The last time the Blackhawks played in Philly…

And they’ve been gearing up for their return:

Toews also had a smile on his face when asked about going back to Philly for the first time. Turns out he purchased replays of Game 5 and Game 6 of that series on iTunes and had a group of current Hawks watching it with him during a flight this season.

“There were a bunch of guys huddled around the seat watching on the plane, and even watching those last two games … you know the outcome ultimately, but it still makes you nervous to watch it a little bit,” the 23-year old Hawks captain said. “A lot of those cool feelings come rushing back and everything from the celebration on the ice and everything in the locker room, too. It’d be cool to think about that again.” [NHL.com]

Tazer’s still rocking those stitches in his lip.   It’s one time we were all, “NOT THE FACE!” the decided that we don’t really mind.

Gingeroux is still near the top of the NHL points card (46, one of the Sedinbots has 48).  Jonathan is tied for 2nd in goals scored (22, but Stammer’s opening up race with 27).  Dan Carcillo is out against his former team, which really sucks because he & Hartnell could go 12 rounds over who I hate more.

The Hawks and Flyers each have 52 points (Flyers have two games in hand) and lost their last match-ups.  Let’s see who wants to start a winning streak tonight.

Carcillo is a repeat offender (and a goon) – he was suspended 2 games for this hit on Carolina’s Pittkanen on 10/28. Guest Starring Rob Blake!!

Calgary’s Rene Bourque got a 5-game ban [link] and a lifetime spot on my s&%$ list for his elbow to the precious face of Nicklas Backstrom.  You all saw it, and I don’t want to watch it again.  As mentioned yesterday, Bourque is also a repeat offender for this hit on Chicago’s Brent Seabrook in December that got him suspended for two.

Dale Hunter gave no conclusive update on Backstrom yesterday, but his brother posted an update to Twitter:

This was obviously not team-sanctioned news and was quickly taken down.  Silly people with inside info, you are not publicists!  But no worries, because Nicky participated in a full practice this morning and is expected to make the Caps trip to San Jose today, for the game Saturday.

It’s not just elbows and knees getting people into trouble.  The Panthers’ Krys Barch has been suspended 1 game for an alleged racial slur against PK Subban.  The remark was overhead by a linesman during Saturday’s game and Barch was ejected [link].  There are a lot of things we’d like to say to PK Subban, but none of them are that.  And all of them come after, “Can we have Stamkos’ number?”  I’m sure there’s a lot of hearsay in this case, but this argument is looking pretty valid:

And Rangers’ coach John Tortorella was fined by the NHL after some pretty inflammatory comments following Monday’s Winter Classic:

“I’m not sure if NBC got together with the refs or what to turn this into an overtime game,” Tortorella said Monday. “For two good refs, I thought the game was reffed horribly. I’m not sure what happened there.”Maybe they wanted to get into overtime. I’m not sure if they had meetings about that or what. But we stood in there. I don’t want to … because they are good guys. I just thought it was, in that third period, it was disgusting.” [link]

Torts apologized and will fork over $30k for the outburst.  New Yorkers will love him more.

Hey! I'm walking here!

So, anyone else want to have a go today?  Got some leftover 2011 aggro hanging around?  Let it go, it’s a new year.

Namely, the oily bo-hunks that play this game we love so much.

Patrick Sharp.  

Sidney Crosby.

Jonathan Toews.

Patrice Bergeron.

Patrick Sharp.

Oh wait, already said him.  Doesn’t matter!  He’s so hot, I had to mention him twice.

No no no. Too Sexy.

But for today’s Foxy Friday feature (yay alliteration!), I’m going a little crazy.

I’m going to veer of this highway of “hotness”…

…down the off-ramp…

For this week, and this week ONLY- Foxy Friday is going to known as…

Fugly Friday

Yah, that’s right.

These guys might not gracing the cover of GQ anytime soon, but they still play a pretty sick game of hockey.

Ian Laperriere

Is he face made out of silly putty?

Mike Ricci

Alex Ovechkin

Sorry, Dawn.  He’s an amazing hockey player, but really…I don’t get it.

Daniel Carcillo

Gerry Cheevers

The comb-over. The Jason mask. Not a good look for anyone.

So, do you have a player that you think should be on this list?  One who reminds you more of Sloth from ‘The Goonies” than Ben Affleck from “The Town” (FACT: BA never looked hotter that he did in that movie.  And I will fight anyone who disagrees.)