Did you watch last night’s Cubs-Cardinals game? Holy bleep! More on that later, but the way it ended made me think about other times in Chicago sports when a team has absolutely crushed a hated rival’s vibe like that. It was incredible! Based on Twitter, it looked like Cubs fans didn’t go to bed until a few hours after the game; Cardinals fans were as silent as their television crew when the ball was caught over the centerfield fence. When was the last time/best time the Blackhawks broke a rival team like that? I immediately thought about Brent Seabrook sending the Detroit Red Wings to the Eastern Conference with the L. What about you? Let me know in the comments!
The NHL is looking forward to fantasy drafts on their website, with their already out. On Friday they highlighted some rookies who cracked the list. Connor Bedard made the top 40 overall for the coming season. In my mind, Luke Hughes might actually be undervalued here; he’s Bedard’s top competition for the Calder Trophy this coming season and is skating into a great situation in New Jersey.
Other Blackhawks to make the top 250: Seth Jones (104), Taylor Hall (123) and Lukas Reichel (235).
I cannot wait to see what Frank Nazar brings to the ice at Michigan this season. Michigan’s student newspaper ran a really good piece on Nazar, who is at the USA Hockey showcase this weekend working to impress coaches for a spot in the World Juniors. Nazar was asked about taking over the No.1 center spot for the Wolverines with Adam Fantilli off to Columbus.
“It’s more about getting back to my game and just sticking to what I know and being the best that I can be. And if that’s what I end up earning and that’s the spot I end up playing — obviously I’ll have to earn it🔜 and jus🌳t be able to stay there.”
The good people over at JFresh posted a fun re-draft of the 2018 class on Friday. The Blackhawks had two picks in the first round that year — Nos. 8 and 27 overall — with which they selected two defensemen: Adam Boqvist and Nicolas Beaudin. As you might guess, neither of them was ranked that highly now; Beaudin appeared in 22 NHL games over three years before he was traded to Montreal this past season. Boqvist was traded to Columbus (yeah… I know…). In the redraft, the Blackhawks still went with a defenseman at No. 8: Noah Dobson. That would have been nice; he originally went 12th, so the Hawks passed on him five summers ago. At No. 27, they have the Blackhawks picking another player they selected that year: Philipp Kurashev — who Chicago selected at No. 120 overall. So his value has increased over his original draft position significantly. This wasn’t a great draft after the top six or seven overall prospects, but Kurashev has clearly outplayed where he was picked.
Hooray for offseason content, eh? The OHL is running a series where they ask five important questions about each team in the league. On Friday, they focused their attention on the Flint Firebirds. Their No. 1 question: Can Gavin Hayes score 50 goals this coming season? He finished last year with 41 and was as hot as it gets down the stretch. Here’s hoping he gets to that tremendous mark.
This is pretty cool. It looks like a collection of recently drafted players are in Marian Hossa‘s hometown signing autographs today, including 2023 Blackhawks selections Adam Gajan and Martin Mišiak. And the fans are excited to meet the next generation of Slovak stars in the NHL.
Finally, can we just take a moment and enjoy this ridiculous catch that ended the game last night?
And let’s not ignore the fantastic double play that made that the final out.
