Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?
The Blackhawks stomped all over the Blues last night in an 8-3 victory. And it’s not like the Blues are supposed to be a horrible team this season; they actually aren’t bad. It’s easy to say that this is just “one game,” but it feels different, doesn’t it? The kids looked good out there, namely Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar. Lukas Reichel had two goals and an assist. Wyatt Kaiser is continuing to impress as a defenseman. What more could you ask for from this group?
Of course, the reality is that the Hawks are going to have more rough games in the future. That’s just the way things are. But when a win like this happens, smile while you can. Just a few observations.
Lukas Reichel played with confidence last night, but we’ve seen that before. If he can consistently bring that game every night, does Kyle Davidson trade him for assets?
Andre Burakovsky hasn’t been bad, and he’s someone who could get traded if he produces. He had a 26.21 expected goals share (xG%) at even strength last night. More indicative of that line as a whole (Connor Bedard and Colton Dach). I think it’s time to move Dach off of that line, by the way.
Connor Bedard continues to make excellent passes. His pass from below the goal line to Alex Vlasic was incredible. But I still need to see Bedard shoot the puck more. He had one shot on goal and one shot attempt last night.
Sam Rinzel continues to get turned into a meat crayon on a nightly basis. He definitely looks like a rookie out there, and that’s as expected. Rinzel had a 52.07% xG last night.
Hawks take on the Vancouver Canucks on Friday at 7:30 pm CT. I’ll be covering the game for On Tap Sports Net and will have a recap there. My last recap you can find here.