Some of the Blackhawks took in the Bears game on Sunday. For those scoring at home (from left to right): Nolan Allan, Philipp Kurashev, Joey Anderson, Nick Foligno, Louis Crevier, Connor Bedard, Ilya Mikheyev and Wyatt Kaiser represented at Soldier Field. And they watched the Bears battle in a close game against a division rival… only to lose in overtime.
- The folks at The Athletic published their first trade season big board and they have Taylor Hall at No. 4 on the list. Which is a bit of a surprise considering his lack of production and having been a healthy scratch recently. But that healthy scratch is apparently part of their rationale for having him that high on their list.
The alarm bells started to sound when Hall was scratched for a game last week. He’s struggled to regain form after missing most of last season due to a knee injury, but NHL Edge data shows that one of his strongest attributes — his powerful skating stride — remains. Hall’s top speed of 22.46 miles per hour is well above league average. With the Blackhawks on a trajectory for another spin in the draft lottery and Hall a pending UFA in the later stages of his career, the veteran winger will likely be on the move again.
- Good stuff on Sunday from Ben Pope on a couple notes. The headliner is some good stuff on Colton Dach, who’s second on the IceHogs in points behind only Frank Nazar. The Blackhawks don’t have a potential power forward in the system as close to the NHL as Dach. Good comments in here from Dach and IceHogs head coach Anders Sorensen about his confidence this season being a key.
- Also in the Pope piece: if/when Arvid Söderblom appears in four more games for the Blackhawks this season, he’ll then require waivers to be sent to Rockford. That’s becoming increasingly complicated for a couple reasons. First, we’ve seen a number of NHL teams desperate for goaltending already grab goalies off the waiver wire this season. And with Söderblom boasting an impressive a .926 save percentage and in the final year of an inexpensive contract, putting him on waivers could be a scary risk to take with Laurent Brossoit still coming back from a knee injury; we still haven’t seen him in a game for the Blackhawks since signing this summer.
- The other part of this that gets potentially complicated is whenever Brossoit comes back, if the Blackhawks don’t want to potentially lose Söderblom for nothing — and don’t want to run the risk of two veterans on the NHL roster with Brossoit missing as much time as he has — and not wanting to rush Drew Commesso, there’s a chance the Blackhawks carry three goaltenders for a while in the NHL. Which, in turn, limits their ability to call anyone else up from Rockford. When Seth Jones comes back from injury they’ll likely send Louis Crevier back to Rockford but they’ll still have a roster that’s at its max.
- Entering Sunday’s action, MoneyPuck had Söderblom with a 0.625 goals saved above expected per 60 — which ranks 11th in the entire NHL. His goals saved above expected of 3.7 is tied with his partner in Chicago, Petr Mrázek, for 20th in the league. It’s almost like goalies take time to develop and we should all be thankful the Blackhawks didn’t punt him after his struggles last year because he’s been fantastic this year. Patience is needed with young players at every position, folks.
- Alex Pharand had another assist for Sudbury on Sunday. He’s on a nice run here with seven points in his last five games and now has 19 points in 21 games; he had only 30 points in 68 games last year so this is a huge improvement in his second post-draft season. The Blackhawks selected Pharand in the fourth round (No. 99) in the 2023 NHL Draft. He’s listed at 6-3 and 192 pounds so his size is nice to see. He was injured during the prospect practices before training camp so we didn’t get to see him with the rest of the group much but he’s have a nice season thus far.
- The Blackhawks play at Minnesota in a Black Friday matinee this week. There was a scary moment on Thursday knight when Kirill Kaprizov, who’s clearly in the Hart Trophy conversation right now, had an ugly lower leg hit appear to do some damage. He returned to the game but got some extra attention from their medical staff over the weekend. We’ll see how he looks at the end of the week.
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- Patrick gave us player grades for the Bears on Sunday.
- Cubs fans should get ready for a busy week around MLB.
- The Bulls’ defense — or lack thereof — is a problem.