CHICAGO – It didn’t take long for Luke Richardson to establish that this Blackhawks training camp would be different than his first two as head coach.
There would be no easing into camp and ramping things up as the first week went along. Instead, Richardson set a different tone for camp by opening it with a 25-minute scrimmage, officials and all.
“We wanted to get right in,” Richardson said. “We expected the guys to come in in shape. We talked about it. Nick (Foligno), internally, talked about it with the guys that were coming here, especially the leaders, they all showed up in great shape, did extra stuff in the training room and the weight room before camp even started on their own. You can just feel it. So, I think we just wanted to go with it and get right into a fast pace. I loved the pace today. The pace up and down was excellent.
“We just want to use that pace to be up and down the ice, execute now with more veteran players that are able to make these plays at a high-pace NHL-level speed. And if we can continue that, we’re going to be a hard team to keep up with.”
The reference to having more veteran players is the main difference between this year’s team and the last two. A season ago, Richardson had to balance NHL expectations with a team full of NHL newcomers. While this year’s team may have a couple of young players, it isn’t expected to have nearly as many. This will be the most NHL-caliber team in Richardson’s Blackhawks tenure.
How Richardson coaches this group and what the expectations are within the group are different because of that, too.
“Taking a step forward for us (is the goal this season),” said Seth Jones, who is entering his fourth season with the Blackhawks. “We’ve got to keep taking steps forward. I don’t know how many games we won the last couple years. I know it’s probably in the mid-20s, and we want to take steps to become a better hockey team than we were in the year before. So that’s on us, on all the players in this organization, to be the best team we could be on the ice. Every single night we’re competing in front of our fans and making it enjoyable for them to come to the games at home.
“And then the key for us is we’re a little bit older, and I think that’s really going to help our road record this year, to be honest. Last year, I don’t know what (it was but) we lost a lot in a row last year on the road. And I think being a little bit more veteran, understanding that we might have to win a road game 2-1 or 1-0, or go to overtime and be OK with it and be comfortable, it’s got to be important for us this year.”
The veterans discussed after Thursday’s scrimmage how they’d like to see more physicality in future camp scrimmages.
“Me and Nick were talking earlier, maybe the next couple of days, get a little more contact in, not killing guys, not running guys over, but kind of setting the tone in that sense, defensively, on the forecheck,” Jones said. “You push other teammates to be better, your team’s going to get better. So we want to kind of get that into the games the next few days too.”
Although Thursday was the first day of training camp and a lot was going on, the Blackhawks made sure it was Foligno’s day more than anything. After announcing Wednesday that Foligno was becoming the 35th captain in franchise history, the Blackhawks followed that up with a news conference to make it all official Thursday.
Chairman Danny Wirtz, general manager Kyle Davidson and Foligno all wanted to make sure Jonathan Toews, the Blackhawks’ last captain, got his due. Foligno said he reached out to Toews but hadn’t connected with him yet.
“Obviously, I want to talk to him and just have that conversation,” Foligno said. “I know what he’s meant to this organization and I’ve said he’s a pillar that this organization stands on with what he’s done. I admire him, because we both got drafted the same year, and to see what he was able to accomplish at such a young age and take on the leadership role at such a young age at an Original Six team in a market like this. It’s admirable and something as a player from afar, I’d watch and I’d learn and appreciate. So, the one thing I’m going to make clear is that there are no shoes to fill. That’s been done. That’ll never be touched. His legacy will live on for a very long time.
“But what I’m excited about is a new era, so to speak. It’s about growing this team to that direction and understanding we have a lot of great players coming. There’s an exciting group of players coming, an exciting group of players we have this season I’m really proud to lead with a handful of guys here, and I’m honored to do so. It’s about building that the way I know how. Maybe because I’m older, I’m not worried about trying to hold a candle to that. I’m confident in who I am and what I can do for this team and also with the help of these guys. That’s where I’m really excited about getting to work with and I appreciate everything Jonathan’s done and he’s given us a hell of a blueprint in order to do so. Hopefully, we’ll get back to the years where he had a lot of success here and hopefully we will too.”
Foligno did everything you’d expect of a captain and more last season but just without the title. No one anticipated any of that would change this season with the “C.”
“Nick has always been Nick, deep down,” Jones said. “When I got to Columbus, I was 21 years old, so I got a firsthand (view) of what he’s talking about when the young guy comes into the team and what we were trying to build there, we were kind of at the start but in the middle of our process there. But he’s a very personable guy, always asking to go to lunch, always wanting to go to dinner with different guys on the team to establish those connections. He wants everyone to kind of be a tight-knit group, so that if you trust each other off the ice, you’re going to trust each other on the ice. And so that’s kind of the model that we went with there in Columbus, and that’s something that we’ve always talked about here when we got here, and we want to get to get to that tight-knit group again.”
Do we read too much into early lines at camp? Yes.
Will that stop us from doing it? Nope.
So, let’s analyze. Of course, the biggest question entering camp was who would be appearing alongside Connor Bedard on a line. With the scrimmage to start the day, we didn’t have to wait long to find out. With Bedard at center, Taylor Hall lined up as his left wing and Tyler Bertuzzi as his right wing. Richardson said he compiled the lines looking for some balance but also hoping to see how some players fit together. He said he may juggle them in the coming days.
Bertuzzi was an obvious choice. Davidson made Bertuzzi his biggest unrestricted free agent signing to date this offseason.
Bedard nearly pulls off a move at the net pic.twitter.com/DGP60Gn98r
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) September 19, 2024
Whether the other wing would be Hall, Philipp Kurashev, Teuvo Teräväinen or someone else was more of the unknown. Hall isn’t completely surprising. He was acquired before last season to play alongside Bedard and had a brief run with him before injuries cut his season short. Hall and Bedard had mixed results together in a small sample size. To be fair, Bedard was still getting his feet wet at that point, and Hall wasn’t healthy for that long. The line is worth a look. Hall has been at an elite level before and is motivated to show he can return there. Bedard should be that much more comfortable this season.
Again, not to read too much into the early goings of camp, but Hall was noticeable in the scrimmage on Thursday. There was one stretch where he had a few strong consecutive shifts. On one, he stripped a puck and created a chance. On the next, he set up Bertuzzi for a chance at the net with a crafty pass.
“I’m excited to see him go,” Richardson said of Hall. “He’s so revved up to play right now. Even last week, going to Colorado and doing some high-altitude training, he’s all business right now, just the way we want to conduct ourselves as a team and he’s driving that pace out there. That’s the way he likes to play. I remember him in New Jersey being the MVP of the league, and that’s the way he played. We’re expecting him fully healthy to kind of continue getting to where he was just getting to when he got injured, unfortunately, in the early part of November.”
Taylor Hall slides a pass to Bertuzzi for a quality chance pic.twitter.com/pQwcXBOEYN
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) September 19, 2024
Here are some other line combinations and thoughts on them:
Lukas Reichel – Kurashev – Teräväinen: This could be a fun line if it clicks. It has to be a trip for Teräväinen being back in Chicago as a veteran and playing alongside two younger players who have some similar attributes to him.
Foligno – Jason Dickinson – Ilya Mikheyev: Foligno and Dickinson being back together was a safe bet. Mikheyev makes sense as the other winger. He’s a versatile forward and has some offense and defense to his game. You would think this line gets a lot of defensive-zone starts.
Patrick Maroon — Andreas Athanasiou – Craig Smith: This might be the Blackhawks’ fourth line and where jobs can be won or lost. The Blackhawks brought in Maroon and Smith this offseason to help create roster competition. Athanasiou was flying Thursday and is undoubtedly motivated to have a bounce-back season.
Colton Dach – Frank Nazar – Nick Lardis: It’s obvious Nazar is going to have to blow everyone’s socks off to earn a spot out of camp. The preseason games will be big for him. Lardis will be going back to junior, but he did score a goal during the scrimmage Thursday and will be a prospect to watch this season.
Joey Anderson – Ryan Donato – Landon Slaggert: It’ll be interesting to see how many of the players from this line earn an NHL spot out of camp. Slaggert is probably unlikely based on numbers. Anderson showed a lot last season but probably has to have a strong camp to have a chance. Donato is likely to make it, but where does he fit?
Richardson didn’t have much of a definitive update on No. 2 draft pick Artyom Levshunov (foot) and newly signed goalie Lauren Brossoit (right knee) but said we were both on track.
“I know (Levshunov’s) in the gym right now working, at some point graduating to the ice,” Richardson said. “I think all I know is the same timeline that was originally released. I just know I see a smiley face in the dressing room every day. He’s a fun guy and loves to be around. He can’t wait to get out there. The trainers will have to wrestle him off until his timeline (is up).”
It was notable that Richardson didn’t join his players in their sprints, as he has in the past, at the end of Thursday’s practice. He laughed when asked about it.
“It wasn’t really the setup for that this year,” Richardson said. “I did them on my own in the summer, so I’m ready. I’m ready anytime. I thought it was more important that everything’s serious. You don’t need a clown coach skating around in a tracksuit doing a few laps when he didn’t do anything before, where (the players) all worked for an hour before. It’s all business this year and that’s the way the players are approaching it and the coaches are loving it. ”
(Photo of Danny Wirtz, Nick Foligno and Kyle Davidson: Scott Powers / The Athletic)
