Patrick Sharp was acquired by Dale Tallon December 5th, 2005 from the Philadelphia Flyers with Eric Meloche for Matt Ellison and a 3rd round pick in the 2006 draft.
"We addressed a need we had for speed and skill in getting Patrick Sharp," said Tallon. "Sharp is a good skater and a solid two-way player who fits into our plans for the future. We hated to give up Matt Ellison, but Patrick Sharp gives us that dimension of speed and skill that we need."
Fast-forward 12 years, Patrick Sharp is on his 2nd stint with the Hawks and he finds himself in a spot to succeed again and I don’t think they Hawks are thinking about Matt Ellison anymore. Sure, Sharpie is a shell of his former self, but still skates and thinks the game really well.
Coach Q has gone nuclear with the lines to attempt to spark some offense with this club. He has put Sharp-Toews-Kane together. Will it work? Guess we'll find out tonight.
The Saad-Anisimov-Panik line could be a real handful down low, but they need to be able to get it in over the line and possess. I'm not so keen on this line, to be honest.
The kids come out to play for the "3rd" line with Debrincat-Schmaltz-Hartman. This one could be really interesting considering how well Hinostroza-Schmaltz-Hartman played in a short period of time last year.
I mentioned on Twitter, as did the great Al Cimaglia, that the benefit to Schmaltz and Debrincat playing together is that they should shoot more. Far too often those guys try to force passes to the veterans on their lines like Toews or Kane.
Then, the BANGER line remains. No issues there.
The Flyers, who the Hawks beat last week 3-0, had a 2-0 win over St. Louis and a 5-4 SO loss to Colorado since then. They have been off since Saturday though, so they will be ready to go.
With this Blackhawks team, it all starts with one win tonight. Then take it a game at a time.
The confidence seems shook, so let's hope these new lines work out in their favour and they get a little swagger back. If not, Q's heading back to the kitchen to mix them all up again OR we may see a small shakeup with a couple Rockford calls.
See ya on the boards and twitter tonight for the game!
JL
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Who we got tonight: Philadelphia Flyers (…again)
Season Matchup:
Chicago ✔
Flyers
7-6-2 = 13 pts
11th in Eastern Conference
Last game: LOST vs. Avalanche (5-4 in SO)
GF: 47 / GA: 43
PP% = 20.4 %(11th in NHL)
PK% = 76.9% (25th in NHL)
Sniper: Sean Couturier – 9 goals
Producer: Sean Couturier & Jakub Voracek –18 points
Tough Guys: Radko Gudas– 40 PIMs / Robert Hagg – 48 hits
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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