The Blackhawks played a really good team last night and almost mirrored the script from the Vegas game perfectly — until they gave up a tying goal in the third period and lost in overtime. The difference between the two teams: Carolina’s speed. The Canes are one of the fastest teams in the league and have speed from top to bottom in the lineup; you saw it on Seth Jarvis’ short-handed goal and Martin Necas was flying all night. That’s the model the Blackhawks want to emulate in the future.
Which is why this shot-out-of-a-cannon moment from Frank Nazar last night made me smile. The next wave of Blackhawks is going to be a lot of this. This is what elite speed looks like; according to NHL Edge, Nazar has topped out over 23 mph this season. I would have guessed this burst last night was higher than that, too.
Frank Nazar's top speed is blistering fast. Wow. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/hKdbra8eme
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) January 21, 2025
- As an FYI, late last night the NHL made an official scoring change and gave Nazar an assist on Tyler Bertuzzi‘s goal. Should have been there all along.
- The Blackhawks are hitting a tough patch in the season with injuries — which, as an aside, is why you don’t start trading guys too soon — and they might have been dealt a significant blow last night. Craig Smith has been dealing with a bad back since late December. Pat Maroon was out of the lineup last night with a back issue. Teuvo Teräväinen got banged up and needed a little attention from the medical staff late last night. But the big one was Jason Dickinson taking this shot to the arm/elbow area last night and heading straight to the room. Interim head coach Anders Sorensen doesn’t say much about injuries and just gave us a “he should be okay we’ll know more tomorrow” when asked about Dickinson after the game.
Oh man, Jason Dickinson immediately goes to Chicago's locker room after taking a heavy shot off the arm. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/6BB0YClIhq— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) January 21, 2025
- How about this sick move from Nick Foligno in the first period last night? I did not expect to see that… respect.
Nick Foligno turning back the clock! #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/rvCt1TBcip
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) January 21, 2025
- Last week I wrote about Ryan Donato‘s value to the Blackhawks. He has been one of the Blackhawks’ most consistent forwards (with Dickinson), and that consistency is paying dividends with him on course to have the best offensive season of his career. Which is why, sadly, he is quickly becoming one of the more attractive names on the Blackhawks’ roster ahead of the trade deadline. Donato is doing everything a contender would covet in their bottom six down the stretch and into the postseason — and he’s doing it in a walk year with a $2M cap hit.
- Mark Lazerus at The Athletic wrote a good column about Donato’s trade value. A lot of what he writes in here could be used making a case for the Blackhawks to keep Donato around for a couple more years and reward his hard work with an extension. But the reality is that the more he produces, the more eyeballs will be on him from the vultures circling the Blackhawk’s roster.
- Earlier this morning I updated my rankings of the top 25 prospects in the Blackhawks’ system. Feel free to give it a look and tell me where I got it terribly wrong. But I wanted to add a note here about how some of the Blackhawks’ prospects have done specifically in the month of January (entering Monday night’s action). Again, these numbers are just since the calendar flipped to 2025.
Blackhawks OHL prospects:
- Nick Lardis, Brantford — 7 games, 5 goals, 3 assists
- Marek Vanacker, Brantford — 8 games, 3 goals, 4 assists
- Alex Pharand, Sudbury — 9 games, 0 goals, 9 assists
- Martin Misiak, Erie — 8 games, 2 goals, 5 assists
- Jack Pridham, Kitchener — 8 games, 1 goal, 3 assists
- AJ Spellacy, Windsor — 8 games, 0 goals, 2 assists
Blackhawks NCAA prospects:
- Ryan Greene, Boston University — 4 games, 5 goals, 3 assists
- Aidan Thompson, University of Denver — 4 games, 2 goals, 2 assists
- Dominic James, Minnesota-Duluth — 6 games, 1 goal, 1 assist
- Sam Rinzel, Minnesota — 6 games, 1 goal, 3 assists
- Oliver Moore, Minnesota — 4 games, 0 goals, 2 assists (+ a WJC gold medal)
- Sacha Boisvert, North Dakota — 4 games, 1 goal
- Of course the Blackhawks buried hiring a VP of Hockey Operations on a Monday night with the College Football Playoff Championship Game and the Hawks hosting Carolina happening (nevermind the Bears hiring Ben Johnson!). Interesting move here. Makes a ton of sense with some tricky contracts likely needed in the coming years with the young players starting to need second contracts. Here’s what insider Frank Seravalli had to say about the addition to the front office on the pregame show on CHSN last night:
"He's someone that the Hawks are going to be counting on to help manage both their salary cap and negotiate contracts."@frank_seravalli on the #Blackhawks hire of Chris O'Hearn as VP of Hockey Operations. pic.twitter.com/1VWiIHWr8Y— Blackhawks on CHSN (@CHSN_Blackhawks) January 21, 2025
- Well this added a fun subplot to last night’s game…
- Speaking of the Canucks, their game on Thursday night against the Oilers might be a little less exciting on the ice… but a whole lot more interesting. The NHL handed down a couple suspensions on Monday afternoon.
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- Holy **** not only did the Bears reportedly land Ben Johnson to be their new head coach, but he’s reportedly lining up an impressive coaching staff! (Now let’s get David Carle to the Blackhawks!)
- Matt Shaw of the Cubs ranks as one of the best third base prospects in all of baseball.
- Can I interest you in some Nikola Vucevic trade rumors?