Musing's musings

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh!

There goes the neighborhood! The Chicago Blackhawks are reportedly close to bringing back long-time play-by-play announcer Pat Foley. Long-time readers of this blog (and a few Googlers) know that I was quite pleased by the news that Foley was leaving in May 2006, because I found his voice even more annoying than the noise made by fingernails scraping down a chalkboard.

In retrospect, and faced anew with the prospect of having to endure listening to that voice for the better part of two hours on some 80 occasions over the next 18 months, I'm not sure that was a proper comparison. I would rather listen to, I don't know, pigs being slaughtered, or endless repetitions of Roseanne Barr mangling the "Star-Spangled Banner," than have to listen to Pat Foley call a Hawks game. I'd even willingly sit through every last one of the Boy Who Won't Be King Much Longer's speeches over the last eight years if it meant I wouldn't have to listen to Pat Foley ruin the resurgence of my hometown team.

Dammit, I was so looking forward to next season. And while I'll continue to hope the Hawks keep right on improving as they have done this past year and more, it's looking like I may have to cut back on my viewing of their games--even though for the first time in history all of their 82 regular-season games (plus playoff games) will be televised. That, or else I'm going to be watching with the sound off, and maybe catching a simulcast on the NHL radio feed.

Better luck next year, guys

The Chicago Blackhawks' season officially came to an end today. (Well, technically, they just played their final game today; their season effectively ended late last week when they were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.) It was a 4-1 loss to divisional and Original Six rival the Detroit Red Wings, and the score doesn't really reflect the way the Hawks played. For that matter, neither does the season result.

There was a lot of buzz around the Hawks at the start of the year, thanks to a phenomenal crop of young players that held out the first promise in quite a long time that the Blackhawks might play deeper into the year than early April. They started out well, going .500 in the first month of the season, and finished strongly, winning six of their last 10 games. At one point last week they were only three points out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Considering that the Hawks finished 10 games under .500 last season, and 17 games under the mediocre mark the year before, winding up in ninth place and just out of playoff contention, but seven games above .500, is not a bad way to end the year. Not the ending that the team and its fans would have liked, to be sure: but certainly a good effort and a positive sign for what may happen next season.