… and Kane and Toews even got speaking lines!

It almost makes me want to watch Leno. Almost.

Via: The Pat Down Blog

The visuals (via Puck Daddy):

Dirty? Eh. Campbell had gotten rid of the puck and this was a bit of a cheap shot, but it’s certainly still a Hockey Play, and didn’t seem that malicious. But it was certainly dangerous. And Ovechkin does have a history with these sort of hits.

The ramifications run deep: The Trib is reporting via a source that Campbell has a broken collarbone and will be out for at least the rest of the regular season.

As Second City Hockey notes, without Campbell yesterday, the Hawks struggled to transition to offense:

It will lead to bigger problems if Soupy isn’t back soon. The Hawks need to constantly have someone on the ice who can get them going the other way, it’s what their entire game is about. Here’s hoping.

Could be bad news for the Hawks if Campbell isn’t ready to go for the playoffs.

Guys.

Remember when I wrote that even though the Olympic gold-medal game between Canada and the U.S. was totally awesome and sooo many people watched it, I was still dubious the sport would actually gain a considerable new fanbase from such a game?

Well, if we’re going to cherrypick one game a week after said game and look at its ratings — which I’ll admit is a small sample size and probably not fair at all — my thesis stands up. So far.

From Sports Media Watch:

The Red Wings’ 5-4 win over the Blackhawks drew a 1.2 overnight rating on NBC Sunday afternoon, up 20% from Bruins/Rangers on the comparable date last year (1.0), but down 8% from Penguins/Capitals on February 7 (1.3), NBC’s last NHL telecast before the Olympic break.

This marks the fourth straight NHL telecast on NBC to draw at least a 1.2 overnight rating. To put that in perspective, NBC did not draw an overnight higher than 1.1 during the previous two seasons (excluding the Winter Classic).

Now, of course, the Penguins/Captials matchup is probably going to bring in more viewers, insomuch as it’s a game that features Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. So that’s why there’s a little drop there. And it’s nice to see that year-over-year hockey has improved.

But as far as the gold-medal game buzz carrying over? Doesn’t look like it happened.

From Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated on Twitter:

NBC says 27.6 Million watched gold medal game Sunday, most viewers for a hockey game in U.S. since 1980 Lake Placid gold medal game.

Not surprising, considering the game had much hype and little competition, other than some college hoops. But it’s unlikely this huge draw is going to create some new, huge following for the NHL in American. Does it hurt? Of course not. Will some people pay closer attention to the sport? It’s likely.

But this was a one-off popularity spree, where non-sports fans even tuned in due to nationalistic impulses. It was the perfect storm, as the host country — the country that invented the sport, mind you — was in the gold-medal game against the underdog U.S squad that had already taken them down once.

This was the “Miracle on Ice” meme rearing its head again.

This was the Super Bowl of hockey; everyone was watching for no other reason than well, everyone else was watching. It had huge cultural cache this weekend.

When suburban housewives are talking about it at work Monday morning at the water cooler, I’m not so sure this is a fanbase the NHL can try and have a realistic chance of harnessing.

But it certainly won’t hurt the league, either.

Yesterday in women’s hockey, the Canadian team beat the U.S. 2-0 for the gold medal. Frowney face.

But it’s cool, because the U.S. totally has the gold medal lead on Canada overall, and that’s what’s really important. Or something.

Anyway, the Canadian ladies decided to get down with their bad selves and celebrate on the ice with a little booze and cigars:

The IOC wasn’t cool with it, and the team sent out an apology late Thursday.

Let’s go to Luke Winn for the ultimate take on all this:

And the reason [IOC executive director Gilbert] Felli had to react to it? Because an equally lame reporter from the AP called to inform him about it and ask for a comment. Is it possible to just see something like this, laugh at it, and be happy for these girls? At least Steve Keough, the Canadian Olympic Committee spokesman whom the AP called, had a reasonable answer: “In terms of the actual celebration,” he said, “it’s not exactly something uncommon in Canada.”

A word for the IOC, and reporters casting this as a negative incident: Please, just let Team Canada have their fun. What they did was refreshingly authentic. Don’t punish them for it.

Yes, it was authentic. Yes, it’s pretty harmless. Yes, we should just let them have their fun and not punish them for it. I agree with Winn.

Yet, this just isn’t how this stuff works anymore. Image is everything. You have to do and say all the right things at all the right times if you’re an athlete these days, lest someone try and cast it in a controversial or negative light, lest your governing body gets preachy. Welcome the the 24/7 news cycle. Welcome to a world where media training trumps full disclosure.

This isn’t the first time a stink has been raised in Vancouver. U.S. snowboarder Scotty Logo had some fun with his bronze medal, which showed up on TMZ.

He then made the decision to go home before the USOC reacted.

It’s unfair and sort of silly, but it’s a trend that isn’t going to change anytime soon.

Did you stay up past your bedtime last night in order to watch the Hawks? Did you see them build that early 3-0 lead over the Sharks, and be all like “Yeah, we got this,” only to see it sink away and go into overtime knotted at three? Didja Didja?

And then did you see how Troy Brouwer scored in overtime, and the Hawks avoided the choke job? Do you think I can write this whole post as a series of questions? Well, I think I can?

Last evening, the Hawks found themselves in a high-scoring affair with the Predators at the United Center. It was tied 4-4 with under a minute to go in the third period.

Then this happened:

Hooray for Patrick Kane. The Hawks are now 26-9-3, good for the best record in the Western Conference, and I’m still not paying enough attention to these guys.