Kevin Korchinski & Sam Rinzel Get the CALL from Chicago, Can They Answer? | CHGO Blackhawks Podcast

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to today. The Hawks had their first official practice back yesterday was an optional today

was a full team practice. We've got some news and notes from there including Sam Renzell

and Kevin Kurchinsky called up and we've got TV USA going on right now again Sweden

we're keeping an eye on that. Lots of good stuff.

Yeah, it's a big day in the hockey world got the rest of the quarter finals going on.

Black Hawks back to practice fully. Happy it's back. Yeah, it was nice to have a little bit

of a regular schedule. I know we were still doing you know five shows a week we had the

AHL all star stuff that we did but it's nice to kind of be back at Black Hawks Ice Center

and back at practice and back in the locker room which was lively today so it was good

to be back.

Well let's we'll get into the after practice festivities which were a lot of fun because

they practice basically ended his overtime was starting but here were your forward group

saying again grain assault on these big time because first of all Tevo's not there. Second

of all it is they don't have a game for eight days and Jeff Flash will pretty much said

today like don't read too much and anything you're seeing over the next few practices but

it's read into it. I liked what I saw line wise so I'm going to talk about it but Dar

Degree in Burakowski, Nazar, Maureen Bertuzzi, Dickinson, Denato, Mikaev, Fulino, Doc and

Slagert and Sam Lafferty was your extra forward and your eighth defenseman. Yeah that was

an interesting little tidbit of information to get from Blaschal that Sam Lafferty played.

I'd have to go back and find that information that Sam Lafferty played defense at the World

Championships. Yeah that would have been yeah that was that was news to me to hear that but the

forward's group I mean with knowing that Bedard was going to take face-offs again I think

you kind of could imagine that he and Nazar would be split up. I think Nazar is effective

playing down the middle he's been about the best face-off guy on the team as far as quantity

plus win percentage right about 47% this season taking the he's taken the most draws of anyone on

this team. So I think having him down the middle is good seeing him with Bertuzzi who he's had

some chemistry with seeing him with more I think is a good it's a good group to have. We've known

that Bedard and Ryan Green have had some run together and have had success before. Andre

Burkowski is getting the opportunity to go back up to that top line with Bedard and Green which

we've seen before this season. I think I was and again as Blaschal said there's still a lot of

time to have things kind of play out over practice but I was a little surprised to see

Burkowski right there back with that group coming back from the break knowing the way that he

went into the the time off so that'll I'll be interested to see how over the next couple of

practices things play out when table gets back how that's going to affect the lines. My best guess

with this lineup is when table comes back they go terrifying and nays are Bertuzzi on that

second line and then move more with Dickinson and Mikaev where Denado is Denado goes down to the

fourth line with with Fulino and Dr. Sliger that one of the two pick your pick your guy. So we're

going to hear from Jeff Flash on a moment and he does actually mention specifically that he likes

that trio of Bedard Burkowski and Green so I do think that's going to happen. Just for the

record, D-Pairs, Vlasik, Krivyy, Grizzlyk, Murphy, Kurchinsky and Renzel were together and

Art of Love Shop was a seventh defenseman sort of cycling and he was also on the ice

well after practice probably about what him and Landon Sliger probably at least a half hour after

practice. Oh yeah. Just working on stuff, working on your game, working with Brian Keen the

the skills coach they have there so the extra works being done by Art of Love Shop we'll see what

it means for his playing time when he comes back but the fact that Sam Renzel here has to tell you

a little bit about maybe they're leaning towards playing Renzel over him at least to start. So we'll

see let's hear from Jeff Flash will hear he spoke after practice today. We're going to hear from Kevin

Kurchinsky a little bit a little bit later too but there's a couple things in here I want you to

pay attention to what I just mentioned with Burkowski. Then Kaylyn Lumpkins from Natribune asked

him about the Olympic break and how they sort of limped into the break. He talks about the

conversation yeah with Alex Vlasik over the break which I thought was really interesting so make

sure you're paying attention for that. So you talked about changing the DZM system and it looked

like this strong side winger pushing out more I got some help with this. Whatever you saw.

Just all we're doing is tweaking a little bit to just get a little more pressure. I'm not going

to go in the ins and outs of it though. When you make tweaks up here do you talk to night

gal and and tweak down there as well or we actually had them kind of test drive it last weekend a

little bit to be honest with you so they kind of they kind of changed ahead of time just a little tweak

and work through it so we actually had some clips and we could use it up there you know there's

always a little bit I don't want to say loss and translation but as much as you want the systems

to be totally the same as you start coaching your team and in night he starts coaching his team

you're invariably going to you know make little subtle changes you go to correct problems

and correct the issues and so they never end up being exactly the same but yes those

conversation him and I had I don't personally think that they need to play the exact same system

all the time. I think habits are the most important but in this particular case he wanted to

take a look at tweaking something too. Are you taking any inspiration from the penalty kill and how

effective the pressure has been in that situation? Yeah I mean I would say you know um yeah

yeah yes I am our penalty kill has been good I think our guys you know I've said it lots of times

we've got really good killers but those same guys are on the ice 5 on 5 you know what do you know

not all of them but a lot of them so you know I think there's areas where we can try to create

the thing with pressure for me is if you can dictate where the puck's going to get a better

chance of pressure if you can't dictate where the puck's going you can't pressure and so

you know when our penalty kill I think we've done a good job dictating and reading those pressure

points and I think we've done a good job and the penalty kill is knowing when to reset and protect

middle and so that's those two things I think are going to be important for us in these zones as well.

Well right now you know with with with kai's out we're at six with already no five are you right

is that right six with hurry six with already no five with already

because we go yes yes we made five with already then you call up in six then you call up

gorgeous seven I don't know when when when kai's will be back so you know I want them to make sure

if they're going to play games down the stretch here that they're ingrained and everything

we're doing and and and that type of stuff I think it's important you know it's hard to run

a practice with with six D so this gives us seven plus that when we move last back there who's played

D before that gives us eight and it can run a little bit of easier practice. Do you have

you thought about going back to 78? I've been zero decisions on what we're going to do for line

up next Thursday to be dead honest with you and really no conversations have been had so

zero decisions I would certainly not not do it I mean if I thought it was the right thing for

for both our teams chance to win in the development of our players but you know there's a lot of

things that go into that line of points I'm going to look at just to clarify laugh it isn't going to

play D in the game is he no no no probably not you know not probably not but I would say like

I've actually coached laughs and had him play D for us at the World Championships to be honest

so he does have you know if if something happened and we were on had six D and he was our seventh

and somebody had second he went and he could play D you know and but he's a he's a big time team guy

and he's willing to go out and do that in practice and just speaks volumes to what he is as a person

and what he is as a teammate. What have you seen from court chances the last time you was here?

You know I thought I thought he left the last time but we're playing better that second

night than the first night and he had he had confidence I've you know talked a lot with

with nightying I think he's done a solid job you know so he's just got to keep you know

putting himself in a position that if he gets an opportunity to play that he plays well and

and that's just what this league is you know the very few guys just you know get handed jobs

over and over and over and you got to keep earning it and proven it and he'll get a chance to

never help potentially I don't know if he will or won't but if he gets a chance to go and he's

got to go and play well with Connor taking draws again and Frank on his own line does that help

you balance out the lines a little bit more like you did the first couple months of the season

they were playing separately yeah I do think so you know I think it helps us you know I think you

know the most success we've had this year has been Connor and Berkowski and either you know

greener burden and then Frank in another line and obviously Frank he had real success within

the early part of the year with Turbo and in birds so we'll kind of play that out I wouldn't

read too much into it we have six you know five more practices before we play so I wouldn't

read too much into our lens this will be a boring stretch for you guys because there's nothing that's

concrete to ask or answer you know the team kind of lived into the Olympic break-up to that

lost the Columbus like like for anything specific energy-wise during this

I didn't like our game in Columbus they didn't like their game in Columbus the players meeting that

um uh listen we got a chance to reset you know and I think um if you look throughout the league

you know it's a pretty good opportunity for us we don't have guys playing very few guys playing

in the lips we have one so a bunch of guys got the chance to kind of reset and rest we've got a

whole bunch of guys playing really important minutes that have never really been through this schedule

the award they have maybe one time you know what I mean and this one's even more condensed so

you know it's like I was talking in philosophy over the break and he was just talking about

you know the hit after last year and when the break came he was he was tired and needed the break

and this year it doesn't feel that as much because he's been through it well this now we

got all those guys that haven't been through it as much as him you know go through especially on that

decore uh but even up front that I thought guys probably needed a break and needed a reset opportunity

and that's what this is and then we also get six practices uh to try to hit the ground running

does that guarantee success no but uh uh you know every team probably hits that break at different

points I thought we needed it but nasar was was really clicking there in a few weeks it seemed like

every game he was getting them for equal air and hot met and rush is there anything that you guys

can do to get I guess to get those opportunities generated again that's a good question because

it's that's factual I think you know he was on a consistent basis I think it comes down to

breaking the puck out good you know when you break the puck out good you can you can attack up the

oasis speed and I think you know he was putting himself in support positions to not beat the puck

up but kind of be underneath it and then and then jump into those holes instead of kind of sprint

into those holes before you're ready and then you don't get the puck so you know it's probably a

little bit on on the group he's out there with and a little bit on him uh uh they try to just

make sure we do a good job and then it's on the coaching staff to make sure the guys know their

breakout uh plan and and that they're they're executing the breakout plan but you know again

generally when you break the puck out while you get those chances for those rushes and we'll

have to keep working that to make sure we do a good job did you know the score of the candidate

Jackie at me when you called in practice I had no idea actually to be honest with you I had no

idea until I walked in I walked in right as the candidate so good for them how would you assess

the practice today I liked it I thought I thought you know our guys a number of our guys skated

yesterday and I was impressed actually with how they did you know today we did a lot of

puck touch stuff early and it wasn't the cleanest puck touches ever but I certainly had patience

for that guys have been off for quite a bit of time and uh but I thought our energy was good I

thought our attention to detail was good so those are the two things that you know our work ethic

was good those are important things all right that's Jeff Flashle from earlier today uh the thing

I mentioned earlier that stood out is him talking to Vlasik over the break and saying how in years past

he really needed the break because he wasn't used to the long schedule and was not feeling that

this year because he's experienced with so many guys playing in their first full season I think

it it's natural that they ran out of gas right before the break so hopefully when they come out of

this break not only with some rest but some time to kind of reset the fundamentals they start to

they start to play like they were playing early this season yeah and they're all going to get

opportunities there's more young guys now than ever you're going to have more in the lineup than

ever in a couple weeks when you presumably trade at least two veterans yeah so here's their

opportunity they should be nice and rested and ready to go yeah not only a physical break but a

mental break for these guys um talked with with Frank Nasar about that today in the in the locker room

and just how you know even though he had the injury where he wasn't as intensely going through

training and the games and everything um he didn't want to take too much time off physically with

this break so he was still skating and everything as much as he could but just talked about like

just getting your head out of the yeah whirlwind that the season can be can be a big thing so

for a lot of these guys it's their first or second pro season uh and especially the guys who

it's their first year it's the first time they played 50 60 plus games in a season uh so yeah

having that break will be really good for these guys they can get back to it and they don't have

to jump right into games you get a week of practice and then you kind of have this uh you know ramp

up to the season restarting um it'll be good for them all right we're going to hit the brakes

on for the first time you hit the like button for the first time we'll talk you in two minutes on

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where relationships and results matter i wear back on chd black oxen now it is time for the big

takeaway presented by xfinity imagine that so before the show started you through some hot

olympic gossip at me that i hadn't heard yeah can you fill me in uh i'll do my best um so

freezing if you are uh been paying attention to uh the olympics and the women's olympic hockey world

uh big news hillary night got engaged to uh well her now fideon say uh britney bow

who is also an olympic speed skater speed skater so congratulate stem big gold male game coming up

for the u.s uh women's team against canada tomorrow uh this according to uh out magazine by

aerial mess man rucker uh it is rumored okay that team canada's daryl wats and team us a

Caroline harvey worry a couple but broke up over the olympics and this is juicy because it's

ahead of the gold medal game now this is all a lot of rumour there's a uh apparently it was a

tiktok live uh where team us a teammate layla edwards and Caroline harvey were having a conversation

and layla had said yes Caroline is single so amongst the speculation that both harvey and wats

were a thing layla edwards is saying well actually she's single okay now this is also all involving

wisconsin badger hockey play this is the other angle here so this is kind of why i've heard a lot

about this now is it's single is if you're filling out like a form for your insurance because

technically if you're not married you're single but if you're on tiktok live and you're involved with

someone i don't know if you say you're single yeah i mean it's it's an interesting uh there's there's

a lot of pieces uh missing from uh from from the information but a lot a lot of dots connecting here

said uh says here that's a lot of people believe that harvey may have been confirming that she's

single but not saying that she's newly single or alluding to who she was dating previously

but it is it is an interesting layer to uh tomorrow's gold medal game definitely

Canada and us not that it needed anymore no no more interesting layers but it's definitely uh boy

that was that was an interesting thing and you know you just don't get that on the men's side of

things not yet at least publicly some day yeah we might uh that was a big takeaway percent of i

xfinity imagine that yeah uh i will say this so i love the Olympics it might be a controversial stance

if you are an Olympian hall pass the entire stretch because there's two things that happened

the Olympics yeah competition uh huh and something else what's the other thing this from the guardian

mm-hmm got dot com three condoms for competitors at the winter Olympics have run out with a record

breaking three days that any other thing any more context actually the sports competition might be

the other thing that happens at the Olympics based on this story which repeats every Olympics

yeah well i mean hey you got a lot of people from all over the world all of them

very fit coming to uh you know come and come into a central location and you know the

testosterone and the was it progesterone what's the estrogen running high for for all the athletes so

you know things happen well think about it this way they're all in it's called the Olympic village

right it's basically like dorm rooms yeah think back to your college experience and that's

what they're going through right now i don't know what college experience you had

wasn't my college experience you don't have cold dorms i had a good uh we had uh ours so in the

welles west building uh at whitewater r-i-p skypoint um my floor was separated guys and girls

one nothing one side to the other you would say discord oh good um there were some floors where it

was all guys and then another floor was all girls and then there were some that were actually

real your neighbors could be guys and gals interesting but yeah i was on a separate uh

separate floor i was on a separate floor two or a separated floor what do you look at him

pointing at yep yeah we just said that you just said that are you listening to the show

jeez big fan she's thinking about her college experience she'll be watching the csl bears replay

hi yes uh one nothing it looks like Dylan Larkin got a yep right yeah i got tipped in in front nice

um yeah i went to was i went to Lewis and we had north hall which was you know male female male

female fours i had my own room i had a single in our section did your roommate like drop out

or not show us i had my own room we lived in a section of five so it was like a common area

two singles two doubles i had a single wow and most of the time it was only me in that room

i mean i i could see why i could see why having like a college dorm

to yourself would be fun because you're just like you're on your own schedule

like you don't have to like you know you don't have to worry about like uh getting locked out or

anything by your roommate or anything like that like that would be i could see why that'd be fun

i will say though my uh freshman sophomore year is living in the dorms live with good friends and

my sophomore year uh live with my my best friend slash brother according to you as your brother um

you still know yet which was uh which was a lot of fun and and yeah that you know lifelong friendships

yeah definitely i'm still friends with most of my college uh roommates and associates um

i will say in my defense i was in a long-term relationship for three of my four years in college

that's in my room was usually empty um um um um until the pureia charter pulled up

for my issue to Lewis yeah long as ten minute ride to Lewis in my life all right let's get back

to the hockey kevin corchinsky is back and uh it was the samarins l so with samarins l i feel like

rinsale was sort of expected you were you surprised to see him no yeah no i think with uh

the fact that he was brought up before the break and then

the way that it was kind of being talked about like oh he's going to go down to rocford to play

during the break rather than oh he's going back to rocford and just leaving it at that

that kind of for me felt like okay the door is open for him to come back um and then yeah the uh

the injury to y kaiser which he's been placed on ir now um open the door for kevin corchinsky says

we kind of talked about on yesterday's show uh extensively about you know corchinsky getting

this opportunity and blash will talk about it too like the opportunity that these guys are

getting like you got to be able to step in and and and take advantage of it so that's that's

the big thing uh for me with with corchinsky um especially like rinsale like i know you know this

is this is his his rookie year like it's there's still a lot of uh runaway for him corchinsky it's

a little bit you know less of a runway i'd say because he's he's been a pro for you know this is

now his third season playing pro but you still want to or still have to see what he's going to be

at the NHL level now that he's basically two full seasons removed from his rookie year which was

19 years old in the NHL full time and as we all look back at it now was like man

i was a rough year for stuff um you know if you don't know losing his father

right halfway through the season unexpected it's not like he would have been a long illness

not that that makes it easier but it was just out of the blue yeah um so that's tough a tough for

a tough first year i will say we're basing it on one practice i thought he looked good he looked

confident he looked fast i mean he's the pucks were going in off his stick yeah i mean him and uh

both him and rinsale had shorter breaks and some of these other guys because of playing in the

NHL and the brightest sharp one you know they've already they they played games this you know this

past weekend um the isogs uh once they came back from the NHL all star break had three games

and three nights friday saturday sunday all and and those guys played in all those games

so they've already been back and kurchinsky was in the all star game itself so like he basically

his break was basically a day and a half um so he's he's still right into right in it shouldn't

really have to worry about like needing to kind of like get your legs back underneath you but he's

gonna get the practice time to do it uh rinsale kind of talked about it today i talked with him and um

he was just like you know you you get a little bit of a break he was able to go home for a few days

but the legs are still fresh yeah guys are young again like you get you get the mental break as much

you do the physical break all right uh we have time to hear from kurchinsky before he hit the

break zone let's do it he spoke after practice today here is kevin kurchinsky at his locker

with this figure for those two games we're quick in january but uh to get a little bit more extended

opportunity to get back in here um what he opens a different room in the center yeah i'm actually

exciting um it's gonna i got a bit of practice get my uh just uh back to the pace and

know you learn the systems and um just hope to go out there play my game and um do anything

i did obviously went it looked like you guys tweaked it the d-zone system a bit so i guess

i'm helpful to to get that practice yeah yeah actually when you learn a new system uh it helps

take the thinking out of it um learning and practice so that when uh game time comes kind of

automatic you have a thing um you just kind of react so um it's getting at the get the reps

reps under me and uh yeah it's it's good

um no not really obviously every time you follow that you get opportunity and you just try and

prove yourself so um yeah it's exciting obviously uh getting the call and call up and um yeah

like so get a chance to prove yourself and try and help uh help the team when i feel like kind of

saying maybe we're closer to game speed than some of the other guys after they had two or so yeah

yeah yeah we uh we practice yesterday and uh playing some games and uh obviously we had our

all-start break um yeah it's kind of nice uh getting called up and having uh kind of my legs

under me from uh just practicing playing games and um playing a lot of minutes down our

so it's it's good it's um say uh yeah it's good it's a nice thing the number of recent ice hogs

up here now to have thinking more familiar with you too yeah yeah it's we got a lot of guys who um

you've either played in the past couple of years and uh the hogs are played at the start of the

year so um obviously we're all friends um hanging out outside the rink joke around at the rink

and all uh guys who want to help this team um make that next step the next ride and uh help push

each other and um win some games um yeah i just uh i want a lot of a lot of defensive stuff um

there's probably a lot of minutes and i'm trying to be more quiet obviously uh just like your

d's own um changes you want to you want to pound some and uh there's guys and you're kind of

quadrant that you want to take the pop around but um if you're if you're kind of just in good ice

sometimes it's better than skating yourself out of bad ice so just stuff like that defensive

stuff um just being a bit simpler at times so that uh you can play more in minutes you can

just let the game come to you and uh be more efficient we talked in the pola how you

but trying to you know see this as a process to be your best self years from now when you reach

your peak is that's something you keep in mind to not put too much pressure in yourself when you

do get these things so follow me yeah like obviously um you got to you got to take a day by day

for me it's like i can't look too far into the future or um be too much in the present but i think

like i said like each day we got some uh we go practice uh trying to get better trying uh learn

all the systems get uh get the game pace and um just uh be put my best foot forward for the next game

all right there's Kevin Gorgins he after practice today uh we're going to talk a little bit more

about Kevin on the other side of the break we are late for the break zone so do his favor hit that

light button we'll talk you in two minutes hope you're all still enjoying fall spring because

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were discussing during a break the vodka lemonade does sound delightful it does that's yes let's

have some of those now we're fully can you freshen on a warm false spring a February summer day and

yeah yeah I walked out of the house this morning and because black hawks ice center can be very very

cold yes that's why Mario is in a a puffy vest and I'm in a hoodie walked up the door and felt

the warmth of the sun on me it's nice like whoa and then I noticed that it apparently rained mud

last night that's not my car was just oh no my car was just covered yeah my car is covered in like

dirt and dust too clearly what was your car covered in last week I was gonna say there was so much

bird poop on my car that now it's kind of washed away from all the way there you go it looks like a

entire like flock of birds just lined up over clueless car right before the all started I was

targeted and just went off and then I got a ticket yeah we'll take care oh did you guys figure that

we're figuring it out we're in the process of figuring it out I didn't get a ticket we got

parking tickets follow the law guys we parking a lot you did well I don't know I maybe must

spend that 20 left in your windshield yeah probably that did it for you anyway Kevin Kortzinski I

am I'm excited to see him in this call up I I'm really hoping that we see a flash from him here

and it sounds like it's going to be a little more extended it sounds like he is the guy that's

going to be in for Kaiser's well it's not going to be two games or three games it's going to be

an extended run here for Kortzinski I just want to have a better feel for him because right now

you could tell me he's going to be an all-star you can tell me he's going to be a bust I could

believe either side of it I just really don't know what to make a Kevin Kortzinski yet and I feel

with pretty much every other Hawks defensive prospect I have an idea of where they're going to be

yeah like within this you know spectrum of competitiveness it's where I expect them to be Kortzinski

is the one I just can't get a grasp on yeah I think we've seen the flash in the AHL but that

doesn't always translate to the NHL there have been a lot of great AHL defensemen some that have

played in the Black Hawks organization that just never get to the NHL and put together the same

kind of game and there's that's just that's just kind of the skill gap I think with Kortzinski he's

still very still early in his career so to like you know pull the shoot on him I think is still too

early to do that but this is going to be the opportunity to get a better grasp of where he's at

and if he's not up to where you need him to be or where you want him to be then you have to operate

as we said yesterday you're going to have to operate with the idea that you might be without

one of those top defensive options moving forward that you thought you were going to have so

yeah I'm I'm going to be interested to see how much he's given how much time he's given what

opportunities he he's given I know like potentially being on the power play would be nice

but you also have Renzel Grizzlyk Levchenov if he's in the lineup like those are guys that have

kind of cycled through power play opportunities I'd be fine with giving Kortzinski that a little bit

of run with with with that because you'd think that's what his role would be in the NHL at some point

when he's a full-time guy is being a power play facilitator but the biggest thing for him is

the defensive side of things we know the offense is there to be untapped we know the skating is a

really you know high quality skill that he has it's playing on the defensive side of the puck

especially under Jeff Blaschle how does how is that going to translate how is that going to

evolve in his game because if he can be a 30 to 40 point defenseman and be reliable defensively

I think you live with that and there's a lot of teams that that find success with players like that

with his with his skill set you can have an offensive specialist as long as you are not a disaster

defensively yeah right and it's a first round pick it's a top 10 pick so there's going to be

more scrutiny on that as there should be that that is fair right there were other players drafted

after Kevin Kortzinski that may end up having an and that's the sort of thing when

this rebuild is eventually over in two years for years whatever you want to say when you

evaluate the job Kyle Davidson did up to that point that's going to be something you have to

reflect on our who are the guys he passed on how have the guys he's drafted developed uh I want

to see Kortzinski at power playtime no disrespect to McRislik you know what you've got it's a million

dollar contract you might move them maybe you bring them back for another year to have a veteran

presence fine they know they're not making the playoffs there's 25 games to go this the

the there's no silver lining why guys are being hurt but this opportunity gives both the hawks

and Kortzinski an opportunity to show what he can do on the power play if you drafted a power

play specialist great and if those numbers he reaches if he reaches those numbers you said 40 or

so points awesome and you can live with some defensive deficiencies if that's the case but

we hear about his offense so much but even the offense hasn't really been there for him

it's not like he's piling up points but he's you know he has a three point game but finishes

of minus one the numbers in the AHL aren't even really jumping off the page that much yeah he's

he's an AHL all star and that's great and he does look good down there right but the offensive

the I think the offense that we've been promised and we're assuming is coming we haven't really

seen yet and part of that could be the fact that he is so focused on improving his defensive play

and he's so focused on playing within the system and he's so focused on making the coach happy

and getting back in the NHL that he's sort of putting the offense aside and saying once I get my

defense squared away I'll bring the entire package together and and be the Kevin Corchinsky you

think you drafted where you drafted him I haven't seen enough offense to say well he is an

offense a specialist he's going to put up big points I haven't seen that really from him either yet

and that's what I talk about where has the flash been for Corchinsky you've seen it from all the

other high defensive picks Ranzelle Levchenov you know even plastic as flash a little more offense

than you might expect I haven't seen a flash from Corchinsky either way which is why

I'm genuinely excited to see this stint for him in Chicago because he really has to like this

is an opportunity for him to take this chance that maybe it's coming a little unexpectedly

or a little sooner than we thought and run with it and that's the other thing you want to see from

a guy is once you call me up I'm not going back down we saw it from Ryan Green we saw it from

all over more I think to a lesser extent Frank Nazar right got sent to Rockford after not a great

preseason last year but then was great and Rockford came up and he's an NHL player who's about

to start a $7 billion contract next year yeah like I want to see Corchinsky grab that opportunity

and hold on to it and make them make some really really difficult decisions look maybe they're

looking at Kevin Corchinsky here and saying do we trade Mac risk look or not at the deadline are

we comfortable playing him for the last 25 games or are we going to have to keep grizzlyk

right like there's so much is sake for him here and I just want to see him have that killer instinct

and grab it and I feel like that might be part of Corchinsky's DNA a little bit too is does he have

that intensity that killer instinct seems like a super nice kid not saying he's not competitive

but you want to see him almost get offended by the amount of time he's spent in Rockford

and say hey screw this I'm a top 10 pick give me a chance I'm never going back to Rockford see

you later be for you see you later Taco Bell yeah I mean that that that would be a way for him to

kind of establish himself in in the NHL picture and we've just we've been waiting on it and

we've you know harped on that you know young defenseman overnight aren't NHL ready all the time

right out of the box guys like Matthew Schafer are extremely rare um you know you look at

Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith and these guys you know that the early years of their careers were

not you know step on the ice at 20 years old in your Norris caliber guy and we're not even asking

that of Kevin Corchinsky it's it's step on to the ice being NHL player yep and and I think

this will this will be a good opportunity for him to to get that chance as Blaschal says he's

got to earn it so I mean if if if we do see some Kevin Corchinsky in the lineup and the play is

not there I I don't think that you know the the organizational beat will be hesitant to say okay

well it's not working it jump Blaschal has you know shown that he can be definitive with some

with some decisions uh not definitive but to be uh to have a belief in his decisions and stick

with things yep um so if it's if it's not there then then it's not there but I think you you

want to see him get some time to showcase it more than two games which is all he's had so far

this year um and you can't even you can't glean anything from two games no you can't it's uh you

can't and I mean Blaschal said that he you know he liked how Corchinsky played in the second

game of his two games that he's played up here but again that's only just one game's worth of

of you know film so to say in the NHL um you gotta get you gotta you gotta see more of it before

you can make that like you know not not a like set and stone decision but you have to have more

information at the NHL level to kind of figure out yeah what direction you go with him from there

as we said yesterday Corchinsky and I think this call up for him now dictates not just what happens

with him and what happens at this year's deadline but it affects a draft like if if he comes up

here and lays an egg or is like just another guy out there and not not really showing much

they may have to look at things and say you know what our deep pool is not as deep as we thought it

was and we might have to draft the defense sooner than we expected I'm not against it if they

think a defenseman is best available where they pick they should absolutely take them because

you trade no one Allen which to me at the time felt like a vote of confidence for Corchinsky right

if there's a log jam and that's the guy you move okay well then because we've been talking for

a couple of years hey look if you're trying to bring in some offensive help for bedard you want

to acquire a young player that Kevin Corchinsky would be your biggest bargaining piece but not with

Alan gone you kind of can't move Corchinsky because your rock for defense is basically

Ethan Delmastro maybe Tage Harding and that's it and there's not really anyone

below the ranks of AHL knocking on the door right or even that really projects to an NHL player

yeah yeah I mean the the the young defenseman they have in the system are the guys that

are either in Rockford or they're up here in the NHL like this is the group that they're moving

forward with for the time being and if they draft a defenseman then that that puts another piece

into that into the prospect system but yeah I mean you you look at the guys that aren't in Rockford

that are their defensive prospects it's Ty Henry and and Yani Pelton and Pelton is playing overseas

and he's a long shot guy Ty Henry is leaving the OHL to go play in college so he's still a long

shot guy too some people ask about Ashton Kumbi that's a six-round pick that's an enforcer yeah like

you can you can you can maybe find a path for him if he's the physical defenseman but again like

that's still down the road you know trying to find out where these guys are going so the the guys

that they need to kind of see what they have and what they're moving forward with are are here now

so they got to find where they're going to piece into the lineup if they do it all all right let's

hit the brakes on for the final time let's get over 50 likes here come on I know it's the Olympic

break I know Team USA is playing right now but you know split the screen hit the like button we

back in two minutes to wrap up the show and have some thoughts on the Olympics as well come

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Mario you know what I always say thank god it's basketball season you always say so my favorite

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I want to grab a comment from the chat here uh Raven says remember what you talked about our

prospect depth on the blue line well yes because they're all in the NHL now

classic is 24 Lev Shalva's 20 Kaiser is 23 Crevier is 24 Kevin Corchinsky is what 20 years old now

21 21 21 San Mrenzel pretty young also 21 21 so yeah the depth has now reached the NHL level so

you basically have six defensemen all of which you drafted and developed that are at the NHL so

yes you do have organizational depth depth defensively yeah this I mean the whole point of

the rebuild is that the young guys that you uh bring through the system and you draft in the

depth that you have in your prospect pool become as the players that you build your team with

right um so yeah I mean it's the fact that maybe they haven't drafted two defensemen every year

and just continue to just stock defensemen is is one thing that we can talk about we were just

having the conversation about how the players that they have that are still quote-unquote prospects

outside the professional game are more depth guys not necessarily those top line top pair first

second round pick type of players so that could be something that changes in this year's draft

where they say hey we've put a lot of focus in the forwards group over Kyle Davidson's uh 22 23 24 25

four drafts they've picked like 85 percent of Kyle Davidson's picks have been forwards

so this year's drafts next year's draft could could swing that it could be more like okay we've got

a lot of defensemen a lot of young guys that are at the professional level now now we need to kind

of go through another wave of getting some young defensemen into the into the system it all it

all ebbs and flows and and time uh stops for no one yeah I'm going to defenseman that have played

for the hawks this year don't master 23 corchinsky 21 runs l 21 kaiser 23 wasek 24 crevier 24

levshinoff 20 young guys that's that is organizational defensive depth

it yes that's when you have that many players under 25 um as defenseman like that's it's still a lot

of green uh players that got to figure things out and and and do we you're not going to have an

entire team of of children uh do we not feel good about the major I mean uh yeah the juries out

on corchinsky we don't know what tell master was yet there's been ups and downs with levshinoff as we

expected as everyone expected I mean I would I would say what the returns you've gotten so far on

on a guy like crevier is way above expectations for his seventh round pick to get to the NHL and

stick in the NHL either than down master was a fourth round pick to to get the opportunity to be

on the NHL cusp uh is is not usually an expectation of fourth and fifth round picks in these depth

picks um and then you have rinsals the first round pick corchinsky's the first round pick levshinoff

is the first round pick they're all still in the development phase yeah it's still for defenseman

like it is still that path that they have to go down to kind of get to where you feel confident

about what they are as a pro what they are as an NHL player chris pronger as you highlighted today

on on twitter he's got the the quote that I always go back to where he says you know and he's a

Hall of Fame defenseman you still need about 300 NHL games to kind of as a defenseman to kind of

figure out who you are yep and it's no one of this group has played 300 NHL games out of those young

players not even Alex flasick yet so we're far from closing the closing the book on this group and

saying these guys are who they are and bust success bust success putting stamps on them you can't

do it yet if you're doing it now it is way way premature this is a tweet chris pronger trying to move

his book earn it comes out April 14th um he says I was 20 sorry 15,000 fans once booed me in my own

building I was 20 making millions and not living up to it uh then he goes on to promote the book

maybe we'll get chris pronger on the show the hawk is booked you think hawks fans alike to hear

from chris pronger sure they love if I know anything about black hawks fans as they have loving their

heart they love their crisp blues legend and Philadelphia flyer chris pronger yeah no hard feelings

at all they will put uh Alexander burrows on the show maybe get the sedans on uh see what Kevin

B. X is up to maybe Willie Mitchell what's Rafi Torres doing yeah let's do it Rafi Torres is up to

talk to him let's hear his side of the story that one I didn't want to joke about but yeah I yeah

we just call on calm a pudwack and then hang up sure that could that could that is a bit we could

sell the pudwack prank haul of the show hey please be joined by Rafi Torres on CH

shield black hawks you're a pudwack click that was brought you back's finity hey if you want to try

and pitch it and sell it great come on we got to pay for this Europe trip eventually yeah these are

these ideas just keep coming like this it's amazing yeah it's amazing I miss cranky anchors that

was a good show oh man jerky boys you guys remember jerky boys yes Chloe no there is a whole

well cassette tape and CD of professional prank callers and they were big hits people bought

the jerky boys CDs and back in the day when you didn't know who was calling you yeah yeah now

yes was your mic how when you said that okay oh great first day she said 67 everybody

you might know it's a star six seven yes there you go the mic is good it amplifies your voice

sometimes I just forget yeah I know you know and now this is different because it's like a standing

mic so it's not a physical one that I have to hold up man yeah we've got to get that for you

very challenging all right um Olympics before we end yeah one nothing team USA after two

I don't know watch that they seem to be in control of the game control they seem to have the

edge of the edge in play but it's uh sweetness tough man like they're just yeah they're Sweden I'm

I'm not I'm uneasy it's I mean it's it's far from over as we've seen with two

quarter final games today with uh chakia in Canada Canada's late game come back in heroics

Finland coming back from being down to nothing with like three minutes to play they go out score two

goals force over time and win um it's it's far from over with USA and Sweden as they get ready for

the third period it's one nothing USA um the Olympics has has been great it's been a lot of fun

having the NHL players back on the men's side it's it's ramped up the intensity and now that we've

gotten to the quarter finals we're actually seeing these matchups where the games are fun like the

games are more competitive it's you know you're getting down to crunch time and and you got you

know a team like Slovakia moving on uh which is which is awesome to see and it'll be either USA or

Sweden going on to the metal round so you know you're talking about a powerhouse that'll be out um

it's it it makes it uh it makes it fun and I gotta say like seeing the way the Canada game transpired

today was uh incredible Czechia takes the lead man what I was watching that at practice in the

in the media room you weren't the only one and uh yeah and I watched I was like oh my god like

you know just crazy and then so long after the fact of the game learning that not only was there

six Czechia players on the ice it wasn't like oh six on the ice and then they got off they were

like no we're just gonna play with six and there were six celebrating the goal yeah and no one

that's fine the refs didn't catch it can you imagine if Canada loses that game and that goal is

the winner the the six player six men on the ice goal that would have been insane uh but then

yeah Canada ties it and then pull back the curtain yeah black hawks practice ends as Czechia

and Canada are going to overtime we go into the room and all the players just come off the ice

from practice as you can see most of them still just in full gear Brian Green was definitely in full

gear Brian Green still had his stick in his hand on the couch and they all sat down to watch the game

and uh it was a surreal experience to watch the overtime as quick as it was um with NHL players in the

room and at one point there was a a play where like a puck was kind of like trickling out to the

blue line in Canada's offensive zone and Colton Docs like Colton Doc goes why isn't he stepping up

on that and then and then he says the Ryan Green here I am critiquing these guys yeah right and uh

yeah it was just it was just uh pretty fun to be in the room for that and then uh noted big time

prime time player Mitch Marner uh scores the OT winner for Canada all the Canadian players in the

black hawks are locker room where like you know jumping for joy and all that stuff that that was

that was fun uh pretty cool experience it was cool was uh we walked in and Jason Dickens is like

get out of here we're watching the game we're watching the same thing and like everything sort of

halted no one was really interviewing anyone until the end it was I think we got in there right when

over time started it was yeah it was like they were yeah broadcasts like coming back from you know

the half break and then they uh they started right up so that was cool that was a that's a

moment I will remember my whole career that was very cool just being there and the intensity and

I like uh I think Felino said to Dickens and like who cares they'd ask us to play you know kind

of jokingly about team Canada but yeah it was cool it was cool and then the Troy parchment yelling

at all of us to move so all the players could see we're like where's door to go where's door to

move in here at least I had to say like I feel like the preliminary rounds lacked a little bit

of juice for me yeah I guess that's probably the standard we just got so spoiled by the four

nations where it was like this thing is on and it matters right away and there's no time to ease

into this tournament let's go there's some easing in in the Olympics which is understandable but

these uh quarter final games have been really really good super competitive um so let's hope USA wins

if USA wins they'll play Slovakia if they lose Canada will play Sweden Slovakia will play Finland

obviously so then if USA wins Canada plays Finland so uh it is a reminder yeah if the USA plays

in the bronze medal game we will have a bronze medal game watch along on Saturday

uh and whether or not the USA is in the gold medal game Sunday morning we will be here for a

watch along for the gold medal game on air production meeting yes if the gold medal game

does not develop the USA or Canada are we still coming in at 7 a.m. for a watch along yes

there'll be six people watching it's the gold medal game of the Olympics I know

well like okay I'm in I'm committed my plans are made my PJs are ordered yeah we'll see all right

we're gonna wrap things up we'll be back tomorrow with three remember Friday show will be at five

is we'll have a full uh medal around preview of the Olympics we gotta wait for that uh two-ten game

to wrap up yep so three tomorrow five on Friday said a reminder hit that like button we'll talk

to you then and see you to your black oaks