Achieving their goal: Slumping Blackhawks pull off surprise win over Florida
This is a strange year for the Blackhawks. Deep into a rebuild, they sent most of their promising prospects to Rockford for development and tried to fill the big-league roster with veterans who could help create more of a competitive atmosphere for Connor Bedard.
Well, heading into Thursday's game against Florida, the Hawks had the same record they did at the same point last season (6-13). So it seems like the plan isn't working, but they managed to surprise the defending Stanley Cup champs with a 3-1 victory at the United Center.
The Hawks even snapped their run of six straight games of scoring 2 goals or fewer when Nick Foligno poked in an empty-netter with a minute left.
The Hawks scored a first-period power-play goal when it looked like they carefully tried to execute a play someone drew up in the snow, determined not to just wildly chuck the puck toward the net.
Teuvo Teravainen made a cross-ice pass to Tyler Bertuzzi on the doorstep of the goal. Rather than tip it in, though, he had to gather the puck and banged a shot off goalie's stick. It bounced right back to Teravainen, who buried it in the back of the net.
Next came the Hawks' first 2-goal lead in 19 days when Craig Smith scored on breakaway midway through the second period. Florida closed within 1 less than minute later when Sam Reinhart fired a shot while teammate Evan Rodrigues basically sat in the lap of goalie Petr Mrazek.
But the Hawks survived a late delay-of-game penalty and a few flurries in front of their own net to secure the victory.
Coach Luke Richardson has been changing the lines frequently, This week's experiment was moving Bedard from center to the wing, alongside Jason Dickinson and Joey Anderson. Bedard doesn't have a goal in 11 games, but collected a pair of assists in Tuesday's loss to Anaheim, so the second-year rising star was back on the wing.
“We're just trying to find what consistently works and we haven't just get there yet,” Richardson said. “It's not one person's fault. We're still finding ourselves with a bunch of new players.”
On Wednesday, Richardson was asked about a couple of those players in Rockford. The standout on the shores of the Rock River appears to be 2022 first-round pick Frank Nazar. He's the Icehogs' top scorer with 15 points in 12 games after playing three games in Chicago late last season when his college career at Michigan ended.
“He's the No. 1 center down there, both special teams units he's doing really well in,” Richardson said. “That's probably not what he would get first line here all the time. We want to make sure he keeps growing and he feels confident that he is that guy when he gets here and he just continues. Instead of maybe taking a step back at this level.”
Another interesting case is defenseman Kevin Korchinski, the No. 7 overall pick in 2022, six picks ahead of Nazar. Korchinski, 20, spent all of last season with the Blackhawks, playing in 79 games, but the team decided he'd be better off with more time in the minors. So he's been in Rockford all season.
This year's No. 2 overall pick, Artyom Levshunov, started late due to a foot injury but has played 10 games in Rockford with 5 points.
In other Blackhawks news, former franchise cornerstone Jonathan Toews updated his health status in an Instagram post, saying he's been on a “bit of a healing journey,” and recently spent five weeks in India.
Toews has not officially announced his retirement from the NHL but last played for the Hawks on April 14, 2023. He missed the entire 2020-21 season with Chronic Immune Response Syndrome.
“It’s too long of a story to share all the details here, but it’s been almost five years of searching for a way to heal the inflammatory and immune system issues that took me out of hockey,” Toews wrote. “The wisdom of Ayurveda has taught me that everything I experience, I am responsible for. Not only did it teach me better diet choices specific to my body type, it has deepened my intuitive relationship with myself and the world around me.”