The Blackhawks have one more day of home practice before starting a tough stretch of games. Nashville comes to town on Friday night before a five-game that includes dates in Dallas, Denver and Los Angeles. Good times, right? At least Friday night’s home game against the Preds is on ESPN+ so those of us who paid for that subscription already will be able to stream the game on an app that works and is already offered to the market.
- Let’s talk about (one of) everyone’s favorite subject(s) these days: Lukas Reichel. He has played three straight games now, starting each on the fourth line but seeing some action on the second line in the loss to Vancouver. His ice time went up five full minutes from the Buffalo loss — in which he had two assists — to the loss against the Canucks. He put seven shots on goal between those two games, played with more consistent pace, was defensively aware and did a decent job of being physical (I’m not expecting him to be a wrecking ball like his captain, but he was there).
- Yesterday a few of us at the Blackhawks’ practice noticed head coach Luke Richardson having a lengthy conversation with Reichel off to the side of the ice. What were they discussing?
“I was just saying he’s doing good things,” Richardson told us after practice on Wednesday. “When somebody is struggling or does something that’s a little bit off of our structure, you try and talk to them and bring them back, and you want to make sure you talk to them when they do something well as well.”
- Richardson said they’re going to look to get Reichel some more run on the power play when they can. We’ll see how the lines look at practice today to have a better idea of where he might slot into the rotation at even strength (Taylor Hall was absent yesterday).
- We expected Hall’s off day yesterday; he wasn’t going to skate four days in a row this season as he continues to get his legs right after his ACL surgery last year and the Blackhawks have a back-to-back on Friday and Saturday night. But this story from Frank Seravalli, who was in town for a couple days, is interesting. According to a few people I’ve talked to and this report, Hall wants to be around beyond this season.
- With Hall not at practice, it’s hard to read into the lines at practice a ton but… Andreas Athanasiou was out of the rotation and Reichel was skating where Hall has been all season. We’ll see how that looks with Hall is back with the full team. Isaak Phillips was also skating in place of Nolan Allan, which is something to watch. He was with… Seth Jones…
- A few questions for Connor Bedard on Wednesday about goals not coming as frequently as he would like. He’s generating a ton of chances but hasn’t found the back of the net. Nothing is broken — we know that and so does he. Bedard told us they’re getting chances and, at some point, the dam will break. Richardson said once one goes in it might be a flood. Maybe we get that first one on Friday night?
- Congrats to long-time Blackhawks head athletic trainer Mike Gapski for being inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame! An honor he deserves for sure.
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- The Bulls opened their 2024-25 season last night. And… they lost.
- When the Bears face the Commanders on Sunday, we’re all hoping to see Caleb Williams vs. Jayden Daniels. But will Daniels be healthy enough to play?
- The Cubs named their prospects of the year on Wednesday.