Yesterday, the Blackhawks sent Lukas Reichel to join the IceHogs in Colorado for the weekend. The assumption is that was a necessary roster move because Patrick Kane will come off IR for tonight’s game. The Kraken come into town on an absolute roll (seven wins in a row, the last six of which have come on the road) so we’ll see if the Blackhawks can keep up with the hottest team in the NHL.
Right off the jump, this caught my eye as a card collector as something that’s really neat and has a Blackhawks tie-in. Upper Deck announced the creation of a limited-edition set featuring Indigenous hockey players who never had an NHL licensed trading card before. The cards look amazing! According to the release, they were designed by an Indigenous artist from the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation, Jacob Alexis, and the card backs were written by Indigenous card collector Naim Cardinal, who is a Cree and member of Tallcree First Nation.
Forward Johnny Harms appeared in 44 games for the Chicago Blackhawks, one in the 1943-44 season and 43 the following year. In his 43-game stretch he scored five goals and five assists. He’s featured in the set.
You can see the entire checklist and see where and how to get them here.
Near the end of the month, Connor Bedard will appear in a prestigious CHL prospect showcase game in Vancouver. His head coach in that game might be former Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook. So what advice would Jonathan Toews and Kane give the top prospects who will be coached by… Coach Seabs?
The Seattle Thunderbirds visited the Prince Albert Raiders last night, which meant Blackhawks prospect Nolan Allan was returning to Prince Albert for the first time since they traded their captain to Seattle. The Raiders shared a nice Thank You video for Allan during the game.
Cole Guttman was back in Colorado (with Reichel and the rest of the IceHogs) last night. Guttman was the captain of the University of Denver’s national championship team in the spring before signing his first professional contracts with the Blackhawks. He’s been terrific this season, and added an OT GWG to his resume.
Guttman’s alma mater went off last night! The Pioneers scored five goals in 6:33 in the second period — including this awful bounce for the poor Miami goalie leading to an easy score for Blackhawks prospect Aidan Thompson. The final scored was 7-0. After having the start of his season delayed because of the injury he suffered at USA camp over the summer, Thompson now has 13 points in 15 games for DU as a freshman.
Blackhawks sixth-round pick Dominic James scored a big short-handed goal for the Bulldogs last night. The goal is his seventh of the year, passing the six he scored as a freshman at Minnesota-Duluth last season.
Happy Big Blue Birthday, Frank Nazar! Here’s hoping he can get back on the ice with the Wolverines this season and start his collegiate career.
Landon Slaggert picked up the secondary assist on Notre Dame’s first goal last night but the Irish needed a shootout to upset No. 2 Minnesota in South Bend last night. Ryder Rolston finished tied for the team lead with three shots on net. It hasn’t been the season Notre Dame envisioned in September but this was a huge win. Slaggert had two shots on net and a blocked shot with his helper last night in the win.
It’s Cubs Convention weekend, so maybe we’ll see some current and future Cubs at the United Center for the Hawks game tonight. On Thursday night, Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins was in the house. The first Canadian voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame took part in the nightly “Shoot the Puck” between the second and third periods and sunk his first shot!
This weekend’s “That’s some crazy $#!+ ” story involved former Blackhawks goaltender Robin Lehner. He’s had a tough go of it since the Blackhawks traded him to Vegas, with injuries costing him this entire season. But this story about him filing bankruptcy in Nevada because he’s upside-down in debt for his exotic snake business in Missouri is just wild.
At some point after Ben’s death, [Lehner] said, the snakes “began breeding amongst one another in an unsupervised, uncontrolled manner.” That caused the collection of snakes to lose value, but Lehner’s attorneys did not specify by how much.
I mean… the guy buys $1.2 million in exotic snakes… and then forms a company to take care of them and three lawsuits and a murder later he’s filing for bankruptcy? Give me the 30 for 30 now!
Finally, another friendly reminder to check out our NFL coverage — beyond just the Bears. It’s Wild Card Weekend (which means the Bears are considering their draft options) but Patrick is still working hard covering all the action.
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