Going Farming

Before I cover the weekend happenings of Blackhawk prospects, the Hawks, once again, took to the practice ice on Monday without Jonathan Toews. 

I was told by someone with far better medical knowledge than me that for serious concussions, the recovery time is usually around 30 days without symptoms before medical clearance is given.  After 11 days and seemingly being no closer to returning to the ice, you don’t have to be a brain surgeon to realize that Toews may have suffered a pretty serious concussion.

I’m not saying Toews is going to be out for a month; I’m just saying he’ll probably need to have more than a few days in a row without symptoms before the medical staff dreams of giving him the ok to come back.  That’s what Joel Quenneville means when he says someone with a concussion isn’t making progress or suffers a setback (i.e. the Ben Eager situation).

Or like he said about Toews before last Friday’s game.

“Progress hasn’t been exactly where we wanted it,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “Some of that is going to take some time. Every day there has been some progress, but at the same time, we’re just waiting to see. We have the weekend here and a couple of days next week.”

After missing practice on Monday, I would venture to guess Toews will not be playing come Thursday night against Phoenix.

As for Ben Eager, without having any inside info and going strictly by what Joel Quenneville has been saying, it certainly seems like he tried to play through a mild concussion without notifying the team and likely made it worse than it already was.

Let’s just hope for Eager’s sake Joel Quenneville isn’t as salty as Ozzie Guillen is when his players try to hide injuries from him.

–The Rockford IceHogs had a particularly tough weekend.  A three game stretch on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday against the Milwaukee Admirals (on Friday and Saturday) and Chicago Wolves (on Sunday) saw the IceHogs drop all three tilts scoring a combined three goals.

On Friday night, the Admirals won 2-1.  Rob Klinkhammer opened the scoring with six and a half minutes left in the first period.  Corey Crawford picked up the lone assist.  The Admirals responded with two goals in the second period and that was all they’d need.  Crawford turned away 33 of the 35 shots in a losing effort.

The score remained the same on Saturday in Rockford.  This time, the Hogs entered the third period trailing 1-0.  Matt Keith scored the equalizer two minutes into the frame with helpers from Bryan Bickell and Bracken Kearns.  Four minutes later, Cal O’ Reilly scored the game-winner for the Admirals.  Corey Crawford got the start again and stopped 23 of 25 shots.

In Chicago on Sunday night, the IceHogs could only muster 1 goal again in a 3-1 loss to the Wolves.  Bryan Bickell scored for the Hogs halfway through the second period with assists from Bryan Ewing and Jake Dowell.  With the score tied 1-1 and less than five minutes left in the game, Chris Chelios scored his first goal as a member of the Wolves.  An empty netter with less than 15 seconds left cinched up the win for Chicago.  Joseph Fallon got the start for Rockford and was named third star of the game after turning away 22 of 24 shots.

Rockford Tidbits- The Wolves have now won 3 of the 4 meetings against the IceHogs thus far.  The Admirals have beaten the IceHogs in 2 of their 3 meetings.  Rockford’s power play went 0-for-12 over the weekend.  Don’t know when this happened, but Rockford now has Jassen Cullimore playing on its backline.  Let’s pray we never see him in a Blackhawk uniform again.

–The Everett Silvertips won both their games this weekend.  Saturday night, they beat Red Deer 3-0.  Sunday, they beat the Edmonton Oil Kings 2-1 in a shootout.  Byron Froese didn’t show up on the scoresheet in either of the games but was a +1 on the weekend.

—Kyle Beach is on a tear for the Spokane Chiefs.  Beach followed up his hat trick on Wednesday night with two goals and an assist in a 4-3 Friday night win over the Kelowna Rockets.  Saturday night, he didn’t do anything along with the rest of his teammates in a 2-0 loss to the Portland Winterhawks.  Then on Sunday, he scored a goal in Spokane’s 3-0 win over Portland.

—Dylan Olsen had an assist and 3 shots on goal in UMD’s 4-1 Friday night win over Clarkson.  Dan DeLisle had two shots on goal.  Saturday night, Olsen and DeLisle were held scoreless in a 4-2 win over Clarkson.  This weekend, UMD will face-off against WCHA rival Colorado College led by Billy Sweatt. 

—Brandon Pirri scored a goal for RPI in their win Friday night 4-3 over Union.  He was scoreless in their 2-1 loss to Army on Saturday night.  RPI outshot Army 40-16 in the loss.

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