Amidst a deluge of other problems happening for the Chicago Blackhawks right now, Philipp Kurashev was taken out by Tom Wilson of the Washington Capitals on Thursday night during Chicago’s 6-1 defeat.
Philipp Kurashev took a hit from Tom Wilson on his second shift of the game and hasn’t taken a shift since. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/iaTW3K9h3z
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) March 23, 2023
Because of that hit, Kurashev will not be playing on Saturday against the Minnesota Wild and his status will be up in the air until he undergoes further evaluation when the team returns to Chicago:
Alex Stalock will start for the Blackhawks tomorrow at the Wild.
Reese Johnson will return to the lineup, replacing Kurashev. The Hawks hope Kurashev doesn’t have a concussion, but they’ll wait until returning to Chicago to check him out more closely and make that determination.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 24, 2023
The loss of Kurashev is a further blow to the Hawks’ center depth, with the team already missing Jonathan Toews and Cole Guttman to injury and having already traded away Max Domi and Sam Lafferty. Jason Dickinson also missed a shift in that Washington game after being hit by T.J. Oshie, and Jujhar Khaira had to step into the first-line center spot. And with Colin Blackwell out for 12 weeks for hernia surgery, the Hawks played the game with 11 forwards — maybe explains why they have just one goal in the last two games.
A very unhappy Tyler Johnson:
“It’s a little embarrassing. We have to play a lot better. We’re not sticking to our structure, not sticking to our system. We’re just out there right now. We’ve got to compete and play a lot harder for each other.”
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 24, 2023
At least Jarred Tinordi got his own hit in on Wilson, supporting Richardson’s assessment of Tinordi from ealrier in the season.
Jarred Tinordi lays a massive hit on Tom Wilson. Oh baby. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/OTJRuX0w8c
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) March 23, 2023
Richardson on Jarred Tinordi:
“If you owned a bar, you’d hire him as your bouncer.”
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 13, 2023
This is about the only other information from Friday’s practice to share:
PP1 now appears to be Reichel, Tyler Johnson, Athanasiou, Raddysh and Seth Jones. Athanasiou is kind of in the netfront role actually
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 24, 2023
That’s about it for on-ice Hawks news, so I’ll leave you with this:
Seth Jones playing with the security dog: pic.twitter.com/nyYezHTGzk
— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) March 21, 2023