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If you can't be in Vancouver, Mike Mangino's new home theater is the next best place to be. We all watched tonight's game in high-def thanks to Mike and Express Vue....no thanks to NBC for relegating one of the marquie hockey match-ups of the decade to mnbc. Well, at least I didn't have to spend the evening yelling at JR and Edso to please shut up and allow the rest of us to enjoy the game (sorry guys, but you get to be in BC so cry me a river-and JR, when are you gonna drop 'em with Millsy-Vanilly! ).

First and foremost I’d like to take this chance to thank all of the fans who stopped by at the Convention-it’s always a pleasure to get acquainted with new fans and the faces behind the names on the Message Boards. Also a “well-done” to Brian Howe of the Blackhawks who appears to be the Tony Ommen of the Convention-another wizard behind the curtain who seems to make it all look like magic.

Now, to address the unconventional. Stay with me here.

...but a lot of the ‘new’ fans don’t see it yet. Although I predicted it would be a long shot possibility for the Hawks to win the Cup this year, I’ve also predicted a lot of what’s been happening this year with pretty good accuracy. I hope this series doesn’t go the 7 games I predicted, but it won’t shock me if it does. The things standing in the Hawks way tonight include our own ice surface quality and our own media environment.

The current Hawks are one of those “bubble” teams, a team that could so easily go either way. I was happy with the first round play, but realistic about whom the opponent was. Vancouver poses a different threat than Calgary, for starters they’re healthy, have the home ice advantage, and are well rested, fast and skilled. The Hawks on the other hand, are young and skilled. The bad side to that equation is inexperience, the great side to that is ‘not knowing when it’s over’.

That summarizes my night as I watched the Hawks win their first playoff game in a long time! I’m not really sure how much of each emotional reaction was directed towards myself and how much was meant for the team, but I suspect most of the guys on the bench shared my feelings.

Just a slump! Art or hockey, it makes no difference except one slump has an infectious effect. If you make your living from a creative skill (and professional athletes really do have to be creative and self-motivating) you hit periods where you’re not as productive as you’d like to be.

Refreshing! If you read my blogs you know that I’m more a fan of the game than a player ‘fanatic’. After all of these years I’ve come to see players as the kids (although well paid and talented in their profession) they really are. They are so much like the rest of us were at that age that I catch myself laughing at their antics and insecurities-reminders of my own early twenties!

...who among us (besides myself, of course!) would have predicted last year that the Hawks would be in the position they are now?

And today I enjoyed one of those ‘real’ moments.
I don’t deny the marketing department and the NHL their due for staging the fabulous Winter Classic. The Classic was a slick piece of logistics and staging that went off like a charm, but as a Hawks fan, I hoped for only two things-that the Hawks would win and that no one would get hurt. Well, at least nobody got hurt…..