Over the weekend I had the joy of taking in the Rockford IceHogs/Chicago Wolves game at the Allstate Arena. It had been a few years since I had been to a Wolves game, and forgot what the experience was like. I was quickly reminded of why I stopped going to Wolves games, when I decided to grow up. I knew it was going to be a rough night when during player intros, I'm assuming what was a diehard Wolves fan (who knew those existed) decided it would be cool to boo me for wearing a Rockford hat. I expected this kind of treatment when I went to Detroit for Game 6 a couple years ago, but I didn't think that this kind of diehard Wolves fans who take their minor league hockey seriously. I mean who doesn't want to look like the biggest bad ass in front of a bunch of boy scouts? Seriously dude, tone down your fanhood. This guy ranked right up their with the tools wearing an Adam Burish jersey, a St. Louis Blues jersey, and my favorite, a personalized Chicago Wolves jersey.
Following that encounter it was time for the game to get underway, and I was stoked that Lemont native Scott Darling was in net for the IceHogs. I mean its not everyday you see a local hero like that. It still doesn't make up for that selfish Corey Crawford deciding to return for that Columbus game, thus relegating Darling back to Rock Vegas. Talk about deflating. I won't lie, that kind of ruined my Columbus trip. Anyway, back to Saturday's game. So I finally get to see Darling play in person, thinking I'm going to see a glimmer of what I saw in his brief time with the Hawks. Darling was hardly impressive. He allowed not one, but two, weak, unscreened 25 to 35 foot wristers to Magnus Paajarvi. Remember him folks? He was apart of that "H.O.P.E." they once had in Edmonton, (Hall, Omark, Paajarvi, and Eberle.) My how the once mighty have fallen. To make matters worse, Paajarvi's first goal was assisted by 2010 Blackhawks Stanley Cup Champion hero Adam Burish. Barf.
Darling's night in net, pretty much summed up the rest of the IceHogs for the night. Simply put, they were awful. Aside from watching the Manshitter pummel Jani Hakanpaa, there wasn't much to see from the Rock Vegas side. Drew LeBlanc managed to score the lone goal for the Hogs on the night, but the bigger shock is how the hell he and Matt Carey managed to play games for the Blackhawks over the past two years. They are nothing special, and are career AHLers with perhaps a call up or two in their hockey careers. Three others I was looking forward to watching were, Mark McNeill, Klas Dahlbeck, and Ryan Hartman. Now, it is only one game, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, but none of them stood out. Frankly it was just one of those infamous shit the bed performances by the entire team. So, I'll give those three incomplete grades, until I make a trip out to Rock Vegas later this year.
The entertainment of the night belonged to other tough guy Cody Bass. Bass dropped the gloves, but before he could throw a punch, he managed to slip on a banana peel and fall on his ass. Unfortunately for him, the linesmen didn't step in, and Bass had to endure a mouthful of fists from Cody Beach, yes Kyle Beach's younger brother. Bass did manage to make it a respectable fight, but in the end, Beach got the win.
Sadly, other 2010 Blackhawks, Brent Sopel and Colin Fraser did not play for the Wolves, but I did get to see the now mullet sporting Ben Eager. Fire up the Huey Lewis because I feel like I went back in time.
Well, it was only one game, but I was lucky enough to see the IceHogs at their worst. Hopefully next time I pay a visit to Rock Vegas, I'll have a more positive recap of the IceHogs.
All wasn't lost though, at least I didn't have to endure that God awful 4 minutes of 4 on 4, then 3 on 3 overtime. My luck, the game wouldn't have ended there and I would have had to sit through the glorified skills competition known as the shootout.