The Blackhawks took the L in their first game of the season, but there were some good things to take away from the performance. They’ll look to get a dub on the board before returning to Chicago for their Centennial home opener tonight in Boston against an Original Six opponent.
This is a different Bruins team. The Blackhawks already saw Brad Marchand — in Florida. There’s still some skill and speed there, however. The Bruins won 3-1 in Washington to open their regular season last night. So this should be another good test for the young Hawks.
Broadcast Info
Puck Drop: 6:00 PM CT
TV / Streaming: CHSN
Radio: WGN 720 AM
Expected Lineups
Chicago Blackhawks
Colton Dach — Connor Bedard — André Burakovsky
Teuvo Teräväinen — Frank Nazar — Tyler Bertuzzi
Ryan Donato — Jason Dickinson — Ilya Mikheyev
Nick Foligno — Ryan Greene — Sam Lafferty
Alex Vlasic — Sam Rinzel
Wyatt Kaiser — Artyom Levshunov
Matt Grzelcyk — Connor Murphy
Arvid Söderblom
Boston Bruins
Morgan Geekie – Elias Lindholm – David Pastrňák
Pavel Zacha – Casey Mittelstadt – Viktor Arvidsson
Tanner Jeannot – Fraser Minten – Michael Eyssimont
Marat Khusnutdinov – Sean Kuraly – Mark Kastelic
Mason Lohrei – Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm – Andrew Peeke
Nikita Zadorov – Henri Jokiharju
Joonas Korpisalo
Injury Report
Chicago Blackhawks
- Landon Slaggert is on IR. Joey Anderson, Laurent Brossoit (hip) are on non-roster injured and Shea Weber (retired) is out long term.
Boston Bruins
- n/a
What to Watch For
- It looks like Vlasic is back, which is great. But let’s see how his ice time works out as he returns from a cut.
- Dach on the top line is interesting. Let’s see how he works with Bedard. Some net front presence would be great there.
- I wrote about Bedard’s wheels after the first game. His speed is a difference maker. Let’s see if he can get the puck in the net tonight. And if Nazar can stay hot.
- Boston is playing the second half of a back-to-back, which means home openers two straight nights. Let’s hope their flight was delayed coming home from Washington!
Get Caught Up
If you’ve been in the 300 level at the United Center, there are always people who are more than happy to let the Blackhawks know what to do with the puck as soon as they enter the offensive zone.
SHOOOOT IT!
Last year, the Blackhawks averaged an NHL-worst 24.5 shots on goal per game. That was one full shot per game less than Vancouver, who ranked 31st in the league. Not great.
Yes, it’s an incredibly small sample size against two teams in their respective home openers on the road, but the Blackhawks have started the new year averaging only 21.5 shots on goal per game — which (again, small sample size) ranks 29th in the league.
We’re still looking for the Blackhawks to have more people consistently getting the puck on the net, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t making an effort. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Blackhawks have attempted 101 shots on goal in their first two games and have at least 50 attempts in both games.
Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images
And, through two games, Connor Bedard has been driving more offense than any other Blackhawks player.
According to Natural Stat Trick, Bedard has been on the ice (all situations) for a team-leading 46 Blackhawks shot attempts and 19 shots on goal. By my math, that means Bedard has been on the ice for over 44 percent of the Blackhawks’ shots on goal to start the season.
Bedard is tied for second on the team with four shots on goal himself. But he’s attempted 13 shots on net thru two games and had three high danger scoring chances personally.
He found the score sheet for the first time with a goal and an assist in Boston. With the Blackhawks’ home opener on Saturday, figure Bedard will want to stay in the point column(s) and get the United Center faithful to their feet against the Montreal Canadiens.
If you think Bedard will put at least one (1 — single) shot on goal in Saturday’s home opener and you haven’t given Bleacher Nation Fantasy a try yet, we’ve got a Bonus Pick prop for you! New users can take Bedard to put at least one shot on net to open the home slate of the Blackhawks’ Centennial season with a special weekend bonus.
It’s a big day for Chicago sports. The Cubs will play their win-or-go-home Game 5 in Milwaukee tonight while the Blackhawks host the Montreal Canadiens in the home opener of their Centennial season. Here’s hoping they win both games so on Monday we have the Blackhawks hosting Utah, the Cubs in LA against the Dodgers and the Bears in Washington to face the Commanders on Monday Night Football all overlapping! What a time to be alive, folks!
- A reminder: we’ve got all of the details for the red carpet events before tonight’s home opener for you.
- You know who won’t be walking the red carpet this afternoon? The Blackhawks assigned defenseman Ethan Del Mastro to Rockford on Friday morning. Which means more Matt Grzelcyk on the blue line moving forward.
- Let’s stick on the blue line for a moment with a guy who hasn’t been sent to Rockford. We’ve seen bits and pieces of the good and bad of Artyom Levshunov thru two games. The skill and potential are exciting. The learning curve has it’s moments. I appreciated the perspective from Blackhawks head coach Jeff Blashill after the game in Boston. As the father of a college freshman, I can’t imagine my son getting dropped in a foreign country and expected to survive very well — much less be a professional athlete at the highest level of the sport. A good moment of pause when considering Levshunov.
How about some Blackhawks prospect highlights?
- Václav Nestrašil was the big story for the Blackhawks’ pipeline on Friday night. Heck, he was the story of Hockey East’s night! Nestrašil had a hat trick before the second period was over! He now has four goals in his first three NCAA games, and he’s the first UMass freshman to record a hat trick in ten years. Here’s his first goal of the night:
- Here’s the third:
- John Mustard scored the only goal for Providence in a 5-1 loss at home to Michigan.
- Sacha Boisvert was a scratch for Boston University last night. He left their exhibition game last weekend after the first period. Something to keep an eye on for sure.
- Adam Gajan continued his hot start in net for Minnesota-Duluth. He stopped 15 of 16 shots in a 4-1 win over Augustana (SD).
- Parker Holmes had one goal and one assist for Brantford in a 6-0 win over Sudbury. Here’s his goal:
- Nathan Behm scored a goal for Kamloops in a 5-2 loss at Prince Albert. Behm has five goals and three assists for eight points in the first five games of his WHL season.
- How about a 53-year Hail Mary completion from Mason West to end the first half of his football game last night?
- Blackhawks prospect Roman Kantserov scored his eighth goal in his 14th KHL game on Friday.
- The Rockford IceHogs open their 2025-26 season tonight at home. With Milwaukee in town (Go, Cubs, Go!), they’ll have the IceHogs Opening Night Block Party starting at 4 PM with live music and some great entertainment before the game. You can also tune in to every AHL game on FloHockey this season.
Every game. Every goal. All season long.
Stream all IceHogs games on AHLTV on @FloHockey
: https://t.co/4VE2owy8Wl pic.twitter.com/xnyyOI4oZS
— Rockford IceHogs (@goicehogs) October 10, 2025
- On Friday the NHL Dept. of Player Safety suspended Islanders forward Jonathan Drouin for one game for cross-checking Pittsburgh’s Connor Dewar.
- Finally, David Pagnotta from The Fourth Period is reporting Chicago will be part of the PWHL Takeover Tour this coming season. It sounds like they might be playing in Rosemont at some point. Stay tuned for more information on this.
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- Guess which Cub has suddenly got great numbers in the postseason?
- Multiple Bears were upgraded on Friday’s Week 6 injury report
- Two quarter-ending buzzer beaters in one Bulls preseason game?
I pointed out after the Blackhawks started the regular season in Florida that the roster has transitioned from one of the oldest to the third-youngest in the NHL from last year’s opening night to this year’s edition. I’ve also been preaching patience with the young players on the roster as they make their mistakes and (hopefully) learn and grow from them.
But how do the veteran Blackhawks players see the differences between last year’s lineup and expectations to the new year? And how does the shifting focus from veteran rentals to the first wave of the future hitting the NHL feel in the room? Is that even a thing?
After the morning skate before the Blackhawks’ home opener on Saturday, I asked Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno those questions. As usual, he had some insightful things to say that gave us a sense of how he views the dynamic change as the leader in the room.
Foligno told me the lineup they had on the ice to start last year being older and filled with veterans meant there needed to be more cohesive play sooner in the season because that’s expected from older players. Now, there’s an understanding there will be a learning curve and there will be adjustments. Some of the young guys are still figuring out how and where they fit in the lineup — some are still trying to really feel like they belong in the league.
But the Blackhawks’ captain isn’t making — or accepting — excuses.
Okay, but what happens when a young guy does screw up? We’ve already seen plenty of moments of young guys missing their mark or making a bad decision and it hurting the team. How does the leadership of the team — on and off the ice — work to help fix that?
Foligno said he and Blashill balance each other out with the young players. Blashill gets to be the bad cop and Foligno gets to be the nice cop. Foligno also knows first-hand how much young players need to have veterans in their ear helping them along the way, but he’s still playing alongside them.
As I’ve said a million times before and will continue to say: there are going to be mistakes. The importance of those mistakes is learning from them — and fixing the issue in a timely manner. Becoming more comfortable, confident hockey players is how the skill can fully transition to impacting the team in the best way possible.
There are probably going to be plenty of moments for Foligno to talk thru with young guys this year. And opportunities to be the “good cop” in the room when the hammer comes down. And he’ll probably continue having new young players come up to work with as the veteran who’s been there and done that.
Remember before the preseason started when I wrote about three specific Blackhawks players who needed to make a strong impression early in the season to help their chances of making the Olympic rosters for their respective countries?
October 15 — this coming Wednesday — is the first cut-down date for countries putting together their preliminary rosters for the 2026 Winter Olympics. As I noted back in September, the Blackhawks had four regular-season games on their schedule before that deadline. So three guys who were considered on the fringe of making that cut needed to start well.
Frank Nazar is off to a great start for the Blackhawks this season.
In the first three games of the season, he has two multi-point games and five points (one goal, four assists). He’s continued to play with exceptional speed (his top speed ranks in the 91st percentile thus far) and is contributing to the Blackhawks on both special teams units (averaging 3:50 average power play time on ice per game, 2:38 average short-handed time on ice per game). Nazar’s hardest shot (85.1 mph) also ranks in the 90th percentile to date.
Add to his regular season start the noteworthy performances he had against Minnesota during the preseason. Nazar had a hat trick in the game in Minnesota.
Why is that significant? Wild general manager Bill Guerin is also the GM of USA Hockey’s Olympic roster.
Nazar’s USA Case
The United States wants to win gold at the Olympics. Badly. And they’re going to try to put together a roster that can do that — and continue their hot streak in international play. If they want a skater who’s performing well, Nazar checks those boxes.
But Nazar has performed well on the international stage for his country twice in the last two years.
Nazar led the gold medal-winning United States squad with 12 points (6 goals, 6 assists) in 10 games at the IIHF Men’s World Championship in May. He was also plus-seven in the tournament, playing primarily on the wing. New Blackhawks assistant coach Mike Velluci was on that coaching staff.
Nazar was also a member of the 2024 gold medal-winning United States team at the World Junior Championship — where he was a teammate of Blackhawks Sam Rinzel, Oliver Moore and Gavin Hayes. Nazar finished third in that entire tournament and second in the USA roster with eight assists in seven games.
The Blackhawks are back on the ice in St. Louis on Wednesday with a chance to win two games in a row. Coming off a win, let’s take a moment to give a couple specific players their flowers on the off day between games.
Wyatt Kaiser’s excellence
Let’s start with Blackhawks defenseman Wyatt Kaiser. On Tuesday, HockeyStatCards tweeted the updated net ratings. Kaiser is tied for the best rating in the NHL with LA’s Brandt Clarke. This tells us that, early in the 2025-26 season, Kaiser is among the elite defensive defensemen in the entire NHL.
According to Natural Stat Trick, there are nine defensemen in the NHL (thru Tuesday night) who have skated at least 65 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time. Kaiser’s 52.03 expected Goals For percentage (xGF%) ranks fifth behind only Gustav Forsling, Devon Toews, Drew Doughty and Adam Fox. Only Doughty has a lower expected Goals Against (1.76) than Kaiser (1.95). Doughty and Fox have won Norris Trophies. Forsling and Toews have received votes. The young Blackhawks defenseman is in some seriously elite company again.
Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images
Jason Dickinson’s defense shining
According to Natural Stat Trick, thru four games the Blackhawks five skaters at 5-on-5 with a Scoring Chances For percentage (SCF%) of at least 50: Jason Dickinson (64.71), Ryan Donato (58.33), Artyom Levshunov (57.14), Kaiser (56.41) and Louis Crevier (50.00). The same five skaters from the SCF% are over 50 percent in expected Goals For (xGF%), led by Dickinson (69.13).
Dickinson ranks 11th in the entire NHL (min. 32 minutes played at 5-on-5) in xGF% and 17th in the NHL in SCF% thru Tuesday night’s games. He also ranks 12th in the league in Shots For percentage (68.42). Dickinson is the only player in the top 15 overall of SF% and xGF% and top 20 overall in SCF% with a Corsi For under 50 percent.
Rivalry games on national television are always fun. But… the late start on a Wednesday night isn’t always the greatest. Unfortunately, the Blackhawks will have to do with without their captain; Nick Foligno took a leave of absence on Wednesday morning.
The Blackhawks invade St. Louis tonight for a mid-week clash with a Blues team that’s scored as many goals as they have allowed (9) thru three games (2-1-0). The Blues’ only loss came in their home opener, however; they’re 2-0-0 on the road to start the season. Here’s hoping the Blackhawks keep them winless in front of their home fans tonight.
Broadcast Info
Puck Drop: 8:50ish PM CT
TV / Streaming: TNT / HBO MAX
Radio: WGN 720 AM
Expected Lineups
Chicago Blackhawks
Colton Dach — Connor Bedard — André Burakovsky
Teuvo Teräväinen — Frank Nazar — Tyler Bertuzzi
Ryan Donato — Jason Dickinson — Ilya Mikheyev
Ryan Greene — Lukas Reichel
Alex Vlasic — Sam Rinzel
Wyatt Kaiser — Artyom Levshunov
Matt Grzelcyk — Connor Murphy
Louis Crevier
Arvid Söderblom
St. Louis Blues
Jake Neighbours- Robert Thomas – Pavel Buchnevich
Dylan Holloway – Brayden Schenn – Jordan Kyrou
Mathieu Joseph – Pius Suter – Jimmy Snuggerud
Alexandre Texier – Nick Bjugstad – Nathan Walker
Cam Fowler – Colton Parayko
Tyler Tucker – Justin Faulk
Phillip Broberg – Logan Mailloux
Joel Hofer
Injury Report
Chicago Blackhawks
- Nick Foligno is away from the team. Landon Slaggert and Joey Anderson are on IR. Laurent Brossoit (hip) and Shea Weber (retired) are out long term.
St. Louis Blues
- Torey Krug is on IR. Alexey Toropchenko is out. Oskar Sundqvist is day-to-day.
What to Watch For
- Teräväinen has five points (one goal, four assists) while putting only five shots on net in the Blackhawks’ first four games. He’s been setting the table on the line with Nazar and Bertuzzi incredibly well. Let’s see if that line gets on the board again tonight.
- Bedard has attempted 18 shots thru four games, but only 5 have been on net. The Blues rank seventh in the league, averaging 17 blocked shots per 60 minutes. Here’s hoping he finds a few gaps and puts one in the back of the net tonight.
- The Blackhawks goaltending has been superb. But Söderblom hasn’t been great in St. Louis historically. Let’s see if he can stay hot in his second start of the season.
Get Caught Up
The Blackhawks were on national television last night against a rival. And they blew them out of their own barn. The 8-3 win in St. Louis has a lot more people talking about more than the Blackhawks’ likely lottery odds in May right now, which is exciting.
I want to start by giving Lukas Reichel credit. He got into the lineup because Nick Foligno stepped away from the team and took advantage of his opportunity. We — fans, media, teammates, coaches, the front office — have all be begging Reichel to grab control of his hockey destiny for three years. Last night is only one night, but the guy we saw on the ice last night is why you don’t trade Reichel for a fourth round pick and call it a day.
After the game, Reichel said “I just tried to play free and have fun, and that’s what I did.” Jeremy Colliton, Derek King, Luke Richardson and Anders Sorensen all asked him to “go out there and play your game.” Yes, there were (still are) expectations that he’ll be more defensively responsible. But Reichel can impact a game so many ways with his speed. However Jeff Blashill and his assistants phrased the “have fun and play hockey” conversation before last night, standing ovation. Because it clicked.
Now it’s up to Reichel to do it again… and again, and again. Consistency has been his issue. And, at some point, Foligno and Landon Slaggert are going to be available and the roster’s going to get tight. If last night wasn’t a perfectly timed and executed showcase performance to move Reichel, he’s got an opportunity to help a lineup that’s becoming more dynamic from top to bottom before our eyes.
- I wrote about how well Wyatt Kaiser is playing defensively between games. He was really good again last night (even if the last goal of the night was a floater while he was on the ice with a six-goal lead). He was on the ice for almost 18 minutes at 5-on-5, during which the Blackhawks out-scored the Blues 3-1. Ben Pope tweeted a clip of him working on Jordan Kyrou. Textbook stuff here.
- You know who else had a good game last night? Artyom Levshunov, who has been a much better version of himself since the healthy scratch. He finished the night with an expected Goals For percentage (xGF%) of 66.74 in 13:54 of 5-on-5 ice time. He only put one shot on net and was credited with just one hit, but he played mistake-free hockey most of the night and was the only defenseman to finish plus-three in the game.
- I made the entire line my No. 1 Star(s) of the game, but I want to take another moment to applaud the work the Blackhawks’ third line did last night. Specifically, Jason Dickinson was an absolute beast. He won 11 of 16 faceoffs, finished plus-three and was credited with one hit, one blocked shot and one takeaway. Dickinson had the best xGF% on the Blackhawks’ roster last night (83.59). When your *third line* center is on the ice and the Corsi numbers are 21 for and only 11 against (21 being tied for the highest number of shot attempts at 5-on-5 in the game), that’s beautiful. Against Robert Thomas, the Blues’ top center, Dickinson had an xGF% of 90.92 and the Blackhawks out-scored the Blues 3-1.
- Some Blackhawks’ learning moments were still there in the blowout win. One thing the young guys who are newer in the league are still figuring out is how to avoid heavy contact. Sam Rinzel got absolutely blown up by Dylan Holloway in the first period. He bounced up, but this isn’t the first time he’s been on the nail and not the hammer. He’s going to have to learn to avoid big hits like this soon. Rinzel’s a skilled defenseman and a big target.
- Some concerning reports about the rink being built for the Olympic hockey tournament being behind schedule were brought up at the Board of Governors meetings in New York yesterday. Gary Bettman has heard them, and he’s not thrilled. Good updates here from Pierre LeBrun for The Athletic.
Gary Bettman expresses concern that NHLers could compete on untested ice at Milan Olympics. Update from BOG in NY for @TheAthletichttps://t.co/vzHm0oVj29
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) October 15, 2025
- This is a great read — highly recommend — from Scott Wheeler and Joe Smith at The Athletic about how NIL is changing the world of college hockey.
- The New Jersey Devils announced goaltender Jacob Markstrom will be out a couple of weeks. He got hurt on Tuesday night. Nico Daws was brought back up from the AHL.
- The Florida Panthers announced defenseman Dmitry Kulikov will miss the next five months after undergoing surgery for an upper-body injury.
- The Kings have some issues to deal with in net. Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period reported Darcy Kuemper was not at practice (lower body) and was considered day-to_day. But… then the Kings acquired goaltender Pheonix Copley from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for future considerations. Something to keep an eye on in LA. The Blackhawks host the Kings on Oct. 26.
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- The Pope threw shade at the Cubs?
- Troy Aikman’s comments on MNF are motivation for Caleb Williams, Ben Johnson
- Ayo Dosunmu has looked more than fine in his first action since shoulder surgery
The Vancouver Canucks fly to Chicago on Friday after beating the Stars 5-3 in Dallas last night. Getting a team in the second half of a back-to-back is usually an advantage. Playing them on your home ice the day after visiting one of the best teams in the league should certainly help the Blackhawks.
The Blackhawks, meanwhile, had a day off after blasting the Blues in St. Louis. They’ve got good vibes in the room, they’re feeling confident and skating well. The goaltending has been superb. Can they string together another win for… a… streak?
Broadcast Info
Puck Drop: 7:30 PM CT
TV / Streaming: CHSN
Radio: WGN 720 AM
Expected Lineups
Chicago Blackhawks
Colton Dach — Connor Bedard — André Burakovsky
Teuvo Teräväinen — Frank Nazar — Tyler Bertuzzi
Ryan Donato — Jason Dickinson — Ilya Mikheyev
Ryan Greene — Lukas Reichel
Alex Vlasic — Sam Rinzel
Wyatt Kaiser — Artyom Levshunov
Matt Grzelcyk — Connor Murphy
Louis Crevier
Spencer Knight
Vancouver Canucks
Drew O’Connor – Elias Pettersson – Conor Garland
Jake DeBrusk – Filip Chytil – Brock Boeser
Evander Kane – Aatu Raty – Kiefer Sherwood
Arshdeep Bains – Max Sasson – Linus Karlsson
Quinn Hughes – Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson – Tyler Myers
Elias Nils Pettersson – Victor Mancini
Kevin Lankinen
Injury Report
Chicago Blackhawks
- Landon Slaggert is still on IR but skated with the team this morning. Joey Anderson is on non-roster injured. Laurent Brossoit (hip) and Shea Weber (retired) are out long term.
Vancouver Canucks
- Nils Hoglander, Derek Forbert and Guillaume Brisebois are on IR.
What to Watch For
- The Blackhawks’ third line has been exceptional when Dickinson has been in the lineup. They’ll be tested tonight.
- The Blackhawks will need to keep their eyes open for big hits tonight. Myers and Kane usually don’t get cheated when they bump into someone; usually they hit with intent.
- Bedard and Nazar are quickly becoming must-see TV. Let’s see what they’ve got for a home audience on a Friday night.
- Knight comes into the game having stopped 80 of 87 shots on goal in his three appearances (.920 save percentage, 1-2-0 record). We’ve got a fantastic bonus pick on Bleacher Nation Fantasy for new users for the game today: if Knight makes a single save, it hits.
Get Caught Up
This is a really good read that I really think a lot of Blackhawks fans should read. Like, really read it for comprehension — not just for the pictures.
Ben Pope at the Chicago Sun-Times wrote about how the Blackhawks’ room and bench are different this year. How the young guys are taking it over. How everyone is working together and the leadership is organic. How everyone in the room feels like they can speak up and have a voice.
Take this quote from Alex Vlasic:
Leaders Leading
When I’ve written about the Blackhawks having “a type” before the draft each year, the same things seem to come up with each draft class. Speed. Skill. And leadership.
Look at the young guys who are on the Blackhawks’ NHL roster right now:
- Connor Bedard — captain at Regina
- Colton Dach — captain at Kelowna
- Landon Slaggert — captain at Notre Dame, asst. captain for USA Hockey
- Ryan Greene — co-captain at Boston University
- Alex Vlasic — assistant captain at Boston University
- Wyatt Kaiser — captain at Andover
There are guys in Rockford who were in leadership roles in previous stops along the way as well: Nolan Allan (captain at Prince Albert), Ethan Del Mastro (captain at Mississauga, asst. captain for Canada at the World Juniors) and Oliver Moore (asst. captain for USA Hockey at the World Juniors).
There are all guys who have won at various levels and been viewed by their teammates, peers, coaches and organizations as leaders.
Head coach Jeff Blashill was asked about Bedard before the game against Vancouver.
Bedard isn’t unique in that regard in the group of young players who are the future of the Blackhawks.
According to Plan(s)
There are two important parts of the Blackhawks’ rebuild plan that need to be discussed — and neither them happens on the ice.
The first is something I’ve written what feels like a million times, whether it’s here or on social media. But we’re going to take a step back and touch on a sensitive subject again here because it’s necessary.
When Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson made the decision that he would not offer a contract to Jonathan Toews or Patrick Kane, his rationale was that he wanted the waves of young players he was going to build around to be able to come into the league and organically build their own culture. He wanted things to happen naturally, with the leaders being comfortably taking steps into those roles.
The reality for the Blackhawks is simple: no matter who it was coming into the room — a veteran like Nick Foligno or an 18-year-old like Bedard — if Toews or Kane was there, the culture would default to whatever they did and said. And rightfully so. Foligno has been pretty open about the fact that, even though he’s one of the more respected leaders in the league, he would absolutely watch everything Toews did and try to replicate it because “he’s Jonathan ****ing Toews.”
As Davidson said, when the 19-88 generation of Blackhawks came into the organization (for the most part between 2005-09), they were able to create their leadership and culture from scratch. Yes, there were some veterans there who helped them along the way. But everyone knew where things were going, and the young guys took over.
Davidson wanted his new generation to have the same opportunity.
The quotes from Vlasic and others in Pope’s story tell us there’s a really good, healthy, natural, organic leadership evolution taking place in the Blackhawks organization right now. And that should be as exciting as the play on the ice.
Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images
The second part of this equation that we really don’t talk about enough was the decision by GMKD and his front office to take the development camp that happens right after the draft off the ice a couple years ago. A lot of people said that was just to keep the swarms of people away from Bedard in the middle of the summer. Maybe that had a small part of things.
But the bigger play was to get the enormous volume of prospects the Blackhawks were bringing into the organization together and do team building stuff for a week. Classes with a boxing instructor or doing yoga or competing in a cooking class. All fun stuff in groups — together.
The result: these young Blackhawks are becoming good friends off the ice. Which is feeding directly into the strength of the room’s new leadership.
The Blackhawks have drafted a lot of talented players. And they’ve worked to create a situation in which they’re able to come into the league together and establish how they want their room to look, feel and function. To establish themselves on the ice as NHL players and in the room with their teammates — and friends — as leaders.
The rebuild isn’t done by any means. There are still waves of players who are going to eventually join the group that’s in the NHL already. But it’s important to note that what’s happening off the ice with the evolution of the franchise is as important as the on-ice growth and development we’re watching.
The teams that owned the first two overall picks in the 2023 NHL Draft will meet at the United Center on Sunday evening. Connor Bedard vs. Leo Carlsson hasn’t developed as much juice as the Bedard-Celebrini debate, but it’s always fun when the top two overall selections in a draft class face each other.
This isn’t a game focused on two individual players, however. The Blackhawks and Ducks are similarly trying to turn their ships around and get back to competing at the highest level. They’re both bringing a bunch of young players into the league who are exciting. This should be a fun one.
Note: Tyler Bertuzzi was not at the Blackhawks’ morning skate, but head coach Jeff Blashill said he does anticipate Bertuzzi playing on Sunday night. The lines below are based on Saturday’s practice.
Broadcast Info
Puck Drop: 6:00 PM CT
TV / Streaming: CHSN
Radio: WGN 720 AM
Expected Lineups
Chicago Blackhawks
Tyler Bertuzzi — Connor Bedard — André Burakovsky
Teuvo Teräväinen — Frank Nazar — Ilya Mikheyev
Landon Slaggert — Ryan Donato — Lukas Reichel
Ryan Greene — Colton Dach
Alex Vlasic — Sam Rinzel
Wyatt Kaiser — Artyom Levshunov
Matt Grzelcyk — Connor Murphy
Louis Crevier
Spencer Knight
Anaheim Ducks
Chris Kreider – Leo Carlsson – Alex Killorn
Cutter Gauthier – Mason McTavish – Beckett Sennecke
Frank Vatrano – Mikael Granlund – Troy Terry
Ross Johnston – Ryan Poehling – Sam Colangelo
Jackson Lacombe – Radko Gudas
Olen Zellweger – Jacob Trouba
Pavel Mintyukov – Drew Helleson
Lukas Dostal
Petr Mrázek
Injury Report
Chicago Blackhawks
- Jason Dickinson is day-to-day and not playing tonight. Laurent Brossoit (hip) and Shea Weber (retired) are out long term.
Anaheim Ducks
- Ryan Strome is on IR.
What to Watch For
- The third line for Chicago has made an impact every night. But that line is now broken up with Dickinson out of the lineup and Mikheyev sliding up to the second line. Which forwards leads the defensive charge up front tonight?
- The Blackhawks skated their best 20 minutes of the year to start the game vs. Vancouver on Friday night. They took their foot off the gas. Let’s see how they bounce back.
- Bedard and Nazar both failed to register a point on Friday night. Can both of them change that against a young Ducks team that has some of their former national team teammates on the ice?
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