A hockey game happened at 1901 W. Madison on Thursday night. It was the last game in a season filled with injuries, departures and losses for the Chicago Blackhawks. There was a final score — which is incredibly important to the future of the franchise — but more fans in the United Center were watching their Captain for the last time.
So instead of our usual three stars, tonight there will be only one. Because he’s the star of stars in this town, the greatest Captain in the history of the franchise. The fans came out to say Thank You, and he thanked us right back.
(Now, I’m going to excuse myself to go ugly cry for a while.)
Star 19: Jonathan Toews
Takeaways
Toews became the second player to score 200 goals at the United Center with his marker tonight. Because of course he would jump back onto a list of two with Patrick Kane in his finale.
If this game was about leaving a good last impression, Caleb Jones failed the assignment miserably. He looked bad on both of the Flyers’ first period goals. With the number of young defensemen coming — and Jarred Tinordi already re-signed — this was a less than ideal performance for Caleb.
Anders Bjork, on the other hand, is also an RFA this summer but he continues to look fast and produce. If the Blackhawks are looking to stack their bottom six next year with guys who play the way Sam Lafferty did, Bjork and Joey Anderson have done a really nice job of showing value.
Andreas Athanasiou had assists on the goals scored by Toews and Bjork. He closes the 2022-23 season with four multi-point games in his last seven and 11 points (5 goals, 6 assists) over those seven games in April. Again, if you’re looking to make a strong impression, Double-A has done that. He’s also done a nice job winning faceoffs. His offense really took off when he moved to center. And he reached 20 goals on the season with his game-tying goal tonight.
The Blackhawks got assists from Seth Jones, Connor Murphy, Wyatt Kaiser and Ian Mitchell. Love to see production from the blue line.
IMPORTANT TANK UPDATE
NEWSLETTER
