Morning Skate Update: Stalock starts; Englund returns

A few updates before the Blackhawks face the Canucks in Vancouver on Thursday night.

First, the Blackhawks will continue rotating goalies with Alex Stalock getting the nod after Petr Mrazek faced the Calgary Flames on Tuesday:

The other lineup changes involve players on the long list of recent acquisitions by the team:

Both Ian Mitchell and Alex Vlasic remain in the lineup, though, so potential for further development of younger players could happen in this game. And Lukas Reichel remains on the top line, where he’ll probably be for the rest of the season.

We also have a vital, crucial, pivotal development as reported by Ben Pope of the Sun-Times:

Outstanding work.

Also, on a related note:

(Anyone unfamiliar with that GIF needs to skip watching this game and peruse some prior Simpsons series instead)

The Canucks had an optional morning skate on Thursday but did practice on Wednesday, so their lines will probably look something similar to this:

Thatcher Demko is expected to be in the Vancouver net:

One other news item to report from the Blackhawks world, although it requires a trip to Sweden and probably some help from Google Translate.

Old friend Niklas Hjalmarsson returned to hockey this season, playing for HV71 in an attempt to keep that club from being relegated. He was successful, but Hjalmarsson is retiring (again) after lingering symptoms from a concussion led him to that conclusion:

Avslutar karriären efter hjärnskakningen • En av svensk hockeys största

Niklas Hjalmarsson har beslutat att avsluta spelarkarriären vid 35 års ålder. Efter ett års uppehåll gjorde han comeback

AftonbladetFoto: JOHAN BERNSTRÖM / BILDBYRÅN

Hjalmarsson was the captain for HV71, earning three assists in 17 games.

(s/t to former SCH contributor Patrik Bexell for the heads-up on this – and the translation!)