A few quick Blackhawks items to share from Thursday’s practice ahead of Friday’s home game against the Los Angeles Kings.
The items mostly touch on fallout from that third-period line brawl against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night, which landed one Blackhawks forward in concussion protocol:
Johnson’s absence clears the way for Landon Slaggert to make his NHL debut. Slaggert signed with the Blackhawks last weekend after his senior season with Notre Dame ended, and the 2020 third-round pick (79th overall) will be the fifth player from that draft class to reach the NHL, following first-rounder Lukas Reichel, fellow third-rounder Wyatt Kaiser, fifth-rounder Isaak Phillips and seventh-rounder Louis Crevier.
Want some line combinations? Of course you do.
One other item emerged near the end of Luke Richardson’s post-practice press conference. During Tuesday’s blowout of the Anaheim Ducks, Kevin Korchinski briefly skated with the top power-play unit. Apparently, that was not a promotion for Korchinski but merely a temporary measure while Seth Jones was receiving attention in the locker room. Richardson’s full response (including some light trolling of TV analyst Darren Pang) is in the clip below, but here’s the pertinent part of Richardson’s response:
“Yeah, (Jones) just went away to get checked up or get something wrapped or taped. By the time he got back, it was almost over, so we just let it run. But he was fine.”
The latter part of that video above also included an explanation from Richardson on why Jones was mysteriously absent from the bench towards the end of the game, but that stemmed from the fallout of that line brawl: