2008-09 Campaign Opens at The Garden

The Chicago Blackhawks open the 2008-09 NHL campaign in New York City tonight against the New York Rangers at historic Madison Square Garden.

The club looks to build off of an encouraging 2007-08 season in which the team fell just three points short of making the playoffs in the stacked Western Conference but improved by 17 points from the 2006-07 campaign. Second-year forwards Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane will be joined by free-agent acquisitions Brian Campbell and Cristobal Huet as they seek to continue the revival of a franchise that has not made the playoffs since 2001-02.

Defenseman Campbell not only strenghthens an emerging defensive corps, but gives the Hawks a sorely needed weapon on the power play, where the unit ranked 24th in the league last year (15.9 percent). Huet, despite the presence of incumbent Nikolai Khabibulin, should emerge as the clear-cut number one goalie for a team looking to receive improved play in net. The Hawks gave up the 11th-highest goal total in the league last year, so Huet, who went 32-14-6 with a 2.32 GAA last season, should provide a more stable presence.

Left wing Ben Eager will be out of the lineup for the Hawks as he serves the first of a three-game suspension for swinging a stick at Dallas' Sean Avery in a preseason game last week.

The Rangers are opening the home portion of their season after notching a pair of 2-1 wins over Tampa Bay in the Czech Republic last weekend. The Rangers haven't opened a season with three straight victories since 1989-90, but did not lose in their final 12 regular season home games to close out last season.

In the most recent matchup between two of the NHL's Original Six on February 18, 2007, New York won 2-1 at home.