FanHouse KrisVersteeg

Dale Tallon made a tremendous blunder this offseason when the qualifying offers for Cam Barker, Kris Versteeg and the team's other restricted free agents didn't get sent out in time. Tallon admitted it was his responsibility, admitted he screwed up, and in the end, worked out contract extensions with the key players (Barker, Versteeg), assuring that they wouldn't hit the open market as unrestricted free agents, free to sign with the highest bidder with no compensation coming back to Chicago.

In the end, it appears that blunder cost him his job, as reports out of Chicago early Tuesday morning indicated that Tallon was removed from his position, and replaced by Stan Bowman.

The NHL cranks up the conference semifinals Thursday night, as Chicago opens their series at Vancouver. With both teams off impressive opening-round victories, who has the advantage? And will we see any hair-pulling theatrics this time around?

The nominees for this year's NHL awards are starting to be announced, and on Wednesday we learned that Columbus' Steve Mason, Anaheim's Bobby Ryan and Chicago's Kris Versteeg were the top vote-getters for the Calder Trophy as the league's rookie of the year.

There's no surprises here, as it's been assumed for much of the season that Mason, Columbus' 20-year-old goalie, is a slam dunk winner. Despite his struggles in the playoffs (awards are voted on before the postseason begins, by the way) no goalie recorded more shutouts during the season (10) while he also finished second in the league with a 2.29 goals average and 12th with a .916 save percentage. He is, perhaps, the biggest reason Columbus made its first trip to the postseason in franchise history.

Blackhawks 3, Hurricanes 2: The Carolina Hurricanes had their four-game winning streak snapped thanks to a 3-2 shootout loss in Chicago, though they still managed to gain an important point thanks to Tuomo Ruutu's game-tying goal with just 27 seconds to play in regulation, sending the game to overtime.

With the Hurricanes trailing, 2-1, Chicago's Jonathan Toews was called for hooking Carolina's Chad LaRose late in the third period. Just 36 seconds later, Ruutu beat Cristobal Huet for his 21st goal of the season.

In the days and weeks leading up to Wednesday's trade deadline, the Boston Bruins were rumored to be in the mix for defensemen Chris Pronger and Tomas Kaberle, potentially giving the Bruins an intimidating blue line that few teams could match. Instead of selling the farm for such prized assets, general manager Peter Chiarelli opted to bring in the steady veteran hand of Mark Recchi.

After failing to show up on the score sheet in his Boston debut on Thursday, Recchi picked up his first two Bruins goals in Saturday's 5-3 win over Chicago.

Here's a short video reel I shot on Wednesday afternoon in the Chicago Blackhawks locker room immediately following their practice at Wrigley Field just one day ahead of the 2009 NHL Winter Classic. In this clip, you'll see Brian Campbell, James Wisniewski and Kris Versteeg all answering questions about the weather conditions they'll have to endure on gameday, January 1.

It's great to see quality NHL action return to Chicago after years of disappointing hockey, and man, what a team the windy city has. With their 4-1 win in Minnesota on Sunday, the Blackhawks picked up their ninth straight victory, improving their record to 20-6-7, good enough for the fifth best record in the league.

Chicago received a four-point performance from Dustin Byfuglien, who scored a pair of goals in the first period and also added a pair of assists later in the game, as the Blackhawks dominated Minnesota. Cristobal Huet faced only 19 shots, turning away 18 of them to pick up his fifth consecutive win in goal. During his personal winning streak, Huet has allowed only four goals, posting a .967 save percentage.

Cal Clutterbuck scored Minnesota's only goal, while Martin Havlat and Kris Versteeg added tallies for the Blackhawks.

While Chicago has been reeling off win after win, the Wild have been going the opposite direction winning just two of their past 10 games.

Marty Turco's awful season continued on Thursday night against Chicago, as the Dallas Stars goalie gave up five goals on 29 shots, as the Stars fell 6-3. After another dismal performance in the crease, Turco finds himself 42nd in the NHL (out of 43) with a 3.67 Goals Against Average, and 43rd with a .867 save percentage. It's difficult to get much worse than that.

Patrick Kane scored a pair of goals for the Blackhawks, giving him ten on the season, while they also received goals from Martin Havlat, Kris Versteeg, Ben Eager and Brian Campbell. Nikolai Khabibulin earned No. 1 start honors in the game, turning aside 31 shots.

With the win, Chicago improves to 9-4-5 on the season, and 8-2-4 since the firing of coach Denis Savard following the fourth game of the season.

The Stars, meanwhile, find themselves near the bottom of the NHL just one year after playing in the Western Conference Finals.

Through their first 19 games the San Jose Sharks have, quite simply, been men among boys. They continued their early season dominance on Sunday, coming from behind in Chicago to pull out a 6-5 win, improving to 15-3-1 on the season. The Sharks' 31 points are currently leading the NHL, three points ahead of the Rangers who have played one more game.

Entering the third period down a goal, Dan Boyle scored his second goal of the night to tie the score at five, while Devin Setoguchi (are you voting for him yet?) put in the winner with just under five minutes to play in regulation.

The Sharks had to rally in the third after watching Chicago erase a 4-2 deficit in the second period, as they received goals from Kris Versteeg, Cam Barker and Patrick Kane in the final ten minutes of the period. Barker and Kane's goals came just 30 seconds apart.

Naturally, as is the case when 11 goals are scored, it wasn't a night for the goalies, as Chicago's Cristobal Huet turned aside only 25 of 31 shots, while Brian Boucher allowed five pucks to get behind him in the win.

Blackhawks defenseman Brian Campbell, playing in his first game against his former team, picked up a goal and two assists in the loss. Campbell was acquired by the Sharks, from Buffalo, during last season's trade deadline in exchange for Steve Bernier and a first-round pick.

Chicago has now lost three straight.

I'm guessing Kris Versteeg of the Chicago Blackhawks is going to regret this impromptu locker room rap performance for the cameras for a very long time -- though I'm sure Matt Iseman and the crew at Sports Soup will love him forever for it.

If you haven't heard of Versteeg yet, you probably will soon enough. In Chicago, he's getting time on the top line alongside wunderkinds Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, and is currently ranked second in rookie scoring behind Derrick Brassard of Columbus. For more on Versteeg from the Chicago Sun-Times, click here.