Monday, February 14, 2022

Welcome back!! Happy Valentines Day!

It's been almost 5 years since the last post on this blog and I thought what better day to reboot this thing is on Valentines Day. Actually, another reason for this date is it's the second meeting of the season between the Winnipeg Jets and the Chicago Blackhawks. The "new" focus for River City Blackhawk is on the two teams in the NHL I'm most familiar with. I have an invested interest with both teams, firstly, the Jets are my hometown team, the one I support by purchasing season tickets since the day the team returned to Winnipeg. I watched and followed the Jets since I was old enough to attend a professional game from the first year the Jets were in the WHA, through the rest of the 70's, 80's and mid-90's. For a period of time during the early 80's when I was in high school, I bought season tickets with a friend (with my own $$$$). So I'm a pretty hardcore Jets fans, but to be honest I don't love the Jets, but I was maybe a little more interested in the visiting teams. I got to see a lot of the greats from the era including, Hull, Howe, Cheevers, Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier, Savard (all of them)...you get the idea. 

While I have more of a casual relationship with the Jets, my true love is the Blackhawks! Recently our relationship has been tested with some seriously disturbing shenanigans from the organization. I've been a patient, dedicated obsessed fan since the early 70's and I never thought in my lifetime I would actually see the Hawks win the cup, but to win 3 in one decade was way beyond expectations. I stream all their games (home and away) and when they come to town I try to secure tickets. Tonight's game is no exception and fortunately this much delayed game (thanks to covid postponement) will be played at 50% capacity and I'm lucky to get this game. Speaking of lucky, I will watch the game (with my daughter) close up in a section closest to the ice, as opposed to my usual nosebleed seats. 

 Hopefully, it'll be a good game as both teams are trending in different directions with the Jets gaining 5 of 6 points in their last 3 games since the all-star break, while the Hawks have been consistently inconsistent beating the Oilers, (convincingly enough to get their coach fired) then playing like crap against the Blues on Saturday. Speaking of fired, the last time the Jets and Hawks met, the Hawks played so bad it ended up being Jeremy Colliton's last game as head coach. 

My goal with this blog is to give focus to the Jets and the Hawks, hopefully with daily updates to analyze and criticize the teams performance. I will not necessarily provide game summaries or highlights because there are sites that do a much better job at that. Let's see how this goes! Go Hawks!

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