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Corey Crawford

Hawks Notes: Kruger, Roster Spots, Cap Space

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The Chicago Blackhawks took to the ice today to practice before their game against the Minnesota Wild tomorrow night. Among the missing skaters was Marcus Kruger, the injured forward who has been out since December 30th. While the original timetable had him set to return in the next week, head coach Joel Quenneville now says it will likely be longer than that.

Kruger suffered an upper-body injury just before the new year, dealing a big blow to the defensive ability of the Hawks forward group. Kruger was an integral part of their penalty kill, and his departure will weaken it even further – it’s currently ranked 28th in the NHL.

  • While Kruger remains out due to injury, Artem Anisimov looks like he may miss tomorrow’s game because of an illness. He was absent from practice today and is questionable going forward. The team is currently only carrying 12 healthy forwards at the moment including Anisimov, meaning that if he can’t go the team may dress seven defensemen. The team currently has just 21 of 23 roster spots filled, since putting Kruger on injured reserve at the beginning of the year.
  • One of the reasons for this may be the idea that the Blackhawks are “banking” cap space.  Brian Hedger of NHL.com says that’s exactly why they haven’t filled the last two spots. When he asked Quenneville, he told him “business reasons”, which does sound line up with Hedger’s thoughts. If he were to hazard a guess as to when the space would be used, it would be right at the trade deadline. The Hawks do have a little bit of room to make a move for another potential Stanley Cup run, and they currently sit in first place in the Central division.
  • When Hedger talked to Corey Crawford, who was shelled last night by the Washington Capitals, he told him that he doesn’t “feel the best” after missing time due to an appendectomy. While Crawford points out it might not be because of the layoff, he’s determined to battle through it. The netminder is having another fine season and will be one of four players representing the Blackhawks at the all-star game this year.

Blackhawks Notes: Kruger, Hossa, Winter Classic

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After leaving the ice in a hurry on Friday night, Marcus Kruger won’t be returning for the Chicago Blackhawks any time soon. According to Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun Times, the team will be without their defensive center for at least three weeks. An ’upper-body injury’ is all we know about what ails Kruger, who has been the Hawks shutdown defender for the last few seasons.

While he’s not by any means an offensive dynamo, Kruger is responsible defensively and is a solid faceoff man (although with Jonathan Toews, the Hawks don’t have any problems in that area). As head coach Joel Quenneville admits, “That’s a big loss for us.”

  • At least it’s not all terrible news on the injury front, as Marian Hossa skated on Sunday morning and has a chance to play on Thursday against Buffalo. Hossa has been out for the last four games and will miss the Winter Classic tomorrow against the St. Louis Blues. The Blackhawks retain the lead in the Central Division even after the 12-game win streak by Minnesota. They have, however already played 39 games, the most in the league and three more than the Wild.
  • Today at the Centennial Classic in Toronto, the teams had to wait as weather (sun, as it happens) delayed the start of the game. It looks like there might be a similar situation in St. Louis, where the forecast calls for rain all afternoon on Monday. With the team not knowing when the start time will be, they began making jokes about what they’ll do during the wait. “I don’t know. Batting cages, maybe?” said Corey Crawford to Tracey Myers of CSN Chicago.

Ryan O’Reilly Has Emergency Appendectomy, Out Indefinitely (Updated)

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(Update) 2:30pm: The Sabres announced via Twitter that O’Reilly will need “roughly 10 – 14 days of rest and recovery.”

10:34am: According to Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News, Sabres alternate captain Ryan O’Reilly had an appendectomy on Christmas Day and is out indefinitely. While this isn’t a long-term issue, Buffalo has been struck with injuries all season and won’t get a break any time soon.

The team is at 12-13-8 and has missed O’Reilly, Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian, Jack Eichel and others for lengthy periods already. While the team hoped to have competed for a playoff spot this season after signing Kyle Okposo to a big offseason contract and pursuing several other big-name free agents, they’ve been snake-bitten all year and have fallen further and further behind. Their 32 points puts them dead last in the Atlantic Division, tied with the New York Islanders for last in the conference.

O’Reilly, who missed time with back spasms earlier this year, has been one of their most effective forwards when healthy with 18 points in 27 games. The 25-year old is in the first year of his long-term extension signed in 2015. While his cap hit will be $7.5MM for the next seven seasons, he’ll actually earn $11MM in salary (including signing bonuses) this year.

All Buffalo fans can do is shake their head at this point and hope that a quick return is in the cards for O’Reilly. As Harrington reports, other players like Max Pacioretty, Jamie Benn and Corey Crawford have returned within a few weeks of their surgery.

*Glen Miller contributed to this post.

Blackhawks Notes: Anisimov, Hossa, Goalies, Gilbert

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The Chicago Blackhawks announced via Twitter that they have activated center Artem Anisimov from IR while placing winger Marian Hossa on IR retroactive to December 20th. Hossa is expected to miss the first half of the team’s upcoming road trip which runs from December 27th through January 2nd, according to Scott Powers of The Atlantic. Powers adds that Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville hopes to have Hossa back for the Winter Classic game against St. Louis.

Hossa, who will turn 38 on January 12th, is having a resurgence of sorts with 16 goals and 23 points in 34 contests. Last season, the gifted two-way winger posted the lowest offensive numbers since his rookie campaign in 1998-99, tallying 13 goals and 33 points in 64 games.

Anisimov, who has been out of action since December 17th, is in the midst of a career season with 14 goals and 27 points through 32 contests. His previous best output came during the Russian pivot’s second full campaign when Anisimov registered 18 goals and 44 points in 82 games.

In other Blackahwks news:

  • Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times hosted a mailbag segment addressing a number of Blackhawks items, including the team’s goaltending situation. With Artemi Panarin set to hit restricted free agency this summer and the team short on available cap space, one scenario that has been suggested to clear salary is moving starting goaltender Corey Crawford and his $6MM cap charge. While acknowledging Scott Darling’s solid play this season in relief of Crawford and arguing the pending unrestricted free agent will be in the position to look for a starting job, Lazerus argues that job will have to be elsewhere. As Lazerus points out, Darling is already 28 and time is running short for him to find either an outright starting job or at least a timeshare. Also, Crawford is among the best netminders in the league, as Lazerus opines, and the Blackhawks would be best served keeping him between the pipes.
  • Scott Powers, writing for The Atlantic, tells the story of defenseman Dennis Gilbert, an unheralded third-round draft pick in the 2015 draft who is quietly developing into one of the team’s top prospects (subscription required). As Powers notes, Gilbert first came to the attention of Chicago evaluators at the behest of Hall of Fame head coach Scotty Bowman, whose son Stan is the Blackhawks GM. Gilbert is currently in his sophomore season patrolling the blue line for Notre Dame and has contributed six assists in 17 games.

Western Conference Notes: Campbell, Hawks, Avalanche

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It was evident after being eliminated in the first-round of last spring’s Stanley Cup tournament that the Chicago Blackhawks needed a boost on the blue line before seriously challenging for their fourth championship since 2010. The Hawks options would of course be limited by their lack of salary cap space. Fortunately veteran blue liner Brian Campbell, who spent three seasons with the Hawks earlier in his career and was part of the 2010 Stanley Cup championship roster, was willing to sign a deeply discounted deal to return to the Windy City to provide added versatility to Chicago’s defense corps. That versatility has proven to be vital given the way head coach Joel Quenneville utilizes and and assembles his defense pairs, as Chris Hine of the Chicago Tribune writes.

As Hine notes, Campbell has filled in as both a right and left side defender and has played with everyone from veterans Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith to rookie Gustav Forsling. The biggest difference between playing with experienced blue liners and younger players, according to Campbell, is communication.

“You have to be a little more assertive (with younger defensemen),” Campbell said. “Seabrook talks a lot and he expects you to talk a lot on the ice. Some guys are a little bit quieter. Young guys coming into the league are a little intimidated, but you need them to help you out as much as you’re hopefully helping them out.”

Niklas Hjalmarsson, who is also able to slide over to his off side, has spent a lot of time in his career opposite Keith, and the two have developed a rapport that enables them to keep each other on point. Hjalmarsson believes that relationship sets a standard that should apply across the blue line.

“(Keith and I) kind of know exactly what we get from each other night in and night out,” Hjalmarsson said. “It’s not too often we get on each other’s case, but we rely on each other to bring our best every night.

“That’s the standard for how it should be, and if you play with a first-year guy, you want to be talking more and be more active that way and help him out on the ice.”

While Campbell isn’t the offensive force he has been in the past, his addition gives Quenneville a multitude of options when it comes to his defense pairings and it allows the coach to spread out the minutes a little bit better than in the past. The Hawks still rely heavily on Keith – sixth in the NHL averaging better than 26:00 per game – and might prefer to scale back a bit on his ice time as the season wears on. The continued development of Forsling and Trevor van Riemsdyk may allow Quenneville to do just that.

Elsewhere in the Western Conference on this quiet evening:

  • Mike Chambers of The Denver Post compares the Colorado Avalanche to the Blackhawks, both in terms of how the clubs were constructed and their current salary cap situations. Chambers points out that both teams have had the advantage of multiple high lottery draft picks – Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane for Chicago and Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog for Colorado –  with which to build the foundation of their respective clubs. Additionally, as Chambers further argues, the two have invested heavily in keeping their core groups intact. The Hawks have more than $38MM allocated to just five players – Toews, Kane, Keith, Seabrook and Corey Crawford, while Colorado has more than $35MM annually tied up in their core – MacKinnon, Duchene, Landeskog, Erik Johnson, Tyson Barrie and Semyon Varlamov. The large investments in their core players limits how much each team has to spend on complementary pieces while also pushing them close to the cap ceiling. However that’s where the similarities end. While Chicago has been one of the league’s top teams since 2010, Colorado has been to the playoff just once in the last six seasons and this year is last in the NHL in goals scored, goals allowed and currently sit 30th in the league in the standings. Clearly where Chicago has excelled in putting the right pieces together on the ice, the Avalanche have failed to find the right mix. At some point the Avalanche is likely going to make a move or moves to change their core.

Blackhawks Notes: Panarin, Crawford, Tootoo, Krys

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Despite only being in his second year in the NHL, Artemi Panarin has rapidly developed into one of the Chicago Blackhawks most important players. After netting 30 goals and 77 points as a rookie, Panarin is producing at a point-per-game rate and currently ranks fifth in the league in scoring as a sophomore. Set to become a restricted free agent in the summer, Panarin is poised to cash in and score a substantial long-term contract from Chicago.

Given Chicago’s current salary cap situation, the team is going to have to make some difficult decisions to make in order to free up enough space to fit Panarin’s next pact under the cap ceiling. As it stands today, the Hawks have roughly $60.6MM in salary cap commitments to 14 players in 2017-18. Depending on exactly where the cap ceiling falls, that would leave Chicago with somewhere between $13MM and $15MM in available space. Unless the team makes other moves to shed salary, the Blackhawks will have a tough time fleshing out their roster if they sign Panarin to a market-value extension.

As they’ve had to do often in the past, it’s likely the club will end up moving some veteran talent to free up space. With backup goalie Scott Darling performing well in Corey Crawford’s recent absence, some have speculated Chicago could look to move the latter and his $6MM cap charge. However, Chris Hine of the Chicago Tribune opines that moving Crawford is not the solution to the Blackhawks Panarin question.

While acknowledging that the team and their fans are likely tired of seeing some of their top young talent traded away due to salary cap concerns – Brandon Saad, Teuvo Teravainen and Andrew Shaw are a few of the players Chicago has drafted and developed only to see them moved elsewhere because of financial considerations – Hine believes any notion of dealing Crawford ignores the goalie’s importance to the team. Hine argues that Crawford has established himself as an elite netminder and his contributions to two Stanley Cup championships should not be ignored.

Additionally, Crawford has a modified NMC and there is little reason to believe he would waive it to facilitate a trade. While the specifics of the NMC are unknown, at the very least it would serve to limit Crawford’s market and complicate any potential trade. Further impacting the veteran goaltender’s hypothetical market is his $6MM cap charge. Few teams currently need a goalie and even fewer are in the position to take on that type of commitment.

Ultimately the Hawks will find a way to get a deal done with Panarin. He’s simply too talented and important to Chicago for them to let him get away. Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman will inevitably have to make a tough decision or two to free up the necessary cap space but moving Crawford likely won’t be one of them.

In other Blackhawks news:

  • Despite being on the smaller side – 5-foot-9, 195 pounds – Jordin Tootoo has carved out a lengthy NHL career playing a tough, physical style and often fighting players much larger than himself. After a nine-point season with New Jersey in 2015-16, Tootoo hit free agency at a time when more teams are moving away from employing one-dimensional tough guys. Fortunately for the diminutive winger, Chicago found themselves in need of a veteran presence willing to work at or near the league minimum and inked the 33-year-old to a one-year deal worth just $750K. Tootoo recognizes the situation he now finds himself in and is willing to do whatever it takes to help his new team, as Scott Powers of The Athletic writes in a Q & A piece. Tootoo has yet to register a point on the season and is averaging just 6:44 of ice time per contest, but has done quality work as Chicago’s resident agitator and enforcer.
  • Just days after Chicago forward prospect Alex DeBrincat was cut from Team USA’s WJC entry, fellow Blackhawks prospect Chad Krys was announced as the team’s final cut, CSN Chicago’s Charlie Roumeliotis reports. Krys, who represented Team USA last year in the same tournament, is in the midst of his freshman season at Boston University after the Hawks selected the defenseman in the second-round of the 2016 draft.

Snapshots: Clinton’s Latest, Crawford, Hossa

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The Hockey News’ Jared Clinton breaks down five significant summer signings that haven’t quite lived up to their billing. While a number of players were given lucrative deals, Clinton gives the number one spot to Andrew Ladd, who after receiving a seven year, $38MM deal, has produced at an abysmal level. Ladd had only one assist in his first 12 games, and if his current pace of four goals and seven points continue, he is on pace for only 10 goals and 18 points. It’s hardly a return on investment.

Second on Clinton’s list is Mikkel Boedker, who inked a four-year, $16MM with San Jose. Boedker has six points (2-4) in 33 games, and Clinton wonders if this is why the winger barely fetched anything at the trade deadline last season. On the defensive side, Clinton looks at Dan Hamhuis, who appeared to be a great pickup for the Dallas Stars. It hasn’t worked out as such. Clinton notes that the veteran defenseman has been a healthy scratch twice, seen his average ice time drop by nearly two minutes, and has been relegated to a third line pairing.

With the salary cap not expected to move much in the next year, these signings could serve as a cautionary tale as to spending wisely instead of just spending to spend.

In other NHL news:

  • Corey Crawford is set to return in net tonight writes the Chicago Tribune’s Chris Hine. The 31-year-old goaltender has been out since having an emergency appendectomy almost three weeks ago. Crawford will face the struggling Colorado Avalanche, who were dismantled 6-0 by Toronto last night. Crawford has been outstanding for the Hawks this season, posting a 12-6-2 mark with a .927 save percentage.
  • With the good comes the bad, and Hine reports that Marian Hossa will miss his first game since suffering an upper body injury Tuesday night against Ottawa. In Hossa’s place will be Tanner Kero, who leads AHL affiliate Rockford in points this season. Kero worked in with Jordin Tootoo and Andrew Desjardins during practice. In addition to Hossa, Artem Anisimov is slated to miss his third straight game with an upper body injury.

Snapshots: Oilers, NHL Debuts, Blackhawks, Laine

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The last time the Oilers beat the Blues in St. Louis, Nikolai Khabibulin made 43 saves and the Oilers won 3-0. The Oilers then-top line of Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Jordan Eberle combined for eight points. That was in March of 2013.

Since then, the Oilers have lost four straight in St. Louis by a combined score of 17-8. But last night, the Oilers came back twice from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits to win 3-2 in overtime. The Oilers moved Nugent-Hopkins, normally a center, to the right wing on a line with Leon Draisaitl and Patrick Maroon, and were rewarded with the tying and winning goal from them. The St. Louis-native Maroon tipped in a shot in the third period, leading to a feel-good moment after the game when he was asked about his son, who lives in St. Louis, cheering him on.

Nugent-Hopkins was set up by Connor McDavid in overtime and the Oilers got the victory. TSN’s Ryan Rishaug appeared on Edmonton radio on Tuesday morning and said this about the win: “to be down multiple times to that team in a building where they never win… that’s definitely a ’big boy’ win. They didn’t come by that one easily.”

McDavid and Draisaitl now have a combined 70 points this season, the highest of any duo in the NHL. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are second with 68 points.

  • The Tampa Bay Lightning have dealt with quite a few injuries this season, but out of injury springs opportunity. Jonathan Drouin has stepped up lately, and now there’s opportunity for Tanner Richard to appear in his first NHL game. Richard was initially supposed to make his NHL debut on Saturday night, but his plane was delayed in New York, which lead to him missing his connecting flight to Edmonton. With no chance of making it to Alberta for game time, Ricard was sent back to Syracuse. Richard told Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times that he was “devastated” to miss the game, but had an inkling that he could be recalled for Tuesday. When asked what he expects to bring to the Lightning lineup, Richard said “I’m pretty hated by most teams in the AHL, so that tells me I’m doing an alright job being a little rat.” Richard will play with Brayden Point and J.T. Brown on the fourth line.
  • Also making his NHL debut tonight is Pat Cannone. The 30-year-old center has played 377 games in the AHL, notching 222 points. As Michael Russo put it, the debut will be one for the aged. Cannone has 16 points in 28 games for the Iowa Wild so far this season. Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said “Hey listen, I was in the minors so long, anytime you can bring up a young man to give him a shot at the NHL, I think it’s great.”
  • According to Mark Lazerus, Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford is taking part in the team’s morning skate. We reported yesterday that Crawford could start as soon as Friday, which would be under three weeks since his appendectomy. Coach Joel Quenneville said he would like to see Crawford take part in a full practice before returning. While a morning skate is not as intense as a regular practice, it’s still a good step in the road back for Crawford.
  • Notably absent from Chicago’s morning skate is center Artem Anisimov. Anisimov missed the Blackhawks previous game, and it’s not known if he will be in the lineup tonight versus the Senators. So far this season, he has 27 points in 34 games, which puts him on pace to easily surpass his previous career high of 42 which he set last season.
  • After his gorgeous goal on Sunday night versus the Avalanche, where he one-timed a Mark Scheifele pass on a two-on-one, Patrik Laine told a Finnish newspaper that “from a chance like that, I will score 99 times out of 100. The stick will break once.” Laine has 18 goals and 29 points, one behind Scheifele for the Jets’ lead, and five points clear of Auston Matthews for the rookie scoring lead.

Snapshots: Crawford, Tavares, Lucic

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The Chicago Blackhawks could be getting a nice early Christmas gift on Friday night.

Despite having an appendectomy just two weeks ago, Corey Crawford has progressed enough in his recovery that he may start on Friday night against the Colorado Avalanche. Coach Joel Quenneville told Chris Hine that he would like to see Crawford get in a full practice before returning to the lineup.

The Blackhawks are off on Monday after playing back-to-back on the weekend, however Crawford will skate on his own. Backup Scott Darling has played the majority of games since Crawford has been out, including both games over the weekend. Darling is 6-2-1 since taking over from Crawford, which includes his current five-game winning streak.

  • Glen Schiller and Jamie McLennan on TSN’s That’s Hockey 2Nite discussed if there is any reason why John Tavares would want to re-sign with the Islanders. The Islanders have been “a mess” this year, following up a 100-point season with a 74-point pace. With the Metropolitan Division being the best division in hockey this year, there’s essentially no way the Islanders can climb back into the playoff picture without a 15-game winning streak. McLennan points to the free agency departure of Kyle Okposo, who had great chemistry with Tavares, and the struggles of his replacement, Andrew Ladd. Both players signed for similar contracts, but the Islanders chose the older player with no history with their superstar over the younger, right-handed player with years of success on Tavares’ wing. Tavares, McLennan argues, must be wondering who he would play with consistently and could look forward to playing with years from now if he signed an eight-year contract.
  • Over at OilersNation, Jonathan Willis wonders why the Oilers have not tried separating Milan Lucic and Connor McDavid to boost McDavid’s scoring. While he’s still leading the NHL in scoring by two points with 39 points in 33 games, he has just one even-strength assist in his last eight games. Lucic has just one goal in nine games this month. Despite Lucic’s struggles, the only changes made on the top line have been on the right side. Jesse Puljujärvi, Drake Caggiula, Jordan Eberle, Tyler Pitlick, and Leon Draisaitl have all had time with Lucic and McDavid, with varying degrees of success. Willis suggests moving Lucic to play with Draisaitl on the second line and bumping one of Benoit Pouliot or Patrick Maroon up to the top line; Willis points to chemistry between Draisaitl and Lucic and the dramatically better scoring numbers of when playing with McDavid as evidence of the merit of his suggestion.

Snapshots: Anisimov, Crawford, Kennedy

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News and notes from around the NHL this evening:

  • Chicago Blackhawks forward Artem Anisimov is out tonight against the San Jose Sharks, reports TSN’s Mark Lazerus. Anisimov misses the game with an undisclosed injury and is considered day-to-day. The centerman is tied for 19th in NHL scoring this season, and the Blackhawks hope that his injury is nothing serious.
  • Staying with the Chicago Blackhawks, coach Joel Quenneville told reporters that goalie Corey Crawford could return as early as December 23rd. Crawford is currently recovering from an emergency appendectomy suffered on December 3rd. Backup goaltender Scott Darling had been holding down the fort admirably until recently, stringing together a streak of starts without letting in more than two goals. In his last two games, however, he’s let in four goals apiece. Chicago won both those games but it seems that Darling’s play is coming back down to earth.
  • Tim Kennedy’s profession situation gains some clarity today. Earlier, Kennedy signed a minor-league deal with the Rochester Americans—AHL affiliates of the Buffalo Sabres—but was claimed by the Carolina Hurricanes because any player playing overseas must first pass through waivers before rejoining an NHL organization. It was unclear whether Kennedy would report to Carolina (or Charlotte, where the Hurricane’s AHL affiliate plays), but now Jon Vogl of the Buffalo News reports that the Hurricanes have loaned Kennedy to Rochester. Before signing with Rochester—and being claimed by Carolina—Kennedy played in Sweden for Lulea of the Swedish Elite League.

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