The Chicago Blackhawks begin conference semifinal playoff action Saturday night against the Vancouver Canucks. How far will the Blackhawks go this year?

The baseball season is mercifully over in Chicago. The Cubs lost to Arizona to finish the season at 83 - 78 while the White Sox at least had a meaningful last series before losing to Detroit to finish their season at 79 - 83. The Sox were relegated to a spoiler role as Detroit was in position to clinch the American League Central title if they won two of the three weekend games. Instead, the Sox won two out of three forcing Detroit and Minnesota to play a one-game playoff (play-in?) game Tuesday.

Now we look forward to a cold winter while both teams ponder what to do next.

At least the Bears are now showing signs of life and -- one quarter into the season -- have won three games in a row after dropping their opener. Who knows how the Bulls will do this season. At least the Blackhawks seem to have a clue on what their doing. The season just started for them in Finland where they split their opening series with the Florida Panthers.

About four months until spring training!