Chicago was back on the practice ice on Thursday ahead of Friday’s home game against Vancouver, with some lineup shuffles occurring after a couple of trades this week.
Those shuffles were also required due to the apparent return of Wyatt Kaiser, who was injured just before the Olympic break and hadn’t played since Chicago returned to game action last week. But he was a full participant at Thursday’s practice, skating opposite Sam Rinzel. The forwards were also moved around now that neither Jason Dickinson nor Colton Dach are part of that group:
Blackhawks lines in practice today:
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 5, 2026
Greene-Bedard-Burakovsky
Donato-Nazar-Teravainen
Bertuzzi-Moore-Mikheyev
Slaggert-Foligno-Lafferty
Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Rinzel
Grzelcyk-Levshunov
Del Mastro-Korchinski
Coach Jeff Blashill said after practice that Kaiser is trending towards being in the lineup Friday. He also issued an update on Teuvo, who was apparently injured during Thursday’s practice, as well as the possible debut of newly acquired Andrew Mangiapane:
Blashill on Mangiapane: "Got that really good work ethic and speed. He's a dog on a bone…and he's got that with some offensive touch, so that fits into how we want to play. Where he slots in with which line, we'll see as we go."
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 5, 2026
With Kaiser returning, Kevin Korchinski was sent back to Rockford, which should allow him to get back on the ice after he was largely a healthy scratch with the Hawks. The other noteworthy item of the day was Connor Bedard addressing the difficulties of watching one of his former fellow prospect become a former teammate in an instant:
Connor Bedard: "Two weeks ago, me, [Colton Dach] and Greener were on vacation, talking about, 'After we win the Cup, we're going to go back.' It's hard."
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 5, 2026
"It's motivating that this is the last year that we're in a spot where we're moving guys that help us win… That's a shitty… https://t.co/z1caJhg49M