First and foremost, a Happy Veterans Day. My grandfather served in World War II and one of my best friends is currently serving as the CO on a nuclear sub in the Pacific, and I have dozens of other friends who have served in every branch of the military. We get to wander around online and talk about sports because there are folks in uniform protecting our freedom to share insights, offer garbage takes and cheer/boo together. So thank you — today and every day. Here’s one of the anthem performances at the United Center that I saw in person that will stay in my mind forever.
- The Blackhawks didn’t skate on Friday, so what are we supposed to talk about? We’re still waiting for any kind of injury updates, but those might not happen until closer to lunchtime — if at all. So, without any NHL-level Blackhawks news to dig into, how about we talk prospects? Because the Hawks had some young players go off last night.
- Nick Lardis had two assists as the Brantford Bulldogs beat Niagara 5-3 last night. Lardis now has nine goals and four assists in 15 games to start his post-draft season.
- I wrote about Erie center Martin Misiak being on a heater yesterday, so of course he was held without a point last night. Misiak did win 13 of 20 faceoffs with two shots on net. Erie beat Sudbury 4-3 in overtime. Alex Pharand, whom the Blackhawks drafted in the fourth round this past summer, won two of eight faceoffs without a point for Sudbury.
- Misiak will get a look at another Blackhawks prospect, Gavin Hayes, and the Flint Firebirds tonight. Before last night’s game in which he didn’t put a point on the board, Hayes was on fire. I wrote about that for this morning.
- Paul Ludwinski, the “other guy” the Blackhawks drafted with a pick from the Alex DeBrincat trade, had three assists for Kingston last night. After an injury-plagued 2022-23 season, Ludwinski has been terrific thus far. He now has 17 points (7 goals, 10 assists) in 14 games to start the season.
- Michigan coughed up a lead in the third period at home and lost 4-3 to Minnesota. Frank Nazar had a nice night after getting bumped up to the top-line center spot. He scored the game’s first goal, was credited with three shots on net and won an impressive 14 of 20 faceoffs. For Minnesota, Oliver Moore and Sam Rinzel were both held without a point.
- Ryan Greene scored a power play goal in the second period to open the scoring for BU last night. He put three shots on net and won 5 of 16 faceoffs.
- Notre Dame upset No. 19 Ohio State 4-1 last night in South Bend. Landon Slaggert scored his eighth goal of the season in the effort, an important win for the Irish in the Big Ten.
- This story from Ben Pope is fabulous. He sat down with assistant coach Kevin Dean, who’s in charge of the Blackhawks’ defense, and discussed the team’s three rookies on the back end. He had high praise for Alex Vlasic and discussed the growth he’s seen from both Kevin Korchinski and Wyatt Kaiser. Click it and read it because he’s really good work. This one quote from Dean in the story really nails it for me:
“If this organization is going to move the way we want to move, they can’t just be NHL defensemen,” he said. “At least two of them are going to have to be good NHL defensemen. The rebuild goes as well as your top guys go. You had [Brent] Seabrook and [Duncan] Keith. You’re going to need a couple guys like that in the pond.”
- This piece from Scott Powers from a couple days ago is worth a click. He digs deep into some of the NHL’s tracking data to give us some additional insight into the Blackhawks thus far. This was published before the game on Thursday night, but a couple nuggets stood out to me about a couple Blackhawks defensemen:
“No other Blackhawks defenseman has come close to [Alex] Vlasic’s defensive zone touches per 60. He’s at 38.618. Next is Kevin Korchinski at 31.494, then Connor Murphy at 29.038, Jarred Tinordi at 28.208, Wyatt Kaiser at 29.804, Seth Jones 25.445 and Nikita Zaitsev at 14.135.”
“[Korchinski’s] 13.2 denial percentage is second on the team. He’s also third in percentage in passes and chances allowed… [Korchinski is] leading the Blackhawks defensemen with 8.947 exits with possession per 60.”
- Our old friend Nikita Zadorov scored a goal and laid a huge hit last night against the Maple Leafs… and then reportedly asked to be traded… to Toronto (per multiple reports). To his credit, after things didn’t work out well in Chicago (maybe because Jeremy Colliton was terrible at his job?) he’s been a solid defenseman in Calgary.
- This one might be a little painful for Blackhawks fans over the age of 38-40. But it’s also well overdue. Even though one of his championship rings came at the expense of Chicago, Jaromir Jagr is one of the greatest to ever do it. He still hasn’t officially retired, so he isn’t in the Hockey Hall of Fame yet. But he’ll finally get his number retired by the Penguins later this season. He was soooo good.
- The Hockey Hall of Fame’s induction class of 2023 received their honored member rings on Friday. They’re beautiful. One day hopefully we see one with the name of Steve Larmer on it.
- Finally, we might see a blockbuster trade this winter in baseball AND Shohei Ohtani is a free agent. Talk about the potential for seismic shifts in the balance of power in MLB.