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Morning Skate Update: Updates on Toews and Kurashev; Vlasic returns

The Captain also spoke for the first time in several weeks

A bunch of team updates came up ahead of the Tuesday night game between the Chicago Blackhawks and Dallas Stars.

The Blackhawks made a roster move Tuesday morning to recall Alex Vlasic from the Rockford IceHogs. If Vlasic plays against the Stars, it’ll be his first game of the season.

Vlasic is indeed expected to play, as is Wyatt Kaiser.

Now onto injury news time!

  • Philipp Kurashev is done for the season due to the shoulder injury suffered in the Washington Capitals game last Thursday. He had been wearing a sling, so it’s not surprising he’s being shut down for the final nine games. He does not need surgery — just time to heal.
  • Jarred Tinordi may play again this season, listed as “day-to-day” with a hip injury, though he hasn’t been skating.
  • Austin Wagner is recovered but they’ll allow for some conditioning time before he’s back in the lineup./

Not an injury, but Jujhar Khaira missed the morning skate due to a non-COVID illness and will be a game-time decision for Tuesday night.

And in the biggest news of the day: Jonathan Toews was back on the ice with the team practicing at morning skate after a prolonged period of time. He won’t be playing against Dallas, but he definitely wants to get into a game before the end of the season.

After practice, Toews had a lot to say about his long COVID symptoms, his future as both a Blackhawk and an NHL player in general, and even briefly spoke about the Patrick Kane trade.

Just to note, there were no official lines at practice, but here is what they were against the Wild. The lineup for Tuesday night’s game shouldn’t be too different, minus some injury swaps and Vlasic drawing in for Tinordi. Alex Stalock is the expected starter in net.

As for the Stars, their lineup during the morning skate looks to be pretty similar as it was against the Vancouver Canucks Saturday with a couple of tweaks:

  • Forward Radek Faksa was with Max Domi and Tyler Seguin on the third line, while Ty Dellandrea was shifted down to the fourth line.
  • Veteran defenseman Joel Hanley will also swap places with sophomore Nils Lundkvist on the blueline.
  • Jake Oettinger will be back as the starter in net./

Former Blackhawks forward Max Domi took some time to chat with his former teammates. Unlike some of his other teams where Domi left on less-than-positive note, he was obviously quite popular in the Chicago locker room.

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