The Chicago Blackhawks wrapped up a five-game trip with a 3-1 defeat to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday, their fourth straight loss.
Now, only .012 percentage points separate them from the last-place San Jose Sharks and the best odds at landing the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NHL draft.
Plenty of Hawks were playing for the future Saturday at Xcel Energy Center. Here’s the rundown on three of them.
Philipp Kurashev’s upper-body injury caused him to miss just his second game of the season — his only other scratch was Feb. 27 in Anaheim, Calif. — so it’s partly on Reichel to help pick up the slack on offense.
The forward put his skills on display during a 2-on-1 with Andreas Athanasiou, showing pass the whole time before scoring on Filip Gustavsson from the low-blocker side.
“Reichel had a really nice head fake to sell the pass,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said.
Given the makeup of the current roster, Reichel should see plenty of similar high-pressure situations, more opportunities to master the nuances like he did forcing Jared Spurgeon to play the pass on the 2-on-1.
“Couple 2-on-1s (in the past) I tried to always force it a little bit for the pass,” he said. “Just shoot it and glad it went in.”
Saturday was a big day for Kaiser. He played in his third NHL game after a one-game scratch, but the Andover, Minn., native had plenty of friends, family and former teammates from Minnesota-Duluth at the game.
“Saw my buddies in the corner and zoned in on them,” the defenseman said during an intermission interview with the NBC Sports Chicago broadcast crew.
“I told him he’s playing for free tonight because he’s buying a lot of tickets,” Richardson said after the game. “He had a laugh at that one.”
Kaiser caught a tough break in the second period when fourth-line forward Ryan Reaves knocked him down from behind, took the puck and scored the opening goal.
“I didn’t like the noncall on the first goal,” Richardson said. “If that’s a defenseman, that’s a call every time on the free hand.”
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Richardson placed greater focus on what Kaiser — who signed a three-year, $3.625 million contract last week — brought to the game.
“Kaiser’s skating ability, that’s NHL-level already,” he said. “Just him getting some action here now is going to help in going forward. Really bright young guy that listens and takes a lot in, so he looks pretty comfortable out there already.”
Johnson was activated from the concussion protocol and played his first game since Feb. 19 against the Toronto Maple Leafs. With Philipp Kurashev out, Johnson’s return Saturday after a 16-game absence was timely.
Before the game, Richardson credited the forward for not rushing back..
“Players are starting to get to know their bodies and it does take a little while,” he said. “Some of the symptoms aren’t clear right away because you play so many games together that your body’s not feeling great much of the time.
“So to figure that out was good and responsible and intelligent by Reese.”
Johnson didn’t seem at all tentative in his first game back. He entered the game in second place on the Hawks with 142 hits despite playing just 46 games to that point. He added five hits against the Wild to tie Connor Murphy for the top spot (147).
