Petr Mrazek made the start in net for the Blackhawks and had one of his best games in a Hawks uniform. He started off shaky, giving up two goals in the first 11 minutes of play, but settled in to save 45 of 48 shots faced, including all three shooters in the shootout. It is nice to see guys that were basically just brought in specifically to lose, do well. They deserve a little happiness this season, too. The Hawks really had no business winning this game. When you give up 48 shots, there should be no way you win.

The big story of the night (other than Kane) was local boy David Gust. Gust grew up in Orland Park, Illinois, played youth hockey for the Orland Fury, went to Ohio State University, won a Calder Cup as a veteran leader with the Chicago Wolves last season and signed an AHL deal with the Rockford IceHogs in a last-ditch effort to play for the team he grew up cheering for. After signing a two-year NHL deal just days prior, Gust scored the first goal of the game, on his first NHL shot, playing his first NHL shift, in his first NHL game. Storybook, folks. Congrats, Dave!

Ha. I worked for Dave Gust’s family in 95ish. I remember him running around the place as a toddler on weekends occasionally. Jesus I’m old. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/wTYG3M7GCv

— Puckin Hostile (@PuckinHostile) February 26, 2023

Poor Brett Seney got completely overshadowed, scoring his first NHL goal since Feb. 9, 2019, with the New Jersey Devils. Again, good on him. In a season of almost all negatives, Gust and Seney gave fans something to smile about.

  Whoever decided to schedule a jersey retirement at 9 p.m. CST that ran for an hour needs to have their head examined. Especially for a game between two teams that are circling the drain with 20+ games still remaining. If you stayed up to watch this, there should be a class action lawsuit you can sign up for.

Karlsson continued to enter his name in the trade deadline conversation with a team-leading six shots on net and a game-tying goal late in the third period.

Max Domi has become a fan favorite in Chicago, following trips through several organizations in the league, earning a not-so savory-reputation, he has come in and won many Chicago hearts, including mine. He took a stick to the mouth, which broke some chompers late in the second period. He came out in the third period and scored his 18th goal of the season in his first shift back, temporarily putting the Blackhawks up 3–2.

For those watching the “tank index,” Chicago is currently ranked 30th overall with a .405 points percentage ahead of the Anaheim Ducks (.375) and Columbus Blue Jackets (.364). The Blackhawks are off today but travel to down the coast to face another bottom-dwelling team, the Anaheim Ducks, on Monday. Puck drop is at 9 p.m. CST.

The post Blackhawks Post-game One-timers — Feb. 25 vs. San Jose Sharks appeared first on The Rink.

Date	The-Rink Division	Outgoing Player/Pick	Opposite Team	Player/Pick Received
2/22/2023		Future Consideration		Nikita Zaitsev '23 2nd Round Pick '26 4th Round Pick
2/23/2023		Josiah Slavin		Hunter Drew
2/26/3023		Jack Johnson		Andreas Englund
2/27/3023		Jake McCabe (50% retained) Sam Lafferty Conditional '24 5th rd pick Conditional '25 5th rd pick		Joey Anderson Pavel Gogolev '25 1st-round pick (top 10 protected) '26 2nd-round pick
2/27/3023	Rockford IceHogs	Future Considerations	Manitoba Moose	Colin Bilek
2/28/3023	Rockford IceHogs	Adam Clendening	Hartford Wolfpack	Zach Jordan
2/28/3023		Patrick Kane (50% retained) Cooper Zech	via	23 2nd Rd Pick (conditional 1st) 4th Rd Pick Vili Saarijarvi Andy Welinski
3/2/3023		Future Considerations		Anders Bjork
3/2/3023	Rockford IceHogs	Carson Gicewicz	Rochester Americans	Future Considerations
3/2/3023		Max Domi Dylan Wells		25 2nd Rd Pick Anton Khudobin
3/2/3023		Dylan Sikura		Max Golod
3/2/3023	Rockford IceHogs	Future Considerations	San Diego Gulls	Rocco Grimaldi Logan Nijhoff
3/3/3023		Future Considerations		Austin Wagner

Trade Analysis/Break Down:

• • • Chicago Blackhawks acquired Nikita Zaitsev, 2023 2nd Round Pick and 2026 4th Round Pick from the Ottawa Senators for future considerations
    • Chicago Blackhawks acquired Hunter Drew from the Anaheim Ducks for Josiah Slavin.
    • Chicago Blackhawks acquired Andreas Englund from The Colorado Avalanche for Jack Johnson
    • Chicago Blackhawks trade Jake McCabe, Sam Lafferty, a conditional 2024 5th-round pick & a conditional 2025 5th-round pick to Toronto for a 2025 1st-round pick (top 10 protected), a 2026 2nd-round pick, Joey Anderson and Pavel Gogolev.
    • The Arizona Coyotes acquired Patrick Kane from the Chicago Blackhawks for Vili Saarijarvi
    • The New York Rangers Acquired Patrick Kane from the Arizona Coyotes for a 2025 conditional 3rd Round Pick
    • The Chicago Blackhawks acquired 2023 conditional 2nd Round Pick, 2025 4th Round Pick and Andy Welinski from the New York Rangers for Cooper Zech
    • The Chicago Blackhawks acquired Anders Bjork from the Buffalo Sabres for future considerations
    • The Dallas Stars acquired Max Domi and Dylan Wells from the Chicago Blackhawks for Anton Khudobin and 2025 2nd Round Pick
    • The Anaheim Ducks acquired Dylan Sikura from the Chicago Blackhawks for Max Golod

Also, be sure to follow the entire The-Rink staff on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates, as well:

The Rink Official

Chicago Divison
The Rinkcast
Jeff Osborn
Andy Campbell
Ray Napientek
Eric Andrews
Sean Fitzgerald
Andrew Bard
Matt Csakai

 

The post The Rink’s Chicago Blackhawks 2023 NHL Trade Deadline Tracker appeared first on The Rink.

At 2:39 of the first period, Lukas Reichel scored his first career goal to give the Hawks a 1–0 lead. Reichel skated into the slot and made a no-look pass to Seth Jones who shot the puck from the point and Reichel tapped in the rebound.

Elias Lindholm tied the game at 1–1 on the power play with his 13th of the season as he tapped in a rebound at the 8:49 mark.

The Hawks regained the lead when Colin Blackwell scored his first in a Blackhawks sweater to give the home team a 2–1 lead. Blackwell capitalized on a rebound off a Sam Lafferty shot from the right circle at 10:10 of the first.

Just 35 seconds into the second period, Philipp Kurashev one-timed a feed from Reichel past Jacob Markstrom for his fifth of the season to give the Hawks a 3–1 lead. For Markstrom, it was his third goal given up on 11 shots in the game which led to a goalie switch by Flames coach Darryl Sutter, who brought in backup Dan Vladar.

The goaltending switch gave Calgary some life as just 27 seconds later, Jonathan Huberdeau scored from the slot for his eighth of the season which cut the Hawks’ lead to 3–2.

At the 9:40 mark of the second, Calgary tied the game on a power play goal by Nazem Kadri for his 16th of the season off a rebound right in front of Hawks netminder Alex Stalock.

After a scoreless third, the Hawks won it in overtime when Max Domi made some excellent stick moves in the slot then fed Reichel who dished it back to Domi who deked Vladar for his 12th and second OT winner of the season. For the second straight game, the Blackhawks won 4–3 in overtime.

As for Reichel, he notched his first career three-point night although his special night might have been wasted if it weren’t for the stellar night by Stalock, whose 44 saves included 38 of 39 at even strength.

The Hawks get a few days off before returning to home ice on Thursday night against defending Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche. The puck drop is at 7:30 p.m. CST.

The post Blackhawks Post-game One-timers — Jan. 8 vs. Calgary Flames appeared first on The Rink.

Join your fellow Rinkrats below to discuss what the Blackhawks accomplished (or didn’t accomplish) this year as the market opened.

Player	Pos	Prev Team	New Team	Age	Ht / Wt	Term	Notes
Andreas Athanasiou	C			27	5'10" / 192	1 x $3M
Max Domi	F			27	6'2" / 190	1 x $3M
Alex Stalock	G			34	5'11" / 170	1 X $750K
Colin Blackwell	F			29	5'9" / 190	2 X $1.2M
Adam Clendening	D			29	6'0" / 190	$400K AHL deal	Rockford IceHogs Signing
Luke Philp	F			26	5'10" / 181	2 X $750K	2-way
Brett Seney	F			26	5'9" / 174	2 X $750K	2-way

These are Blackhawks trades relevant to this offseason

Date	The-Rink Division	Outgoing Player/Pick	Opposite Team	Player/Pick Received
7/7/22		Alex Debrincat		'22 First round draft pick (7), '22 second round draft pick (39), a third-round pick in 2024
7/7/22		Kirby Dach		‘22 1st round pick, ‘22 3rd round pick
7/7/22		2022 2nd round draft pick (38)		First round draft pick (25) and goaltender Petr Mrazek
7/8/22		2022 6th round draft pick (167)		Rights to forward Liam Gorman

The post Blackhawks 2022 Real-Time Free Agency Tracker appeared first on The Rink.

6:00pm CST

Centre Bell

TV/Radio: WGN

PROJECTED STARTERS

Chicago – Corey Crawford (11–15–2, SV%: .902, GAA: 3.18)

Montreal – Carey Price (29–21–5, SV%: .915, GAA: 2.58)

TEAM STATISTICS

Power Play

Chicago (20.9%, 12th)

Montreal (12.1%, 31st)

Penalty Kill

Chicago (73.0%, 31st)

Montreal (80.5%, 17th)

Shorts for/against

Chicago (32.5, 12th; 34.9, 30th)

Montreal (33.5, 4th; 31.0, 12th)

Shooting %

Chicago (10.4%, 8th)

Montreal (8.8%, 23rd)

Faceoff %

Chicago (49.3%, 20th)

Montreal (48.8%, T23rd)

Avg. height/weight

Chicago 6’1”, 195lbs

Montreal 6’0” 195lbs

PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS

Chicago Blackhawks

Brandon Saad–Jonathan Toews–Dylan Sikura

Dominik Kahun–Artem Anisimov–Patrick Kane

Alex DeBrincat–Dylan Strome–Brendan Perlini

Chris Kunitz–David Kampf–Marcus Kruger

Duncan Keith–Erik Gustafsson

Carl Dahlstrom–Connor Murphy

Gustav Forsling–Brent Seabrook

Montreal Canadiens

Tomas Tatar–Phillip Danault–Brendan Gallagher

Artturi Lehkonen–Max Domi–Andrew Shaw

Jonathan Drouin–Jesperi Kotkaniemi–Joel Armia

Paul Byron–Nate Thompson–Jordan Weal

Victor Mete–Shea Weber

Brett Kulak–Jeff Petry

Jordie Benn–Christian Folin

Analysis

After nearly blowing a 5-0 lead in their last game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Blackhawks travel east to Montreal to face the Canadiens. The Blackhawks played very well early against the Maple Leafs on Wednesday, scoring four of their five goals in the first period. The star of the game was certainly Brendan Perlini, who continues to light the world on fire as he is fighting for a new contract next season. Perlini has five goals and two assists in his last five games, this also coming after his two goal performance against the Kings six games ago.

Every game down the stretch is important for the Blackhawks. Colorado’s loss last night would now allow the Blackhawks to jump the Avalanche in the standings with a win in Montreal. The Blackhawks would only be one point back of the Wild with a win, but still four points back of the red-hot Coyotes for the second wild card spot.

The Montreal Canadiens have been a pleasant surprise this year. After the trade of Alex Galchenyuk for Max Domi, many fans around the league wondered what the Canadiens were doing. The move paid off as Domi is currently the team’s leading scorer with 62 points. The Canadiens have been a very good team in every major statistic category and, with Carey Price returning to his old form, the team is in a position to make the playoffs in a deep Eastern Conference.

The Canadiens can move into a tie for the second wild card spot tonight with a win against the Blackhawks. Montreal currently sit two points back of the Columbus Blue Jackets, hoping for a chance to make the dance—when most people around the league wrote them off before the season ever began. A Canadiens win tonight would keep Montreal on the outside looking in due to Columbus having more regulation plus overtime wins.

One storyline to watch is Corey Crawford. Crawford has historically been dominant against his hometown team, so expect a solid game out of Crawford after he battled a 24-hour bug that saw him leave Wednesday’s game early.

Comment below in our live game thread tonight!

And look for the internet’s most robust recap of the game tomorrow morning on the-rink.com.

The post Preview/Game Thread: Blackhawks at Canadiens appeared first on The Rink.