Beloved NHL tough guy Bob Probert left this world on Monday after collapsing while working on his boat. The 45-year-old’s legacy will live on with Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks fans. People loved Probert for his bruising physicality, and fearless bravado. Hockey Hall of Famer Steve Yzerman (who will give the eulogy at Probert’s funeral today) never would have been as successful in the Red Wings’ 90’s run if he didn’t have Probie making sure no one took a shot at him without paying the consequences. People love hockey for the fighting, and Probert delivered night after night. Racking up over 3,000 penalty minutes in his 17-year-career. Not only was Probert retire with pretty impressive stats in terms of goals (162), assists (221), and games played (935), but also has a record like a heavyweight prizefighter. Probie had classic on-ice bouts with Craig Coxe, Tie Domi, Stu Grimson, and former Red Wings teammate Joey Kocur. Rarely, if ever, do you see athletes today with that same crazy killer attitude that Bob Probert had. The wide world of sports is a little less cool now that Bob Probert is gone. If you find yourself in a dirty bar or on your couch with a cold one in your hand this weekend, raise your beverage to the sky for a second and pay tribute to one of hockey’s true bad asses. R.I.P. Bob Probert.

The city of Chicago has been unquestionably turned into a hockey town as two million fans celebrated with the Chicago Blackhawks after winning the Stanley Cup. Only a few years ago the Blackhawks were voted the worst franchise in professional sports and now they are the toast of the town. The majority of fans probably couldn’t even remember the last time the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 1961. The Hawks are set up to be title contenders for years to come with young stars Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, so fans in Chicago could expect a lot more success. Toews shaved his raggedy beard for the parade, but Kane kept his curly hockey mullet for all the festivities. When a city like Chicago becomes re-energized about hockey it’s good for the NHL. Rivals like Detroit and St. Louis will want to beat the Blackhawks even more now that their Stanley Cup champs. Although some may be sore over their team not winning the cup this year, in the end, Chicago finally bringing home a Stanley Cup is good for the NHL and hockey in the US.

It’s hard to rag on a team that’s sitting second in the Western Conference and has one of the best records in the NHL. Nevertheless, the truth is the Blackhawks haven’t looked like title contenders since the team came back from the Olympic break. Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, and Brent Seabrook all played in the Winter Olympics and upon their return the team seemed to lose some of their bite. Most of the blame went on the goalie tandem of Antti Niemi and Cristobal Huey, but writers have been blaming the rest of the team for the Hawks three consecutive losses. The Hawks were the darlings of the Windy City and the NHL last year when they made a surprise run the the Western Conference Finals. Head coach Joel Quenneville will have to find a way to rejuvenate the Hawks’ spirit going into the final stretch of the regular season if they want to improve upon their accomplishments of last year.

This weekend I decided to get my 2009 Stanley Cup playoff tickets. I had decided earlier in the weekend to take a look at the playoff race and this is what I found. The playoff setup seems to be really taking shape in the last week or so. We can finally see that some teams have clinched something and other teams have been eliminated. Let’s start in the Eastern Conference. Boston, Washington and New Jersey are in. This is quite a coup, especially for Washington, as they have struggled more in recent years, so making the playoffs at position #2 is an especially exciting event for them. Philadelphia, Carolina and Pittsburgh will have to mess up big-time to get bumped from the postseason. In the West, San Jose and Detroit are for sure in, but Calgary, Chicago, and Vancouver are looking very good too. It’s going to be a great postseason!

The Blackhawks may have finally got the missing piece of the puzzle when new head coach Joel Quenneville took over a few days ago. Quenneville, a seasoned and disciplined hockey coach, instantly garnered the respect of the Blackhawks players. Though his first win should have come against the St. Louis Blues Saturday, match they lost eventually in a penalty shootout, Quenneville and the Hawks pushed past the Vancouver Canucks last night 4-2. See the players’ and coach’s reactions to this win at nhl.com.

The Chicago Blackhawks stemmed their flow of continuous four game defeat by coming up with an impressive 6-3 performance against the Columbus Blue Jackets last Friday night and by beating the jackets they have put their foot on the playoff race. The Blackhawks coach Denis said that all his team members played a solid game and wanted his team to play like they did on Friday in a bid to enter into playoff race. The Chicago Blackhawks rallied to a three goal advantage in the first period itself and the Columbus team always had to fight from behind in the entire course of the game.

The Chicago goalie Patrick Lalime made 29 saves in the game and the only face saving players for the Blue Jackets were Nash, the new captain, Modin and Fritsche. The Blue Jackets are fast slipping off from the playoff race and have only won a single game of their last nine games at home. The Chicago Blackhawks at this moment are in danger of getting knocked out of the playoffs and will have to play out of their skin to enter it. The Blue Jackets have never made it to the playoffs so far in their history and there will be two more contests among these two teams in this season.

The Chicago Blackhawks recalled right wing Troy Brouwer from Rockford of the American Hockey League on Saturday. The 22-year-old Troy has 17 goals and 29 points. And the team assigned center Petri Kontiola to Rockford.

Dallas Stars 3, New York Rangers 2: Morrow’s power-play goal early in the 3rd period lifted the visiting Dallas Stars over the New York Rangers on Sunday and stretched the Stars’ winning streak to 5 matches. Despite being outshot 41-18, Dallas used a sizzling power play in order to win the 1st of a 6-game road trip that will take the team to all 5 teams in the EC’s Atlantic Division.

Anaheim Ducks 3, Los Angeles Kings 2: Kunitz and Getzlaf scored 3rd-period goals as the Anaheim Ducks rallied for a win over Los Angeles.

Vancouver Canucks 2, Chicago Blackhawks 0: Morrison scored an early goal and Luongo made twenty-seven saves to lead Vancouver over the visiting Blackhawks.

Modano had a terrible night as his Dallas Stars lost in heartbreaking fashion to the Chicago Blackhawks. Jason Williams scored his 2nd goal with only 20 seconds left and the Chicago Blackhawks snapped a 9-game losing streak in Dallas, beating the Dallas Stars 5-4 on yesterday night. The Stars scored 3 straight goals in the 3rd to erase a 3-1 deficit. Jason Williams tied the game before netting the winner to give the Blackhawks its first victory in Dallas in six years. He also beat Dallas with an overtime goal October 13.