The Blackhawks’ second day of training camp is now in the books. There was another scrimmage today with the team that was off the scrimmage set jumping into the fray today. We also heard from general manager Kyle Davidson and head coach Luke Richardson for the first time since camp opened today. So there was a lot to unpack for a second day of camp.
Here are some takeaways 𓃲from the scrimmage and practice time on Friday:
Forwards Alex Pharand, Marcel Marcel and Marek Vanacker were still skating early as injured players.
Scott Powers on Friday morning that No. 2 overall pick Artyom Levshunov “will lmiss the entire preseason due to the injury.” General manager Kyle Davidson confirmed both Levshunov and Laurent Brossoit are likely about four weeks away from being back with the team. We’ll see what that means for a backup goalie to start the regular season.
Team “B” scrimmaged Team “C.” So Connor Bedard‘s “team” wasn’t involved. The two teams played a 25-minute period without a score and then switched ice sheets for another 15 minutes. That was a change from Thursday. Neither team scored but there was good flow from both rosters.
In the scrimmage, I thought Gavin Hayes and Landon Slaggert showed very well. Here’s a shift from Slaggert:
Here’s a shift from Hayes:
Blackhawks Forward Lines
Here are the lines we’ve seen the first two days of trainining camp (without scrimmage team affiliation):
Taylor Hall — Connor Bedard — Tyler Bertuzzi
Lukas Reichel — Philipp Kurashev — Teuvo Teräväinen
Nick Foligno — Jason Dickinson — Ilya Mikheyev**
Pat Maroon — Andreas Athanasiou — Craig Smith
Joey Anderson — Ryan Donato — Landon Slaggert**
Colton Dach — Frank Nazar — Nick Lardis
Gavin Hayes — Paul Ludwinski — Samuel Savoie
Ryder Rolston — AJ Spellacy — Zach Sanford**
** — did not scrimmage Thursday
Richardson said he liked the idea of having a veteran leader in Teräväinen on the ice with Reichel and Kurashev. At one point during the practice he encouraged Teuvo to share some coaching tweaks with Reichel especially. I like the idea of a guy who is defensively responsible but also brings a lot of offense on a line with Reichel. Remember: Teräväinen was a center when he got to the Blackhawks but he’s been primarily/almost exclusively a wing the last few years in Carolina. There’s a lot Reichel can/should/hopefully will learn from Teräväinen.
The second-line center spot is still very much up for grabs. Richardson has said both days that he’s going to mix things up, though he did say Kurashev did a nice job when he was forced to play center in the top six last year. We’ll see how long he sticks with the lines we’ve seen so far. The chemistry has been pretty decent thru two days of scrimmages.
Richardson also talked about Athanasiou fully coming back after missing most of last year and playing a responsible game down the middle on a veteran line with Maroon and Smith.
I spoke with Mikheyev today about skating on a line with Dickinson and Foligno. He said his marching orders in camp have been pretty simple: play fast, play the puck hard, be strong defensively and flip the ice. I like his speed so far. He said he feels like he was able to get a full summer of normal training in; he was recovering from a torn ACL last summer. If he can get back to being a 20-goal guy that would be a huge add for the Blackhawks in a middle-six role.
