The Rockford IceHogs hosted a win-or-go-home Game 4 on Sunday afternoon. Sadly, they’re going home for the summer. Grand Rapids won the game 4-2 and ended the year for the Hogs. It wasn’t the way the fans or players wanted their season to end, but the IceHogs put up a solid effort. The good news from the game: the box score for Rockford was encouraging. Ethan Del Mastro and Wyatt Kaiser each had an assist. And the two goals: both from Lukas Reichel. Here’s the first goal of the game for Reichel:
And here’s Reichel’s second of the game:
If you’re one of those who believe there’s more in there with Reichel and he just needs to get a little swagger and get after it more frequently, his release — and calling for the puck with authority — on both of these goals are tremendous signs. That’s what the coaches and front office have been begging him to show for months in the NHL. He’s heading to restricted free agency now coming off a long, tough year. We’ll see how the front office moves forward with him.
It’s hard to argue that the Blackhawks deserve Celebrini after getting lucky with Bedard last year and considering the run they had with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. I’m staying away from this question.