NEWSLETTER
Welcome back to your regularly scheduled programming with us at Bleacher Nation. Hopefully you all enjoyed your Holidays including Christmas, for those who celebrate. Also wishing our Canadian friends a happy Boxing Day today and also extending a Happy Kwanza to those who celebrate today as well!
For the NHL and the Blackhawks, the Holiday break allowed for some rest and reset as the league deals with their COVID outbreak.
• A Happy holidays from the Blackhawks…
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our team to yours! 🎄🎅 pic.twitter.com/KwpjPooQWq
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) December 25, 2021
• Poor Tommy Hawk…
“He looks like a deranged Easter Bunny!” Merry Christmas 🎄 and Happy Holidays 🐰 pic.twitter.com/VeZr13tdkT
— Tommy Hawk (@BhawkTommyHawk) December 25, 2021
• A Merry Christmas from Blackhawks defenseman Calvin de Haan:
Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you have a great day with family and friends 🤘🏼
— Calvin de Haan (@cal_dehaan) December 25, 2021
• And from Kirby Dach:
Merry Christmas everyone!! 🎅🎄Hope you’re all staying safe. @NHLBlackhawks fans – can’t wait to see you back at the UC on Tuesday!
— Kirby Dach (@kdach77) December 25, 2021
• In the Blackhawks letters to Santa, Dach asked for everyone to stop talking about Trevor Zegras. Maybe he should have asked for better abilities at the faceoff dot…
Still working on Kirby Dach feature. Was curious to see how Dach's 32.7% on faceoffs this season ranks since the league started tracking the stat in 1997-98.
So: There have been 4,006 instances of players taking 200+ faceoffs in a season.
Dach ranks No. 4,001.— John Dietz (@johndietzdh) December 24, 2021
• Chicago is schedule to host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night at the United Center, as Dach said. So with the Blue Jackets coming to town, that means former Blackhawk defenseman Adam Boqvist is in town. Naturally, he spent the holiday with former roommate Alex DeBrincat.
Adam Boqvist spending Christmas with the DeBrincats and the DeBrindogs #Blackhawks #CBJ #MerryChristmas pic.twitter.com/CsxOZGzwbS
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) December 26, 2021
• Wholesome.
• Two things that are ageless: Santa and Jaromir Jagr. At 49-years old, turning 50 in February, Jagr is still playing with Rytiri Kladno, the team he owns, in the Czechia top league. He has 17 points in 27 games. Again, he’s 49-years-old.
https://twitter.com/68Jagr/status/1474821630719311872?s=20
• Imagine if he never left the NHL in the prime of his career to play in Europe, or if he had stayed a little longer in the NHL before returning to his own club a few seasons ago. He’d be flirting with Wayne Gretzky’s goal record and maybe even his career points record.
• This Christmas season, I watched “Elf” for the first time. I enjoyed it. I would have loved it even more if this deleted scene had made it into the movie:
Elf originally scripted for Buddy the Elf and the elves to play hockey at the North Pole.
Unfortunately, the scene was cut from the final movie. pic.twitter.com/A30uyUggaA
— Daily Faceoff (@DailyFaceoff) December 25, 2021
• Nice find by Daily Faceoff.
• The NHL is supposed to be returning to play today with teams practicing once again. With the return to team facilities, COVID testing resumes as well.
NHL Players can report back for testing and practice today. No individual in the team’s Traveling Party shall enter the facility (other than for testing purposes) until they have a negative test result. Any practice scheduled today will begin after 2 pm local time.
— John Shannon (@JShannonhl) December 26, 2021
• Originally, the league was set to play games once again on December 27, tomorrow. That isn’t the case.
NHL Postpones Planned Return To Post-Holiday Break Gameshttps://t.co/oltvowVrcL
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) December 24, 2021
• The Blackhawks are supposed to play the Blue Jackets on Tuesday, and then travel to Winnipeg to play the Jets on Wednesday. We’ll see if either of those games happen as scheduled.
• The IIHF canceled all January tournaments, in eluding the Women’s U18 World Championships. Now, the day before the opening of the tournament yesterday, the Spengler Cup was also canceled.
The world's oldest invitational hockey tournament will not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the event being abandoned a day before it was set to begin in Davos.https://t.co/YBdh9ZSuKj
— The Hockey News (@TheHockeyNews) December 25, 2021
• All this while the World Junior Championships are set to begin this afternoon in Alberta, Canada. Albeit in front of crowds reduced to 50% capacity. Four Blackhawks prospects will be competing in the tournament this year.
It’s #WorldJuniors Day#Blackhawks at the tournament:
Drew Commesso 🇺🇸
Landon Slaggert 🇺🇸
Wyatt Kaiser 🇺🇸
Michael Krutil 🇨🇿— Mario Tirabassi (@Mario_Tirabassi) December 26, 2021
• Team USA is looking to defend their 2021 Gold Medal, and with three Blackhawks prospects on the roster, including starting goaltender Drew Commesso, they will be one of the must-see teams in the year’s tournament.
• The U.S. opens the tournament tonight against Slovakia. 8:30 p.m. CT puck drop.
• That will do it for today. Hope you all enjoy your Sunday!
The Bears Could Take Advantage of the NFL's New Head Coach Interview Rule By Firing Matt Nagy on Monday https://t.co/BbXU6TLnhR
— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) December 26, 2021
• Again, maybe the last Sunday with Matt Nagy leading the Bears. But where have we heard that before?
