Morning Bag Skate: The Circus Trip begins Thursday night

The Chicago Blackhawks finally start their Circus Trip on Thursday night with a matchup against the Calgary Flames. We'll have more on that later -- for now, here's the news:

**The 'Hawks officially announced that Trevor van Riemsdyk will miss 3-4 months after suffering a patella fracture. Yes, that's a broken knee cap. Yikes. (SCH)

**EPIX released the first trailer for "Road to the NHL Winter Classic," the upcoming series that'll cover the 'Hawks and Caps in the run up to New Year's Day. It's nothing special but I'm stupid excited for this nonetheless. (SCH)

**Sounds like Joakim Nordstrom and Adam Clendening will both play Thursday after the recent roster shuffle. Corey Crawford is also slated to start in goal, though he'll likely get a chance to rest at some point on this trip. (CSN Chicago)

**Blue Jackets defenseman Cody Goloubef could miss the remainder of the season after suffering a knee injury on Nov. 1 (PHT)

**Boston defenseman Adam McQuaid will be sidelined 6-8 weeks by a broken thumb (Bruins)

**The Red Wings know they're taking some risk by placing 23-year-old forward Andrej Nestrasil on waivers, but they believe he needs more time in the AHL (PHT)

**Sam Riches with a fantastic longform on Connor McDavid if you haven't checked it out already (SB Nation)

**More unfortunate news out of Pittsburgh, where the team announced Pascal Dupuis will miss at least six months after doctors discovered a blood clot in his lung. It's possible Dupuis never plays again, but that obviously takes a backseat to his health right now. (Penguins)

**Here's a timeline of the recent health scares to pass through the Penguins organization (SB Nation)

**Teemu Selanne has closed the door on the idea of playing in the KHL, further cementing his retirement from professional hockey. Frankly, we will support Teemu doing whatever the hell he wants because he's Teemu. (Puck Daddy)

**Former NHL goaltender Jeff Deslauriers signed with the KHL's Dinamo Riga (Dinamo Riga)