Morning Bag Skate: Hawks returning home for preseason game No. 3

The Blackhawks continue a busy preseason week on Friday with a preseason matchup against the New York Rangers at United Center. It could be our first Teuvo Teravainen sighting since camp, and arguably more importantly, it's on television after last night's game somehow missed the airwaves. So we got more hockey to watch tonight, but until then, here's the news.

**Puck Daddy's emoji-based season previews finally reach Chicago. They're optimistic about the Blackhawks' chances (Puck Daddy)

**Nick Leddy knows he needs to improve on the defensive end and taking advantage of shooting opportunities, amongst other things (CSN Chicago)

**This seems like a less than ideal way of using valuable practice time, but it led to someone using the word "truculence" in a lede so I'm not upset (TSN)

**Claude Giroux will be ready for the season opener after returning to practice Thursday (Pro Hockey Talk)

**Jordan Staal needs surgery to repair his broken leg, which means he'll be out 3-4 months (Hurricanes)

**Nashville has agreed to a five-year, $12.5 million contract with young defenseman Ryan Ellis. That's an annual cap hit of $2.5 million (Pro Hockey Talk)

**Ground broke on the Red Wings' new arena in downtown Detroit on Thursday. The $450 million facility is set to open in 2017, replacing Joe Louis Arena (Detroit News)

**Predators forward Viktor Stalberg will be sidelined 2-4 weeks with a lower body injury. The former Blackhawk could miss the beginning of the season (The Tennessean)

**You think folks in Boston are happy they let Nathan Horton go right about now? Columbus is now saying the high-priced winger will be out indefinitely due to a "degenerative back condition," which doesn't sound too good (Columbus Dispatch)

**Josh Gorges didn't want to go Toronto because he didn't think it'd be fair to his old team in Montreal (The Canadian Press)