'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Pavel Datsyuk is one of the NHL's most feared scorers, a wizard with the puck who is equally adept at setting up his teammates for easy plays. Jonathan Toews has at least 23 goals in each of his six seasons in the league, and Patrice Bergeron is one of the top offensive threats for one of the league's best teams.
The top of the list includes Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa. Patrick Sharp is coming off another great playoff series, and Bryan Bickell and Dave Bolland have come up with big postseason goals in the past.
The Chicago Blackhawks may have peaked in late January, the entire month of February or early March when they went the first 24 games of the season without a regulation or overtime loss. They made history, but the Presidents' Trophy winners don't want this to be just the year of the streak.
Jordan Staal got chills.
The NHL suspended Phoenix Coyotes forward Raffi Torres indefinitely on Wednesday for knocking Chicago's Marian Hossa out of the game _ and maybe the playoffs _ with a shoulder blow to the head.
The Chicago Blackhawks have given Stan Bowman a three-year contract extension through the 2015-16 season, rewarding the youngest general manager in the NHL with more opportunities to bring home another Stanley Cup championship.
The Chicago Blackhawks say there's no need to worry: Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp are both on schedule in their recovery from surgery.
Game 7s tend to be unforgiving affairs, and when the puck dropped to start the overtime period against Chicago, Vancouver's most-excellent season, and perhaps the future of the coach and who knows how many players were swirling down around the drain.
The Vancouver Canucks are dishing out the hits, knocking the Chicago Blackhawks into the boards, off the puck and maybe out of the playoffs.
Capsules of NHL Western Conference first-round series:
Patrick Kane quickly called his barber and got his playoff haircut of choice, a mullet. Team captain Jonathan Toews and defenseman Duncan Keith were starting postseason beards.
Chicago Blackhawks leading scorer Patrick Sharp is expected to miss at least the next two weeks with an injured left knee.
When the Chicago Blackhawks went to the White House on Friday to meet President Obama, they were without –- among others -– Kris Versteeg, Dustin Byfuglien, Antti Niemi, key pieces of their Stanley Cup-winning team.
Chicago's Patrick Sharp skated off with a new car. The rest of his Blackhawks teammates were on the winning All-Star team.
The NHL All-Star game might do what the rest of the league can't — break up the Vancouver Canucks.
"He's going to be a top player in this series. We know that. They know that," forward Patrick Sharp said after Chicago practiced on Friday. "It's just hopefully we can contain him in some way."
"I think toward the end of that streak, every game started to feel like a playoff game," Sharp said. "I'm not sure if we raised our level or if other teams were trying to break the streak or whatever the reason was. ... We look back at those 24 games, a lot of them were one-goal games and we found ourselves on the right side of it. That's really important down the stretch, and especially in the playoffs."
Chicago Blackhawks want to be known for more than the streak that started their season →
