The Blackhawks come home for their final home game before the trade deadline and… they look incredibly different on the ice. Since the last Blackhawks game at the United Center, Chicago has traded away Patrick Kane, Jake McCabe, Sam Lafferty and Jack Johnson (from the NHL roster). It’s been a tough ten days for the fans.
- Happy 28th birthday to Max Domi! I would love it if the Blackhawks gave him a contract extension today with his cake.
- One of the feel-good stories from the road trip was David Gust getting signed and scoring a goal on his first NHL shift. He was placed on waivers by the Blackhawks on Wednesday, a necessary step if they intend to move him back to Rockford (thanks to him having an NHL contract). I would be stunned if a team claimed him; nobody claimed Brock McGinn from Pittsburgh last night.
- With Dallas coming to town and the Blackhawks dropping their last two games on the road trip, here are your up-to-date Bad for Bedard Sweepstakes standings.
- Kane will make his NYC debut tonight at Madison Square Garden against Alex DeBrincat and the Ottawa Senators. We’ll just call this the Killing Blackhawks’ Fans’ Souls Bowl.
- Jalen Brunson is a guard for the Knicks now, but when the Blackhawks were winning their first two Stanley Cup championships he was balling at Stevenson High School in the Chicago suburbs. He showed up at last night’s postgame presser for the Knicks rocking a Kane jersey and it felt a little more real than just seeing it from graphics people.
- The Arizona Coyotes appear to be pissing off pretty much all of the players and agents these days. Maybe they’re collecting a thousand draft picks to trade for veterans because nobody would ever want to sign with them as a free agent? Everything about the Yotes is minor league and it’s played out in front of our eyes recently as they’ve scratched players for games (weeks) without having a deal in place. They finally traded Jakob Chychrun on Wednesday — 18 days after his last appearance for the team (in Chicago).
- Nick Bjugstad was a healthy scratch sitting one game short of reaching 600 in his NHL career. His agent went to Twitter with his thoughts.
- Pierre LeBrun at The Athletic looked at how the Coyotes’ process with Chyrchun, who has been “available” for 18 months, played out poorly in a market that was white-hot for defensemen. The list of defensemen who were traded before Chychrun — a list that includes McCabe and Jack Johnson from the Blackhawks — is pretty impressive. The prices paid to get those defensemen is also significant. And, at the end of the day, Chychrun will make his Senators debut… against Kane at Madison Square Garden tonight.
- Some Thursday morning trade news: it appears the Red Wings have added more draft capital and Tyler Bertuzzi is headed to Boston.
- Finally… (stares into the Blackhawks’ phone book for the right place to forward this link)…