And just like that, the sun is shining once again in Blackhawks land.
It’s difficult to avoid getting carried away when Connor Bedard does things like he did on Tuesday night which speak to the incredible hype that has followed him around since he was a teenager, long before he started lighting up scoreboards for the Blackhawks. The same can be said when Frank Nazar is flying around the ice and racking up points as well, because these are two of the players expected to be at the heart of the foundation upon which another dominant hockey team is going to be built. Potential is one thing. Actually witnessing it on the ice during an NHL game? It sends your hopes and dreams of future success off towards the stars.
Those two will have the loudest moments of the season because that’s just how this sport works, but they haven’t been alone in providing moments of potential being realized. Wyatt Kaiser has probably been the best blue-liner the Hawks have had this season, even if his last couple of games might not have been quite as impressive. Spencer Knight has been superb in goal, perhaps with the Blackhawks leaning almost too heavily on him as a driver of their success. And there are more candidates for similar spotlights through the rest of the season. Guys like Rinzel and Levshunov and Dach and Greene and more could all have breakthrough games that spin some gears in their heads which help them evolve into the finely tuned athletic machines we’re all hoping they become. That’s the most enjoyable part of this kind of season, and it’s one we’re actually getting for a change. It seems like the first 10 games of this season have offered more enjoyable nights than the last three or four seasons combined. And there are still 72 additional chances at racking up some more before the season ends.
Sure, everything stated in this space last week remains applicable. The Blackhawks now have the highest PDO in the NHL at 1.050, which suggests a regression to the mean is imminent. Knight can still play at a fairly high level while falling down a bit from the .930 save percentage and 2.11 goals-against average he currently boasts, turning a few of these closer wins to close defeats. But as long as we keep getting moments of brilliance from Bedard and Nazar with moments of supporting roles played by some of the other kids mentioned in this section already, then we’ll continue coasting down this Sunshine Highway without a cloud in sight.
The Week That Was
Thursday, Oct. 23: Blackhawks 3, Lightning 2
I was in Panama City Beach during this game and walked through an area with about 10-15 restaurants/bars containing a whole bunch of TV screens, wondering if the game being played in Tampa would result in the game being on one of them. It was not.
Sunday, Oct. 26: Kings 3, Blackhawks 1
This game suuuuuuuuuuuucked and we don’t need to say anything else about it.
Tuesday, Oct. 28: Blackhawks 7, Senators 3
Imagine how annoying the Senators would’ve been in the third period of this game if Brady Tkachuk was playing.
Undertow
The Lukas Reichel era in Chicago ended last Friday with an anticlimactic thud of a trade involving the Vancouver Canucks. Closing that chapter means we no longer need to agonize over where Reichel is in the lineup — if he’s in the lineup at all — or advocate for him to get a longer look in a more offensively suited role. But there’s always something to be learned when a player who once seemed to be a piece of the big picture here is now no piece at all.
Part of this is the fools’ gold which can come from impressive stretches of play from youngsters towards the end of an NHL season, something that’s been touted consistently by Sam Fels from his always insightful corner of the internet. Reichel famously put up 15 points (7 G, 8 A) in 23 games in the 2022-23 season, with 12 of those points (6 G, 6 A) coming in the final 19 games of the schedule after he received a call-up from Rockford in early March. But that’s always a part of the season when teams can be a little more in cruise control, with playoff spots often confirmed while veteran players know to salvage from energy for the upcoming slog that the postseason can be. Reichel was on the verge of turning 21 and receiving his first lengthy NHL look when he did all that, so perhaps he had a little more juice than most during that time. That’s not to say those numbers should be ignored, but perhaps a little more context can be applied to them based on the circumstances. It should also be noted that Reichel hovered around a point-per-game in 111 AHL games between 2021-22 and 2022-23 with 108 points (41 G, 67 A).
That’s all mentioned with an eye towards what’s happening in Rockford right now, where Nick Lardis and Oliver Moore are torching the league. Lardis is tied for the league lead with 12 points (4 G, 8 A) in eight games while Moore is tied for the league lead with six goals and has a trio of assists in the same number of games played. For context, Moore turned 20 in January and Lardis turned 20 in July, so they’re roughly the same age as Reichel was when he was enjoying similar AHL success. It’ll be one thing if Moore and/or Lardis are called up in December like Nazar was last year and immediately pop off at the NHL level while teams are still in that initial mad dash to rack up as many points as possible during the first half of the season. But if those two arrive here in March when the rest of the league has throttled down in the back half of the season, then we should probably wait for a little more data before we pencil either one of them into long-term spots here.
But it’s also been delightful to visit the AHL website and see a pair of highly touted Blackhawks prospects clocking in atop the league leaderboards during the first few weeks of the season.
The Week That Will Be
Thursday, Oct. 30 at Winnipeg Jets
Kane being on the Red Wings now almost feels like an afterthought because it’s been a few seasons and they only play twice a year. Could be a different story with Toews in the same division as the Hawks now.
Saturday, Nov. 1 at Edmonton Oilers
It’s a little early for the ol’ Circus Trip but that two-week swing out west in November does feel familiar.
Monday, Nov. 3 at Seattle Kraken
Given that Donato and Burakovsky arrived in Chicago from Seattle, perhaps we’ll have to keep an eye on the Kraken forwards in this game to see who’s coming here next.