Once again, we at Hockeenight have the distinct pleasure and honor of featuring the one and only Slats Radke as a contributor. As you may recall, Slats covered professional hockey for the Chicago American throughout the 1960s and early 70s. He has agreed to offer his unique insight upon occasion. So, with no further ado, Slats Radke:

The Blackhawks are currently without five of the forwards everyone and his uncle thought they'd start the season dressing, and they've still managed to win a game or two. The little kid who beats up cabbies has been skating around and controlling the puck like he's Stosh with a Harpo Marx wig on. This other fellow that the Meatheads here always refer to in all caps looks like a hockey player as well.

But the guys they're missing. There's the yappy one from Wisconsin who hurt his knee, which used to be a career ender, but they say he'll be back in the spring. This makes me wish they had doctors like that back then when the blonde kid from Boston tried playing for the Hawks and had knees as weak as his heart was strong, but heart doesn't do anything in this league without knees, so that was that. Boy, could that guy skate. Only the Jet was better at bringing everyone to their feet, and nobody ever saw a defenseman who could ever move like that, and put the puck in the net too. I mean, there were some greats like Harry Howell and Red Kelly, but they knew once this kid came up, he had the Norris Trophy for as long as he wanted it, which was a long time.

They're missing this fellow who hasn't played for the Hawks yet, but they backed up the Brinks truck to his house, which is something considering this fellow grew up a Communist and wanted nothing more than to destroy Chicago and other American cities too, but here he is getting a fortune to sit in the press box like a reporter. Arthur Wirtz must be turning in his grave.

The guy who plays center and just got a big contract while everyone is worried about the Captain, who is a centerman too, and he doesn't have a contract, but he's out along with this guy who has a bad back. The back is a tricky thing in this game, and a bad back has been the end of the line for some fine players, like the fellow who skated like he was in a body cast but scored fifty goals pretty much every year he played out on Long Island.

Then, there's the Captain, who's been out since he got laid out, and the fellow who looks like the fellow on the bottle of floor cleaner I keep in the cabinet in front of my Rock & Rye so nobody takes my good stuff. They're both out after getting their eggs scrambled, and they both wear helmets.

I remember when the only fellow the Hawks had who wore one was Stosh, up until they got that Pit Martin fellow for the other Esposito. Back then, people questioned your manhood when you wore a helmet, up until Stosh put one on, and nobody was ever going to question his manhood.

In fact, back then I remember seeing Gordie Howe dressing, and we started talking about all his stitches, and he said he got his bell rung a few times too. I asked him why he never bothered with a headgear, but always wore a protective cup. He told me, "Slats, I can always get someone to do the thinking for me.", so that makes sense.

So the Captain is supposed to be back tomorrow night, and who knows when Mr. Clean is coming back, and the Communist fellow should be back in a couple weeks. This team will be getting healthy for the second half of the season, which is where the real season takes place anyway.

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