NEWSLETTER
Right off the jump today, I’m excited to see the scene in Cleveland as Michigan faces off against Ohio State outdoors! Frank Nazar and the Wolverines will battle Jake Wise and the Buckeyes on the field at the home of the Cleveland Browns.
- Patrick Kane tied Jeremy Roenick last night on the NHL’s all-time point list. And then he passed him. Kane has been an incredible star in Chicago for his entire career, and we’re reminded of just how special he is every time he creates an opportunity like this for the graphic design dept. to show off their skills on the Blackhawks’ social media channels. We’ve been lucky to have him here. And whatever happens in the coming 13 days won’t be easy for anyone.
- After the game, however, Kane was complimentary of Sam Lafferty, whose short-handed goal sparked a Blackhawks offense that had been dormant for more than 40 minutes since Kane’s goal in the game’s opening minute. Lafferty’s speed and physical game has garnered him a lot of attention on the trade market lately, so when Kane says something like this it will certainly get some more eyeballs on his game.
- Rockford also won in overtime last night. Lukas Reichel set up Alex Vlasic for the OT GWG. Love to see that level of symmetry in the organization.
- The big NHL news last night was the Toronto Maple Leafs appearing to have made their big splash trade. They acquired Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari from the St. Louis Blues in a three-team deal. I wrote last night that the Blues now having three first-round picks in the 2023 NHL Draft is awful news; the Blues sneaking in and making two trades the Blackhawks should have made (this and the Tarasenko-Rangers trade) is crushing. But, the more I thought about it… there might be a silver lining here…
- How about this play from Ethan Del Mastro? Sarnia beat the London Knights last night on the NHL Network’s CHL Showcase Game and Del Mastro produced this beauty. Del Mastro had two power play assists in the 3-2 win.
- Aidan Thompson scored his eighth goal of the season for DU last night against Wyatt Kaiser, Dominic James and Minnesota-Duluth. James had an assist on UMD’s second goal of the night.
- This was a nice profile of Blackhawks’ 2021 first-round pick Nolan Allan. After four years with Prince Albert, he was traded to Seattle earlier this season where he’s teammates with Kevin Korchinski and (hopefully at some point) Colton Dach. If Dach can join the two defensemen it’ll be fun to watch three of the Hawks’ top prospects on the same team chasing a Memorial Cup before making the move to the professional ranks.
“Being able to play in the NHL and have a career in the NHL is a huge dream of mine,” Allan said. “You dream of winning the Stanley Cup once you get there, but you have to play in the NHL first.”
- Connor McDavid became the first player in the league to reach 100 points this season. He did it on Feb. 17. That’s absolutely ridiculous. He’s just on another level altogether right now. It’s pretty amazing what he’s doing this season.
- We almost had a goalie fight last night in the Kings-Ducks game. Phoenix Copley got into the mix with a few Ducks around his crease and John Gibson skated all the way out to center ice to entertain the dance music. The officials didn’t let the tenders go at it; Copley already earned an early trip to the showers for throwing punches with the blocker. But Anaheim’s social had no problem chirping him.
- This morning, this happened. Coming soon here on the site: my conversation with Blackhawks great Steve Larmer.
- Finally, in today’s FML category for fans of both the Cubs and Blackhawks… I guess Willson Contreras is just this generation’s Chris Chelios.
