It’s time to empty out my brain (which shouldn’t take long) before the start of the Hawks 2^nd round series.  So here we go…

There seemed to be a lot of consternation over the Hawks getting a tough series from a Nashville team that was “only” a 7^th seed, and now they’re supposed to beat the Almight Canuck?  Are we still hung up on seeding at this point?  An 8^th seed has already advanced this year, and last year an 8^th seed got out of the first round and then took the Red Wings to 7 games before going down.  Seeding means shit, other than dictating the number home games a team gets.  But if makes you feel better about the Nashville series, look at it this way: the Preds held the 5^th seed with just over a week to go.  When the Hawks were sliding in March, Nashville was in striking distance of the division.  And the might Canuck team that the Hawks face now?  They finished the season with 3 more points than the Preds.  What does any of this mean now?  Nothing.  But the point I’m trying to make is Nashville taking Chicago to 6 games in a tough series doesn’t have any bearing on the Hawks chances against Canucks at all.  It just means they go forward.

Is it too late for me to pile on the Brian Campbell haters?  I know they’re tough to find right now, so I’ll just point out the Blackhawks are undefeated in playoff games that Campbell appears in this year, and leave it at that.  Is that simplistic?  Hell yeah.  But I was looking for a stat that even Barry Rozner could understand.

Then again, the Hawks are also undefeated in the playoffs when Brian Bickell plays in a game.

Lost somewhere in the hoopla of the actual hockey games was the fact that Pat Foley and Eddie Olczyk were terrible in the announce booth.  Part of the problem is they may be too comfortable together.  It’s one thing to lapse into boring stories during a mid-season blowout, but Foley and Olczyk for some reason spent 10 minutes talking about supervisor of officials Mike McGeough in the middle of a tense game 6, when the teams were separated by a single goal.  What the hell was that?  I’m still not sure what the point of talking about it was, I mean they were making McGeough out to be Mother Theresa because he reffed a few games in the AHL, and I can guarantee that nobody watching the game gives a shit about it.  And of course, if any of you want to send your kids to Edzo’s hockey camp, you probably heard the 5 minute commercial for that.

The boring stories and terrible jokes weren’t the only issue though.  While he spent a good deal of time yucking it up with Eddie during the action, Foley wasn’t much better when he was actually bothering to call the action.  In particular, he seemed to be unable to tell any player who wear a number with “2” in it apart from another.  Kopecky, Versteeg, Brouwer and Keith were all confused for each other at various points.  It’s tough to say, but Foley seems to have lost his fastball.  He’s starting to get into Harry Caray territory, the problem being that hockey is most assuredly not baseball.  Caray could get away with ranting about Cracker Jacks because in baseball you pretty much know who’s out there and can see what’s happening.  It’s not like a new left side of the infield jumps out of the dugout and runs onto the field every 45 seconds.  But so much happens during a hockey shift, and so much is missed by television that a viewer does depend on the announce team to keep track of what’s going on.  I know Foley is a beloved figure (Edzo less so) but we need better than this.

You know what, that’s enough, let’s fight!