The Blackhawks are supposed to practice today with the thought being their scheduled game against the Columbus Blue Jackets will take place on Friday night at the United Center. Columbus flew into Chicago after their game in Philly on Tuesday night to beat the weather, but the NHL has already postponed the game between the Lightning and Sabres in Buffalo on Friday night because of their weather situation. So I’m keeping an eye on that today. My brother and his wife have already rearranged their travel plans to get here from Philly a couple times and their flight later this morning is already cancelled today, so there’s a chance this one gets banged. Stay tuned…
- If you’ve watched the Blackhawks lately, you have undoubtedly noticed the frustration from skaters after missed scoring chances and the slightest mistake getting turned into a goal for opponents. The Hawks continue trying hard, but it seems like everything that can go wrong does right now. Last night they were *this close* to scoring about a dozen goals and still somehow only managed two, neither of which was on one of their better chances. And poor Patrick Kane is maybe the most snakebit player on the roster.
- Mark Lazerus at The Athletic dropped a column this morning that is a really good read for a lot of Chicago fans. “From a team-building standpoint, itโs all but inarguable that the Blackhawks are better set up for future contention than the Predators.”
- The Preds are now where the Blackhawks were for the half decade between their last championship and the exit of the previous front office — without three championships to show for the golden era of the franchise. “Nashville GM David Poile has all but guaranteed years of mediocrity by locking in a mediocre core.” Nashville might be higher in the standings than the Blackhawks, but they have about the same chances of winning a Stanley Cup in the next three years. And as much as Laz has been one of the most outspoken writers to share his distain for a rebuild, he acknowledges this morning that it is indeed functionally the necessary way to reset a franchise that allowed itself to get complacent and its talent pool to go stale.
- Former Blackhawks defenseman and broadcaster Steve Konroyd has been doing work for NHL Network this season, and he was asked about the future of Kane. He threw out a couple team names to consider: the New Jersey Devils and Kane’s hometown Buffalo Sabres.
- The Devils have what many consider the best collection of young talent in the NHL, so a deal involving picks and young players might make sense. And the Devils might feel like Kane’s experience could take a young team to the next level.
- The Sabres’ connection has been there for years (cough, Ryan Miller, cough). And the way Tage Thompson is playing, they’re looking like a team that could make life interesting in the second half of the season. But I don’t think they’re quite at the level that Kane would make them a Cup contender immediately, so renting him might be a hard sell. But, as Konroyd mentions, if the Sabres wanted to bring him “home” with an extension…
- Canada faced Slovakia in a warm-up game for the World Junior Championships last night. Colton Dach got Canada on the board early.
- Ben Pope at the Chicago Sun-Times has been keeping tabs on the number of butts in seats for the Blackhawks this season. Overall, I’d say the numbers have been fairly good considering how the team has performed, especially since the start of November. And those who have come have been loud, so good on the fans who have come out. This is still a hockey town, and once the Blackhawks turn the ship around the numbers will hopefully return to the 20,000 range again. But that isn’t going to be this season.
- The best non-Blackhawks content you’ll see this week is from the Anaheim Ducks (thanks for those couple wins to give us the basement, eh?). They handed the mic to Ryder Getzlaf to ask their players some tough questions. If the name sounds familiar, he’s the son of long-time Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf (he looks just like his old man except for the hair part). This is absolute gold!
- Finally, it was good to see effort pay off for the Bulls last night. And it was one of their young players coming up huge at the buzzer.