home waiting for the call from one of the Meat heads, asking me to write something now that hockey season is well, well underway. The one calls me, and says I haven't been answering my phone. It's his own fault, he should know better than to try calling in the evening, when my shows are on.

So he asks why I haven't been going to any of the Blackhawks' games. I tell him, once this Rocky kid drys up behind the ears a little bit, and realizes this is a man's game, you'll see Slats back in the press box. If a man can't sit at his typewriter and work his White Owl in a hockey arena, then there's no point in even showing up. Someone told me the press box bar doesn't even stock Rock & Rye any more. How do they expect to get any respectable sportswriter to cover the games?

So they had a game on Channel 9 the other night, just like old times. They kept saying it was a home game, yet there were the Blackhawks wearing their red road uniforms. The kid who is coaching them looks different than I remember. I always remember him being a little fellow with a nifty spin move. He looked a lot larger, and he let his mustache get a lot bushier. Not the #18 I remember.

But there's this redheaded kid with Butkus' number, he's doing the same spin move. I don't understand it, because the kid who did the spin move first always set up in the center position, and this redhead is on the point more. I can't imagine a defenseman doing a spin move, because if you do it in the defensive zone, wouldn't that just lead to turnovers?

This kid who is the Captain looks to be pressing a little too hard. Last year he had that one goal that reminded me of some of the greats. There are times he's trying to do the same thing, trying to create his own play ahead of the rush. Other times, though, he's just throwing the puck on net. That's good thinking, especially for someone this young - get the puck toward the net, and eventually one will go in. He looked good on faceoffs as well.

This isn't a big team, and it isn't a tough team. In the defensive zone, a team with any size at all will be able to push them in toward the net, creating screens and giving a puck lots of legs and sticks to deflect off. They gave up 3 unanswered goals in the third period, and having a tough guy could have gotten some gloves on the ice, and changed the tempo of the game. As I said earlier, it's a man's game.

This little kid with the curly hair, he's going to get a lot of points in this league. Same thing with this Sharp fellow. He's got some Bohunk on his wing who can make things happen on the ice, but he was born hurt, and will be hurt again. This isn't a tough winger like Andy Bathgate we're talking about here. Bathgate had to skate with a couple puny French guys in New York, Gilbert and Ratelle. At least he got to go play for Good Old Punch Imlach in Toronto and get a Stanley Cup. Punch was a great coach and a fine companion for a couple pops after a game. He'd bring Eddie Shack along, and we'd hit the Millionaires Club for steaks and drinks and hockey talk.

Again, it's a man's game.

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