Blackhawks on fire. Canucks not so much. So is this the telling game. Can we turn it off and on?
Or does this game still not matter enough?
Which Canuck team will we see?
Which Luongo will we see?
NHL.COM PREVIEW
EXCERPT: It's the fourth and final meeting between two teams that have become major rivals after meeting in each of the last three postseasons. The Canucks have won two of the first three, including a 6-2 win on Nov. 6 in their first visit to the United Center.
While the Hawks have been playing some of their best hockey of the season, the Canucks are staggering to the finish line. They won only three times during a seven-game homestand and began a four-game trip with a 2-0 loss at Minnesota on Monday. Chicago has won four in a row and is just two points out of fourth place in the West.
INJURIES: Vancouver is without forward Andrew Ebbett (broken collarbone) until next month. Defenseman Keith Ballard (concussion) is gone for the season. … The Hawks are still without captain Jonathan Toews, who will miss his 15th straight game with an upper-body injury believed to be concussion-related. The Hawks are 9-4-1 without him, including 9-1-1 in their last 11 games. Defenseman Steve Montador (upper body) is day-to-day, while Daniel Carcillo (lower body) is out for the season and Sami Lepisto (lower body) is out indefinitely.
HOT: The Hawks.
NOT HOT: The Canucks.
HISTORY: In 1831, the government of Illinois forced the Indians of the Sauk and Fox tribes of the land that is now Chicago, to the other side of the Mississippi River in Iowa. The Sauk and Fox tribes moved immediately but a small group led by chief Black Hawk refused. Chief Black Hawk was born in 1767. He was a Sauk Native American born into a Sauk tribe near what is now Rockford, IL. Eventually the force of the Illinois government was too much, so Black Hawk and his group moved to the other side of the Mississippi River.
The next spring, Chief Black Hawk gathered an army. One year later in 1832, a group led by Chief Black Hawk returned to the land where they were born but now it wasn't just a small army; it was an army of about 700 Sauk and Fox Indians. The Government wanted them to move, but they refused. "We want to stay and live on the land that we were born on." The only thing Chief Black Hawk wanted to do was plant corn on the place where he was born. The Government did not agree with this. The Indians did not like this decision, so they fought because there was too much fury between the Indians and the Illinois government.
Illinois soldiers tried to fight, but finally the pressure of the Indians was too much, so they were forced to call in the U.S. Army to fight off the Indians. The U.S. Army was too much. Chief Black Hawk tried to retreat but the U.S. army did not back down from the Indians. The U.S. army forced the Indians back to the Mississippi River. This was the last battle in the Black Hawk War. They called it "The Battle of the Axe." At the "Battle of the Axe" hundreds of mothers and children died. Then Chief Black Hawk tried surrendering, but it didn't work. The Army took chief Black Hawk and other Sauk and Fox Indians captive and tortured them with knives, clubs, and guns.
In World War 1 an army infantry division was nicked the "Blackhawk Division" in deference to the Chief. The teams first owner had been a commander in the unit and hence named his team the Black Hawks. In 1986 the name was altered to Blackhawks.
