Hockey’s back!
Not just prospects this time, either: the 2024-25 Chicago Blackhawks were on the ice on Thursday morning at the Fifth-Third Arena for their first formal practice to open the hockey.
Let’s take a quick perusal of all the pertinent news of the day, starting with the one thing everyone loves to do on the first day of practice: wildly overreact to line combinations!
Bedard gets to start off with two of the better options available to him on the current Chicago roster. That second line is a touch redundant based on player type. Here’s the visualization of that European Union line as summarized by Eric over at SCH HQ:
There was scrimmage time aplenty during the opening day of practice, with plenty of clips popping up online throughout the day. Here’s Isaak Phillips ensuring he’ll be banished to Rockford forever (only sorta kidding) by laying a bump on Bedard in open ice before Samuel Savoie scored at the other end of the ice:
Nick Lardis scored a goal after a No. 25 in Chicago turned the puck over in his own end. Not Jarred Tinordi, though: it was Alec Martinez!
Here’s a sample of what that top scoring line looked like:
Bedard: still good!
An uptempo start to camp was the plan all along, per coach Luke Richardson:
One of the themes that emerged when the players spoke to media later in the day was the clean bill of health for veterans who missed plenty of game action last season.
There were two absences from the early practice session, though: goaltender Laurent Brossoit and defenseman Artyom Levshunov, the No. 2 pick from the 2024 NHL Draft.
The big event of the day was the official introduction of Nick Foligno as the 35th captain in franchise history. Here are some sights and sounds/words from that press conference:
Also, Seth Jones and Connor Murphy will sport the “A” in Chicago this season:
More practices on the way in the next week ahead of Chicago’s preseason opener next Wednesday against the Red Wings.