Blackhawks Game One Preview

Whatever the 2011-2012 season will be, it starts tonight in Dallas. The Hawks fly in slightly banged up, slightly off-kilter, but there's a good six months to go to sort all of those out. The particulars are that Dave Bolland and Ben Smith are out tonight, Bolland may make an appearance tomorrow. The buzz is that the Hawks will just dress seven defensemen and not play any as a forward, so Jamal Mayers and Rusty Olesz will get to meet a bunch of teammates tonight as they rotate who skates with them. As for the opponents, the Stars have a couple injury worries themeselves. D-men Adam Pardy and Nicklas Grossman are out for the weekend, and Adam Burish will miss tonight's game but probably play tomorrow. Other than that, the Stars are pretty much full-strength. Which isn't much. This team lost Brad Richards and hasn't done anything to replace him. They brought in checking center Vernon Fiddler, and a scoring winger in Michael Ryder, but they won't do nearly enough to...