NEWSLETTER
Last night had it all for the Blackhawks.
Original Six matchup ✅
Jonathan Toews goal ✅
Shutout ✅
Marc-André Fleury 500th win ✅
Poutine ✅
It doesn’t get much better than that.
•  In his home province of Quebec, Fleury made 30 saves against the Canadiens, his childhood favorite team and earned his 500th career win. The Montreal crowd showing their respect to Fleury by chanting his name as the clock wound-down to the final horn.
What a moment! Win #500 for his career#Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/LX3JzOTJQK
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) December 10, 2021
•  With the shutout win, Fleury’s 69th in his career and second with the Blackhawks, he becomes the third goaltender in NHL history to reach 500 career wins. Even with Jonathan Toews ending his season-long goal-drought last night, the Blackhawks belt was always going to go to Fleury.
#Fleury500 🌸 belt #Fleury500 🌸 belt #Fleury500 🌸 belt #Fleury500 🌸 belt #Fleury500 🌸 belt #Fleury500 🌸 belt #Fleury500 🌸 belt #Fleury500 🌸 belt #Fleury500 🌸 belt #Fleury500 🌸 belt pic.twitter.com/hGqopZDlB3
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) December 10, 2021
•  500 wins 18 years (and change) apart.
Win 1 Win 500
10/18/03 12/9/21 pic.twitter.com/hHMOGhaaDD— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) December 10, 2021
•  Fleury joins his childhood idol Patrick Roy and former head Team Canada teammate Martin Brodeur as the only three goaltenders to reach the 500-win club. Following last night’s win, Brodeur offered his congratulations to Fleury.
Congrats on 500 wins Marc-André Fleury! Welcome to the club! #Fleury500 pic.twitter.com/p5MN3FsOmj
— Martin Brodeur (@MartinBrodeur) December 10, 2021
•  What better way to celebrate in Montreal than with some poutine right?!
The whole team was celebrating, fittingly, with poutine in the locker room afterward.
Fleury had "a couple of bites."
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) December 10, 2021
•  I mean, I would celebrate every win with some poutine, but that’s just me.
Derek King on a joyous postgame locker room: "They had the fries and gravy and cheese. I don't know if it was for that or the win."
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) December 10, 2021
•  Ok, yes, I want some poutine now.
•  As mentioned before, it was a big night across the board for the Blackhawks. On their way to getting a 2-0 shutout win over the Canadiens for Marc-André Fleury’s 500th, Jonathan Toews opened the scoring with a powerplay goal in the second period. His FIRST of the season.
The biggest goal of the season so far!
Toews No. 1#Blackhawks #CHIvsMTL pic.twitter.com/bVt1RDSKqX— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) December 10, 2021
•  Monkey off the back? How about an 800-pound Gorilla off the back of the Captain!
Jonathan Toews quite literally shakes the monkey off his back after finally scoring his first goal of the season. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/zl96jy5kRP
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) December 10, 2021
•  You could tell from his words and body language this season how much the goal-drought was weighing on Toews. As you could imagine, some of that probably weighed on his teammates, too. So even if they’re not the ones scoring the goal, seeing Toews get his first of the year might be a spark not only for him, but for the team as a whole.
Jonathan Toews said the whole team wanted to jump on the ice after he scored. "Probably not a good sign," he said with a laugh.
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) December 10, 2021
•  Along with Toews’ first of the season, Henrik Borgström scored his second goal of the season, ending a goal-drought of his own, and served as the insurance goal in the 2-0 win last night. Between the last two games for Chicago, they have scored four goals and all four have been very significant to the individual who scored them.
Last 4 #Blackhawks goals scored:
Gustafsson – ended season-long drought (24 games)
Dach – ended 17-game drought
Toews – ended season-long drought (25 games)
Borgström- ended 10-game drought— Mario Tirabassi (@Mario_Tirabassi) December 10, 2021
•  Like I said, maybe getting one from these guys can open the floodgates for the rest of the team. Chicago needs to start scoring goals, desperately, if they are going to capitalize on their newly improved defensive efforts.
•  Last night, former Blackhawks and Canadiens forward Andrew Shaw was in the building with his family, being honored by the Canadiens. Even though he was in Montreal, we can see from his kids where his loyalty still stands!
Andrew Shaw and family on hand in Montreal for Habs-Blackhawks. Honored by the Canadiens and his kids are wearing #Blackhawks sweaters 😆 @shawz15er pic.twitter.com/IsGpxOEi6A
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) December 10, 2021
•  I mean, technically, he’s still a member of the Blackhawks, but yeah, still fun to see the Hawks sweaters on the kids.
•  In other organizational news, the Blackhawks and Maple Leafs made a minor-league trade yesterday, sending defenseman Chad Krys to Toronto in exchange for forward Kurtis Gabriel.
Blackhawks Trade Chad Krys to Toronto for Kurtis Gabrielhttps://t.co/YmjG7WKwzr
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) December 9, 2021
•  Krys has been a career-AHL player since coming to the Blackhawks organization, while Gabriel has just 49 NHL games in his career, spanning parts of eight professional seasons. The Blackhawks will be in Toronto tomorrow and it is expected that Gabriel will join the team then. Still unsure if he will stay with Chicago or eventually report to the Rockford IceHogs in the AHL.
•  In other NHL news, it is a bad idea to fight Zdeno Chara, even at 44-years-old.
Don't upset Chara 😳 pic.twitter.com/MFYSNbgN6C
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 10, 2021
•  This is not the first time Chara and Yakov Trenin have fought, but maybe it’ll be the last.
•  Chara may have won that fight for the Islanders, but they ultimately lost the game. They remain winless at their new UBS Arena and after CM Punk roasted the Islanders fans over their home record on Wednesday night, he took another shot following their loss last night.
#AEWDynamite #isles pic.twitter.com/SWbtYzJosv
— player/coach (@CMPunk) December 10, 2021
•  The Islanders were the trendy pick this offseason to make it to the Stanley Cup Final after back-to-back trips to the third round in the playoffs the past two seasons, but with a 6-11-5 record, 0-5-2 at home, and a 1-9-3 record in their last 13 games, I don’t think they are on the right track to get back to the third round of the postseason, or even make the postseason again this season.
•  Also having issues at their home arena are the Arizona Coyotes. The City of Glendale has set a deadline for the team to pay-off nearly $1.4M in unpaid bills and taxes or face being locked out of Gila River Arena. Yesterday, the team announced that they had paid those debts and taxes, and Gary Bettman reassured us everything was fine. Well, not so fast, says the Glendale City Manager:
EXCLUSIVE: Glendale City Manager says the Coyotes have not paid rent on Gila River Arena, city is highly skeptical of human error explanation.
"We felt that it was important to protect the liability to our citizens" https://t.co/361qdh4a8u pic.twitter.com/iOQpgNAgVD
— Mike Stephens (@mikeystephens81) December 10, 2021
•  The Coyotes are really bad tenants.
•  In other league news, the Vancouver Canucks have hired Jim Rutherford to be the new Team President and serve as the interim General Manager.
Jim Rutherford will be President & Interim GM of the Canucks. The goal is to keep looking for a GM he can mentor, that process continues.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) December 9, 2021
•  Cross another name off of the list of potential candidates for the Blackhawks.
•  Speaking of needing a new General Manager, maybe the Blackhawks aren’t the only Chicago team looking to find a new person for the role…
Did … Lance Briggs Just Tease the Bears Will Be Looking for a New GM?https://t.co/3fn7rbFiQR pic.twitter.com/gDHwyykm3K
— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) December 10, 2021
•  Lance Briggs has been right before, you know.
•  Ending today with some more Flower Power, even if none of these involved the Blackhawks…
🌸 FLOWER POWER 🌸
Fresh off his 500th @NHL win, we take a look back at the top 10 saves from Marc-André Fleury's career. pic.twitter.com/fXFtsSUPM9
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 10, 2021
•  I’ll always remember the save at No. 2 in that video as the save that fired Mike Babcock.
•  That will do it for today. Hope you enjoy your TGIF Friday!
