There was some good news on the injury front at Blackhawks practice on Friday: both Taylor Hall (shoulder) and Alex Vlasic (concussion) skated with the team, and all indication are they’re close to playing in games again:
Hall and coach Luke Richardson both stated that the forward could make his return to the lineup Saturday against the Florida Panthers, while Richardson said Vlasic is more of a a possible addition in Sunday’s game against the New Jersey Devils:
With Hall’s return more imminent, he skated with the rest of the team more during regular line rushes and with the power play group. When taking line rushes, he wasn’t slotting back into his normal spot next to Connor Bedard, but instead was with Jason Dickinson and Tyler Johnson on the third line.
Vlasic was mostly paired with Isaak Phillips on the “fourth” pairing, making it likely the latter will be out Saturday as well. Jarred Tinordi was moved up to be with Connor Murphy as a result, with Wyatt Kaiser swapping one statue with another in the form of Nikita Zaitsev.
When working with the top power-play unit, Hall rotated with Philipp Kurashev, and the rest of the unit was Bedard and The Old Guys (Corey Perry and Nick Foligno):
Perry also spent some time after the main practice feeding Bedard passes for one-timers:
In other news, Kevin Korchinski’s entry-level contract will start after the game Saturday, and while there’s been no formal confirmation Korchinski will stay with the Blackhawks all season, it’s looking more and more likely.