The Hockey Hall of Fame officially inducted its 2023 class on Monday night in Toronto. Henrik Lundqvist, Mike Vernon, Tom Barrasso, Pierre Turgeon, Pierre Lacroix, Ken Hitchcock, and Caroline Ouellette dressed up fancy, listened to other people talk nicely about them and then thanked everyone in their life for helping them get to the pinnacle of career achievement. It was, as always, a beautiful ceremony that included a tribute to legends who passed in the last year (a group♋ that included Blackhawks great Bobby Hull).
In the coming years, these ceremonies will start to have a more Blackhawks-centric feel. Duncan Keith is already retired and he’ll go in as soon as possible. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane are locks. Brent Seabrook should be, too. And, at some point, I’m going to win the hearts and minds of the selection committee and Steve Larmer will join Denis Savard and Doug Wilson from his great Blackhawks teams of the 1980s.
Since his arrival in Chicago, Tyler Johnson has been a great guy to speak with about the state of the team, the moms trip, traffic around Chicago, the weather… really just about anything. He was (predictably) asked about the weekend we watched from Connor Bedard in Florida. He noted that a couple of his past teammates who are likely headed for the Hockey Hall of Fame — Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos — had a not-normal work ethic like Bedard. When Tyler was asked about how Bedard’s becoming a little more feisty on the ice, he perked up and said:
“The kid is a rink rat, loves the game and is always smiling when he’s playing hockey.” Is that Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson talking about Connor Bedard? (That answer is yes, but he didn’t provide this quote.) This time, it was said by University of Michigan head coach Brandon Naurato about Frank Nazar, who is hot right now and appears to be all the way back from his hip issue. In the article below from Chris Murphy at , Nazar talks about his addiction to hockey. Sound familar?
Paul Ludwinski is indeed on a heater! Kingston’s captain has a point in 9 straight games — 14 points during the streak — and already has 7 goals and 11 assists in 15 games. Ludwinski already has six multi-point games this season, including a three-assist effort this past weekend.
Ludwinski is one of the Blackhawks’ prospects lighting up the OHL early this season. I wrote some more about the GREAT start for Nick Lardis this morning.
This is a solid read from Ryan Sikes on Denver sophomore center Aidan Thompson. Thompson was a point-per-game freshman last year after the Blackhawks drafted him, but the point production hasn’t been there yet this season; he’s scored only once in the first ten games. He’s doing a lot of other things that don’t show up in the point column that do matter, though; Sikes notes Thompson has won 57.5 percent of his faceoffs in his last eight games. It’s good to see his confidence is still there and he feels like he’s playing better than he did last year when things were showing up more in the box score for him.
I’ve been writing about the Blackhawks for almost two full decades now, through some good — GREAT — times and some mediocre times. And last year. And I can confidently say that this is the best collection of prospects I can remember in the organization. The Blackhawks have players all over the leader boards in the OHL, the NCAA, they have the current runaway favorite for the Calder Trophy in the NHL and probably one of the top three rookie defensemen in the league — both of whom are teenagers. It’s a really exciting time to write about and read about and watch and cheer for the future of the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Vegas Golden Knights celebrated their first Stanley Cup championship with their trip to the White House yesterday.
Finally, keep an eye out for some potential movement around Major League Baseball today.
