NEWSLETTER
There were lots of moving pieces at the Blackhawks’ practice on Thursday. The Arizona Coyotes are in town tomorrow and the Hawks have been dealing with a long list of both injuries and illnesses, making the lineup a daily “who’s available” dart board.
The biggest question — and the first question — asked of head coach Luke Richardson after practice on Thursday was what’s up with Patrick Kane. Kane did not practice on Thursday; the team classified it as a “maintenance” day. Here’s Richardson’s response:
Unfortunately, Andreas Athanasiou was also not at practice on Thursday. He was out with a non-COVID illness, likely being the next guy in line with the bug that’s already hit Richardson and kept Tyler Johnson from facing his former teammates on Tuesday night.
Richardson did say that both Lukas Reichel and Brett Seney will both be in the lineup on Friday night against the Coyotes. Where they line up depends on Kane being able to go and how Athanasiou feels in the morning.
Which is good, because the Blackhawks had Caleb Jones playing left wing on the third line in their last game.
One additional potential roster complication from practice: Reese Johnson took a puck off the side of his head during an end-of-practice shooting drill and went down hard. He left he ice (him getting hurt pretty much ended things for the team) and went to get checked out by the doctors. Richardson noted that he’s a tough kid from Western Canada, but we’ll see if he’s able to go.
