NHL

All right you blood-thirsty Blackhawks lovers. Enjoy this mashup of John Scott beating the living crap out of Kevin Westgarth Saturday night.

The Blackhawks met their potential first round playoff rival at the United Center Sunday, and the Canucks sent back a clear message, "We are not above fighting like school girls if it helps us win."

Some might attribute the Blackhawks' recent slide to the tired play of Cristobal Huet and absence of Nikolai Khabibulin. But a jarring hit on the "Bulin Wall" during Friday night's OT loss knocked the goalie's mask loose and aroused suspicion on the team.

The Blackhawks traveled to New Jersey Tuesday hoping to avoid becoming a footnote to a trivia question: Who holds the NHL record for most wins by a goaltender? At the end of three periods of hockey, the answer was Martin Brodeur.

The Blackhawks spent the weekend donating four points to two charitable organizations: one team clawing to make the playoffs and one trying to impress for roster spots next year.

Now-former Blackhawks defenseman James Wisniewski is known as a screwball, as evidenced by the multitude of team promos and other unavoidable YouTube clips. He's also one of the tougher guys on the team, never backing down from a brawl, even if it means risking life and limb like with the serious knee injury he re-aggravated last season after scrapping with Nashville's Jordin Tootoo at the end of a game.

Handing out 10,000 hard hats might not be the brightest promotion at a sport in which fans are known to toss their headwear on the playing surface to celebrate the outstanding accomplishment of a player. And as luck would have it, Jonathan Toews' first career hat trick just so happened to occur on "Blackhawks Hard Hat Night" Friday against the Penguins.