Game One For Rockford, Hot Prospects, Good Doug Wilson News, Adios Athanasiou? And Other Blackhawks Bullets

The Stanley Cup Playoffs got after it on the second night of the first round. The road team and lower seed won all four games last night. The biggest surprise might have been the Winnipeg Jets going into Vegas and putting a 5-1 beatdown on the Golden Knights. Wednesday gives four teams an opportunity to even their respective series. Will we get two more overtime games tonight?

Here’s the full schedule for tonight:

  • The Rockford IceHogs kick off their best-of-three, first-round series in the Calder Cup Playoffs tonight in Rockford. For those who are interested, you can watch the game on AHL TV. This is a big series for the IceHogs and the Blackhawks organization. We’ve been told all year that the front office wants young players like Lukas Reichel, Alex Vlasic and others to get valuable experience in a long, deep playoff run. Well, the IceHogs had to sneak into the postseason on the last day of the regular season. Now they’re in, so it’s time to go to work.
  • The Seattle Thunderbirds beat the Prince Albert Cougars 8-1 last night. Yes, they put a snowman on the board. The eight-spot is the most goals scored in a WHL playoff game by a road team since 2017, and Blackhawks prospects were all over the score sheet. Kevin Korchinski put four shots on net and was credited with three assists and Colton Dach had one assist and the pretty goal below. Seattle has a commanding 3-0 lead in their series.
  • Doug Wilson is in the Hockey Hall of Fame in large part because of the tremendous career he had as a defenseman, most of which was spent at the Chicago Stadium. Last April, he stepped away from his role as the general manager of the San Jose Sharks to deal with an undisclosed health issue. The Blackhawks were in San Jose when the Sharks raised a banner for Wilson earlier this year for his decades of work on and off the ice for the organization, from it’s first season to last year. Seeing this report that his health is improving enough that he’s interested in potentially returning to the game is great news.
  • Mark Lazerus shared an unfortunate story on Wednesday morning. This season was the tenth anniversary of the 2012-13 Stanley Cup Championship team, which opened the season on a record-breaking 21-0-3 run and sprinted all the way to the Presidents Trophy and the Cup. The seven members of that team that also played on Chicago’s 2010 and 2015 championship teams were on the ice together when the Blackhawks retired Marian Hossa‘s jersey earlier this season, but nothing was done to celebrate the anniversary of arguably the best team in the history of the franchise. Laz does report the Blackhawks plan to honor all three championship teams during their centennial season of 2025-26, but the quote from a player who asked to remain anonymous in the tweet below isn’t ideal.
  • There’s a decent chance we have seen the last of Andreas Athanasiou in a Blackhawks sweater. He came to Chicago on a one-year deal to prove himself and did that very well; he hit the 20-goal and 40-point marks for the second time in his career. And, at the end of the season, he made the move to center and played well enough on a depleted Blackhawks roster to at least make than an intriguing option for him moving forward. But general manager Kyle Davidson said the organization isn’t looking to sign any deals with term this summer as they continue rebuilding; he doesn’t want to block any prospects from moving up when they’re ready. So even a third year on a deal might not be on the table, and — after playing for four teams in the past three seasons — it makes sense that Athanasiou wants to settle down somewhere for a while.
  • Finally, a moment of appreciation for Marcus Stroman. He signed with a Cubs team that felt, in many ways, like the Blackhawks do right now. But he’s been outstanding since he got here, and has been one of the best pitchers in the game to start this season.
  • written by

    Tab Bamford has been writing about the Chicago Blackhawks for almost two decades. He joined Bleacher Nation as the lead Blackhawks writer in May 2022. Tab is a member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association and is the author of two books about the Blackhawks: "100 Things Blackhawks Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die" (Triumph Books) and "Chicago Blackhawks: An Illustrated Timeline" (Reedy Press, 2021). Find him on Twitter/X/Instagram/Threads at @The1Tab

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