Hawks Weekly Update 5/6
IceHogs eliminated in playoffs, Hawks look at new broadcasting home, and the Draft Lottery is just around the corner.
Another quiet news week for the Hawks. The calm before the storm. That storm being the draft lottery on May 7th.
First of all, welcome to the new readers. Since switching to Substack the blog has gotten some more views, which is great. And don’t worry. I’m not doing the whole paid subscription thing.I won’t ever do that. One thing I don’t like about Substack is that it forces a “Welcome Page” for first-time visitors on the website. I can’t change it. I know it looks spammy. I’m sorry.
NHL Draft Preview will be in the works this week. Can’t promise that I drop it this week, but once we know where the Hawks land, it’ll be easier to finish.
Hawks History is going to start up soon. No timeline yet but expect the first post to be from the 90’s. Subject to change, but I’m thinking this will be a weekly-ish post during the offseason. I’ll either pick a player or a game (or both?) and write about it.
Playoffs have been fun. Here’s my bracket so far.
I genuinely thought the Leafs could do it. The Avs and Stars series should be a good one. I don’t think the Canucks will do great against the Oilers. The Canucks didn’t look their best against the Preds. Rangers and Canes game should be close. Who knows what’ll happen with Boston and Florida.
Album of the week: Testament, The Legacy
This one was hard to pick. Mostly because there’s a bunch of new stuff that I was listening to. In my recent mix was Testament, a band that I hadn’t listened to since high school. I don’t know why I ever stopped. The Legacy is one of the best thrash metal albums ever and I found it on repeat this week. Crunchy.
Weekly Update
My offseason preview dropped last week. Take a look if you want to learn more about what the Hawks have in store this summer. NHL Draft Preview will come out next week.
In a shocking turn of events, Connor Bedard was named as one of the finalists for the Calder Memorial Trophy. He’s alongside Brock Faber and Luke Hughes. If you want to throw Faber’s +/- in my face, go ahead. It’s cute. Bedard finished with 22 goals and 61 points in 68 games. He’s the first 18 year-old in Blackhawks history to lead the team in points and the third in NHL history to do so.
The IceHogs got eliminated in the playoffs on Sunday, losing to the Grand Rapids Griffins 4-2 in Game 4. More on that below.
If you didn’t know, the Blackhawks won’t be aired on NBC Sports anymore. Initially, it looked as if the Hawks would join the Bulls and White Sox at Jerry Reinsdorf’s Stadium. Things have changed. Standard Media Group will now broadcast the White Sox, Bulls, and Hawks. The station is unnamed as of now. I’m not savvy in broadcasting drama, but I’m highly skeptical of this. Standard Media Group is based in Nashville.
A reminder that the Draft Lottery is tomorrow at 5:30pm, Chicago time.
The Pig Trough
5/1 - IceHogs @ Griffins - Hogs Win 5-1
The Hogs made things even on Wednesday night with the help of Mike Hardman and his two goals. Drew Commesso also debuted in his first professional game and stopped 27 of 28 shots. The question going around Twitter was if Anders Sorensen should keep his goalie rotation going or start Commesso the following game while he’s hot. Ethan Del Mastro scored his first postseason goal to make the game 1-1. Michal Teply scored his second goal of the playoffs. Luke Philp finished the scoring to make it 5 unanswered goals for the Hogs.
5/5 - IceHogs vs Griffins - Hogs eliminated 4-2
Just like that, anything post-season-Hawks related is over. The IceHogs lost to the Griffins on Sunday. Lukas Reichel was the lone goal scorer with 2. Commesso was in net and despite the loss, he played solid. In the 2nd period, the Hogs were outshot 11-4 but Commesso prevented anything going into the net. Reichel scored his second goal after receiving a saucer pass from Wyatt Kaiser. The Griffins ended it with an empty net goal.
And with that, the IceHogs join the Blackhawks in offseason shenanigans. I’m proud of these guys for getting into the playoffs because the first half of their season was ugly. I was hoping for a deep run (like all of us) but I wanted them to come over here to the desert to play against the Firebirds. Oh well.
Sick Bay
Taylor Hall – Knee/Out for season
Reese Johnson - Concussion/unknown
Connor Murphy - undisclosed/day-to-day