Let’s start a second off-day with some talk about accountability. We heard before the season that the Blackhawks’ new depth was going to afford the coaches the ability to make guys earn their spots in the lineup.
The focus of a lot of angst in the fanbase was Lukas Reichel being a healthy scratch on the entire season-opening road trip, but he wasn’t the only guy who got a night off to consider his role. Ryan Donato was a healthy scratch. In the five games since then: five points and a plus-four. Craig Smith was a healthy scratch. I wrote about his success with Reichel on Tuesday morning. And it certainly appears Reichel got the message — at least he’s shown improvement in a small, six-game sample size. The Blackhawks are able to use the number of players available to make sure guys are earning it every night. And, for the most part, they are.
- The Blackhawks recalled Isaak Phillips on Tuesday morning. Which is interesting. Head coach Luke Richardson praised Alex Vlasic‘s effort (as well as Jason Dickinson‘s) after the win in Denver but wasn’t happy with the overall performance in the second period. The hope was that Alec Martinez would join the team at some point on this road trip. The Blackhawks play Thursday, Saturday and Sunday on the trip and only had six defensemen on the plane. We’ll see if anyone is banged up when they practice in San Jose later today.
- TJ Brodie only skated 14:28 on Monday night and was the only defenseman with a dash in the plus/minus column. He blocked one shot and did not attempt a shot on net.
- Nolan Allan skated 13:22 but blocked two shots and attempted one shot on net. He was even in the game.
- Since we’re talking defensemen… Sam Rinzel was named the No. 1 Star of the Week in the Big Ten Conference.
- Good story here from Ben Pope on the enduring second-line center situation. While we wait for Frank Nazar / someone to be ready for that job (or a trade?) it’s still an issue the Blackhawks are working around in real time.
- We’ll wrap it up this morning with a couple notes on former Blackhawks over night. First, defenseman Olli Määttä was traded from Detroit to Utah. A couple thoughts: first, I love that a 30-year-old Määttä, who is in the final year of a contract with a $3M cap hit, is getting a third-round pick (stares at the Blackhawks’ depth of defensemen). Secondly, this is a veteran who won’t be on the Detroit blue line when they arrive in Chicago one week from today. So that’s decent.
- This was pretty special last night. Marc-André Fleury played his final game in Pittsburgh. The Pens paid tribute before the game and then served up another win on Flower’s career record. Fleury was named the game’s No. 1 Star and two of his long time teammates, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang, stayed on the ice to congratulate him. We’ll always have those 45 spectacular games he was a Blackhawk…
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- The Bulls will be without Lonzo Ball because of an injury. I know I know… I’m sorry. But it’s happening again.
- Kinduva crappy 36 hours to be Bears head coach Matt Eberflus’ agent, eh? Some great thoughts yesterday on that subject. Matt Rooney wondered if Eberflus is finally on the hot seat while Patrick Flowers (no relation to Fleury) wrote that the Bears lack accountability — starting with Eberflus.
- Brett shared some thoughts about the White Sox reportedly hiring Will Venable as their new manager.