Where do the Chicago Blackhawks STAND with 25 Games Left in the Regular Season? | CHGO Blackhawks

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Thanks for being with us on this Thursday, I'm Jay Zilowski.

That's Mario 2.

Damn it.

There.

That way.

There's Mario right there.

I can't do that.

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Chloe Feel is here somewhere in Chicago as well, producing the show.

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And if you missed yesterday's show, I know we had a little bit later of a show drop

to accommodate Mark Bernard and Nicolardis and Kevin Corchinsky.

Even though the all-star game has happened, that show still really holds up great interviews

with those guys, so go back and check that out if you missed it.

Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

A lot of fun yesterday and Tuesday out there with the AH all-star classic in Rockford.

Good time and just shout out to the ISOGs and Dana and his old crew for all the accommodations

and everything, helping us out with all that and getting us set up, really appreciate

it.

Again, just a fun, fun experience.

Seems like everyone that I've heard from that was there had a great time.

Sounds like the reception from people around the league really enjoyed it, so Rockford

put on a good show.

It was a good time, and now they get back to their regularly scheduled regular season.

And I think they start with three games and three days on Friday morning back, Saturday

and Sunday.

Yeah, so hopefully today is a nice day of rest for the ISOGs and they get back at it.

Yeah.

And again, just to reiterate your point, thank you to the ISOGs for helping us out on

probably their busiest day of the year to find space for us, to make time for us, to

make sure that, you know, we had the things we wanted to talk to Bernard, or sorry,

talked to Gortzinski and Lardis and Bernard.

And they made it happen on a day that they've probably been planning for a year now.

So we recognize that and we greatly appreciate it.

So yeah, with that, here's what we're going to do today.

We are going to take a look back at the first part of the season leading up to the Olympics.

And then a preview, the 25 games coming up.

If you missed it earlier this week, I published my Black Hawk speed for all CHGO.com.

And I revisited our overs and unders that we set before the season began.

Some player points, some team totals, just some number of predictions.

So we're going to go back and look at them, see how they're doing.

And then from there, kind of evaluate where it's going to go going forward.

So we should probably just start right at the top with Conor Bedard, our prediction

on Conor Bedard this year, we set the over under at 70 and a half right now.

Conor Bedard is 53 points in 44 games, which would translate to a 98 point pace for the season.

So he is well above the 70 and a half projection we put out there in terms of pace points

per game, even if we just, if we take the pace right now, the pace would be 84 points.

If he remains his current pace, would still break the over under we set for this year?

Yeah, if he didn't miss any time, the season would feel a little bit different.

I think he looked at some of the games that they played without him.

And you just got to think that having him playing the way that he was prior to the injury,

it definitely would have been a few games, it's definitely a few games difference in there.

You know, the offense dried up for a bit when he was out.

So I have to imagine some of those close games would have gone different ways.

And, you know, I just remember the first game after he went down, was that not the Red Wings game

that they're on was our takeover?

And they just looked like a shell of a team, lost like four, nothing like.

And it was just like, yep, that's life without Bedard, like it really zapped them.

So if he had been healthy the whole year, he might be in Italy right now.

And, but you can't control that.

So I think the way that he's been playing since he's come back, the Burke and the rest is good for him.

And yeah, still being on a 84 point pace, close to 100 point pace over what it would have been 82 games.

That's really impressive.

That's that the jump we all wanted him to have.

And he got out to a very hot start.

I remember at one point, we were talking about like, oh, he's on 123 point pace through like the first 20 or 25 games of the year.

And obviously that flattened off, but like, it's still like the season he's been having, even with being,

being, you know, slowed down by the injury a little bit, it's still the season we all hoped at least in my view.

Yeah, the three of us took the over, you said he would flirt with a point per game.

I said he's flirting with not or Greg, Greg, rather said he's flirting with 90 points.

And I said, just short of 90, but I was basing it on the my predicted health for Andre Burakowski.

I thought that he would miss too much time and it might affect his numbers.

But all of us had him for over a point per game and he's right there.

So he's on a really good pace.

And like you said, if he's, if he doesn't miss, you know, those those 12 games with the shoulder injury, who knows, right?

Because you could see when he came back from the injury, he had to kind of ramp back up.

He wasn't quite himself and you could see him trying to make up for lost time.

I need to get three goals this shift and kind of like back to the chaos of the first two years of the dark.

But over the last handful before the break, he really seemed to settle back into that place.

He was before the injury.

So hopefully another break doesn't set that back again.

And he's got to hit the reset button again.

But either way, I think we're pretty comfortable with him finishing over a point per game this year.

And maybe still eclipsing that 82 point mark, even with the 12 games missed.

So happy with his start.

I don't know how you couldn't be the only the only setback is you've got these two breaks for him

that have that have slowed the pace down or slowed the total down.

I guess it'd be a more accurate way of saying it.

Yeah, but I think even still like, you know, not when it be clear like he wasn't going to do enough to get to the fix.

I think we all kind of took a step back and was like, it's best that he's not because you give that shoulder some time to heal even more.

Because I can't imagine that he was back at quote unquote 100% when he did come back.

So I think this now gives him an opportunity to heal and get back to as close to 100% as possible.

Who knows?

I know Jeff Blaschle kind of said that like it's for the foreseeable future and kind of indefinitely right now.

The plan is that he's not taking face offs.

We'll see if that changes when they come back.

Because if that does, I think that's a positive sign that his shoulder feels like it's at a better spot.

And that he can get back to fully, you know, his normal responsibilities and his normal spot in lineup.

Next up, we had Frank Nazar over underpoints. We set it at 40 and a half.

So by the way, going into these numbers, we sort of took the first couple of years and tried to build like a normal expectation for, you know, just kind of averaging.

So Nazar, he currently has 24 points in 41 games after missing 16 games with various injuries.

That would put him on pay on pace for 38 points this season, but a 48 point pace when applied to an 82 game season.

So he is also despite the 20 some games without a goal.

Frank Nazar is still on the track for what we predicted as we all took the over again.

Yeah, and that's good. That is good.

The way that started for him was was really exciting.

And, you know, the the hit to the lower by in the Calgary game.

Obviously hampered him and the broken jaw hampered him.

And we haven't seen that player that we saw in October, November come back yet.

I think that's, that's, that's hard because it got off to such a hot start.

The team across the board got off to a hot start and got all of us excited.

And it was, you know, for good reason. I think they were, they were playing good hockey.

They were, they were able to kind of lean into what Jeff Blasho was, was coaching them up on right away.

That style and, and they were playing it and they were getting, you know, really good goal tending.

So it was, it was a good start to the season, but for, for Nazar again, like, like with Baudard, like this break is good for him to give the mind and body arrests is good for everybody to do it.

Because like this, this team can, can come back with a lot of these guys feeling rested in a season where, you know, there's still some of them are rookies.

The first time they've ever played this many games and for others, you know, it's second year, like you're still kind of adjusting to that kind of schedule and that kind of wear and tear on the body and the mind over an NHL season.

So this break is good for those guys to, to rest and reset and come back and hopefully, you know, have some, some clear heads and some, you know, rejuvenated energy when they when they hit the ice again.

I think for Nazar, that's going to be, that's going to be good for him because he was, you know, he's, he's got a lot of confidence and he puts a lot on himself to perform.

And I just, I think even though the points haven't been what they were to begin the season, the way that he's playing is and what he's been generating still has been pretty good, but for anybody you want to see it show up on the score sheet.

Definitely, and Lebowski 55 points out in the chat that people were talking about Nazar as if he was a future superstar in the league. And I remember before this year or after I probably more accurately, the end of last year, people were saying, like, Nazar is already better than Baudard.

He's a better player than Baudard and like, you know, got to pump the brakes a little bit. I don't think stardom is off the table for Frank Nazar now.

Superstar is, is how you define it, right? Like some people would say the superstars and league are McDavid, McKinnon, McCarr, and, you know, that like that's it. And those are the superstars. Some people would even have somebody like cold call field is a superstar.

So it's all how you define it. But I think Frank Nazar being a star or if we want to find a way to categorize this or, you know, you call them an all star.

Frank, does Frank Nazar have an all star appearance in his NHL future. I think he certainly does, especially as the team gets better. And we've sort of tried to project out what he's going to be.

I would think he probably could, I would imagine a career high for him would be somewhere in the 70 points. And then a more average season would be 55 to 65, which is still a really, really good player. But who knows, like, if he starts eliminating these slumps that he's had a little bit here.

He's got goalscoring wise. And he starts to play with better players as he's going to is more and more of these cancer odds and frontels, et cetera, join the team.

I don't think point per game is out of the out of the question for him. And I think if you're a point per game player in the NHL, you are quote, you qualify as a star. I don't think there's any question about that.

Yeah, I mean, I think is he, is he ever going to be the best player on a Hawks team? I don't think so. But I think there's still a lot of a lot that comes with being the guy that's that top second level option. And we've had a lot of those guys over over the years. And those cup teams wouldn't have been those cup teams without those guys.

I think of Patrick Sharp and Dave Boland in that second level of, like, not role player. But, you know, you had your superstars and your Taze and Kane and Keith and Seabrook on, you know, in Hausa.

But then that next level of guy that you needed to be successful, those guys, I feel like, I feel like Nazar could be that guy to the Bidard and, you know, probably frontels and how those guys kind of shake out with where their contributions to the team are.

So he's none of these guys are going to be who they are for the rest of their careers at 21 years old. So I'm not necessarily worried about Frank's production pace or anything like that. I think it's his first full NHL season.

We got excited about, you know, how he played in the in the back half of last year and how he started this year. And so I think that version of that Frank Nazar is still developing.

And I think we're still, we're still away a time away from seeing him as his, you know, final fully mature version of himself.

Yeah, I mean, look, you had Patrick Sharp considering retirement and going back to school and becoming a businessman, you know, it's at one point in his career where he's like, you know what, no, this is not for me. I'm going to give it another try and then figured it out.

I mean, I think we're going to be able to do that in his career and like, we have, we try to preach us as often as we can.

It takes time for to develop and again, what not even 12 months ago, we're having people make the argument that Frank Nazar is better than kind of a hard.

So let's remember what we've seen before. And what we have seen Frank Nazar already do at the NHL level. I don't think that it's, I don't think it's unrealistic.

That he becomes that level of producer in the NHL. All right, we're going to hit the brakes on for the first time. If you've not done it yet, please hit that like button and subscribe when we come back before we keep moving down our list.

A little something we want to show you that's going to be happening tonight. So stick around. We'll be back in two minutes on CHGO black box.

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And now it is time for the big takeaway presented by Xfinity. Imagine that and the big takeaway tonight is you're going to want to jump on your your old YouTube's at home at 530.

The new episode of every shift will be out and Chloe. I believe we have a preview. We want to show some people.

It's because we lose one player doesn't mean the season is over here. This is an opportunity. It's defining what those non-negotiables are work and Pete sacrifice.

Those are the things that are non-negotiable to us.

For the win. Scars get bonus.

You guys are going to kick some shit out there.

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You see how much it meant to everybody in this building. Once you win a title in Chicago, you are royalty.

There it is. I'm going to be on a free shift tonight. It feels like a lifetime ago and I recorded that.

But very cool. Finally saw the, you know, what everybody else saw yesterday, kind of out of the blue, just scrolling through my phone.

Like, oh, look, there's me. So yeah, it's I'm looking forward to this. That'll be cool.

Yeah, I've been, I've been waiting for the next to reshift episode to come out and.

Knowing that, then knowing that, you know, you've been a part of it.

I'm excited to see how it, how it plays out. I love, I mean, when they rolled out this.

Little, the stock you series basically a couple of years ago.

I just, I love this kind of stuff because, you know, we see.

A lot of it with, you know, the being in the locker rooms and the practices and all that stuff.

But to see how the team puts it together, the stuff that they're able to capture.

It's just, it's just a lot of fun. And then we've actually been able to kind of be, you know, in some of them, a part of some of them.

And now for you to actually be interviewed for it was was was really cool. I remember we were up in the press box.

And then asked you to be a part of it. And he comes over before, uh, before a game and tap show on the shoulders.

Like, hey, do you got a minute and pull and pulls you to the side? I was like, uh-oh.

I was going through in my head like, okay, what did I say over the last few days?

What did I say to make a mad this time? But no, it was great. It was, it was really cool experience.

And it was actually the day after or a couple days after our takeover in the suite.

So it was actually filmed up on that in like the banner suites.

And it was really cool. And it was funny at one point. It was almost like our broadcast yesterday.

At one point, they started lowering the scoreboard. And there was like all these sounds happening. And we're like, are we going to wait for this?

And the scoreboard takes about 30 seconds to lower. And it was cool. It was just a cool experience. And I'm looking forward to seeing the whole thing.

I was there for probably maybe 25 minutes or so.

Um, so I wonder like how much that actually translates to usable content for the whole thing, but probably a combined like 30 seconds.

We saw all of it right there. Yeah. Yeah. So no, it was cool. I'm glad the Hawks asked and Audra who runs like, you know, their, their production and stuff over there.

That's who Ben brought me to meet. And I was like, Oh, absolutely. I'd love to do that. You know, that's any sort of exposure we can get is great, but just be asked was a huge honor.

And I hope I did it justice. I hope it turns out okay. Sometimes it was like, okay, do that. Like say that again.

But they're like, do you remember what you said? Like because because of the scoreboard lowering and like, half and halfway through.

Like, can you repeat that thing? You just said, no, like I, I know vaguely what I said, but I'm, I just always just kind of go from the hips. So anyway, it was cool.

I'm excited about it. So that drops at 530 tonight. And that was the big takeaway presented and I prevented.

By Xfinity, imagine that maybe some people will want that my big ugly head to be prevented from being on their screen.

So maybe Xfinity, I'll just do an outage at 530 for the good of everybody in Chicago.

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Outages ever with Xfinity.

Never. Absolutely not. I'm honestly that's I use Xfinity at home. And I'm my modems floor above and I'm down here in my basement of Wi-Fi.

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So yeah, it's good stuff.

I think Xfinity customer for a long time. All right, let's get back to our list here.

Next up, we have Ryan Denado.

We set the over under at 55 and a half points. If you'll remember, he had 62 points last year, a career high 31 goals and 31 assists through 57 games this year.

Denado has 13 goals and 12 assists for 25 points in his defense.

He did spend a lot of the time last season with counter-bedard, not as much this year last year.

He's only played 7631 with bedard, which is about a minute 44 per game.

Last year, he spent seven and a half minutes per game with bedard more than any other teammate.

So that aside.

Yes, if we're, but if we're taking excuses out of it, Denado is on pace for 35 points.

And that's like career average Ryan Denado, right?

And yeah, I mean, it's, it's.

I think I think I felt content that Denado was going to be able to not replicate last season.

But, jeez, but be able to be close to it, you know, be able to have that, you know, maybe not a single pace, but 20.

Like, I think that would have been reasonable to expect of him.

I didn't expect that Jeff Blaschle would not put him in the same positions that was the year before.

I thought what Denado was last year would have him some run to be like, hey, I was put in this position.

Last year, I scored 30 goals in 62 career year.

Like, why not why what I can't do that again.

And he just really has not been able to get that opportunity.

And I think the other thing that plays into how Denado has has played this year is.

He has the 30 goal season under his belt now.

And I think he has that confidence to be a guy that can play as a 30 goal score.

I think as we've mentioned a number of times on the show, it seems like he's trying to score differently than how he did last year.

Yeah, he's trying to be more of a fancier player to score goals than than what he was last year where if, you know, memory serves me like he had a lot of a lot of his 31 goals last season were near the net rebounds tips deflections.

He's getting to the net more rather than trying to maybe dangle and shoot like we've seen a little bit too much this year.

Well, we saw it's funny. We saw that recent goal he scored that he scored a sick goal kind of toe drag through a defender and sniped it on the way down to the ice.

And it looked at you with the game like.

That's not going to discourage him from doing that again because now he's finally gotten to pay off for it.

He's going to get right back into his habits, but no, like, yeah, I think that with Al Padard, it's a valid excuse.

We all for the record took the under you said he's going to be closer to 50 points. Greg said he doesn't think of a hit 30 goals.

He thought he'd pick up 30 to 35 assists and pointing to the fact that Frank Nazar's emergence and others would take some of the goal scoring pressure off him.

So good point by Greg. And I had him at an even 50. So all of us picked the under, but all of us had higher expectations for what he's been this year.

I would say even taking the Bidard factor out of it, it has been a bit of a disappointment from Donato this season.

You would think, OK, you know, big contracts, you know, less than we had speculated, which is good.

It's not like they got robbed and it's a, it's an Albatross contract by the ins.

Yeah. But I wanted to see a little more production from Donato and look, maybe he's banged up and isn't talking about it.

Like who knows, but I would, I would just want to see him get back to the simple things. And it's Jeff Flashle has talked about repeatedly over the last few weeks here before the break saying,

this is going to be another training camp for us.

The optional practices on the 17th, the whole team will be back aside from Tevo on the 18th. And it's going to be a mini training camp for these guys to get back to basics.

Back to the things that they have not been able to do with the compressed schedule.

I think that will help Ryan Denato maybe refocus and evaluate, hey, like he's a really smart guy, right?

He has to know, I've got to be better. And I'm confident that he will hopefully increase the pace.

The other thing too about Donato is, I think by now, I'd expected a, like a red hot streak from him.

Like a five goals and three games or like something, something crazy like that. And it really hasn't come for him this year.

I feel like we got that a lot from him last year.

Yeah, he did, he did go through some stretches last year where, you know, he just seemed like everything was working for him and hasn't had that this year.

But I would say this year, like what was, I, I'm.

It's hard for me to say that I'm disappointed in what Ryan Denato has done this season from the fact that like he's putting in a Ryan Denato year.

Here was a career best year. It's looking by the day more and more as an outlier season, rather than a step up and like, oh, I'm a different level type of player.

But for what he's, for what his production level has been and the way that he's been used in the lineup.

I dollar amount away from it, which even still four million for a player like Ryan Denato is that's fine, especially with the cap going up.

Like it's, it's not going to be a, it's not a huge deal to me.

He's playing like you'd expect them to.

So I'm hard to say like I'm disappointed.

It's lower than the expectations I thought, but I'm not, I'm also not like, oh my god, this, who is this player? He's unplayable.

It's, it's, it's not at that level at the stage.

Yeah, and he's not getting, I'm trying to figure out the power play time. He's not, he's gotten a big reduction in power play time.

He's on the second unit more often than I think he's been on and off the second unit a little bit this year, but that's he's not getting top power play time.

He's not getting power play with Bidard. He's on that second unit.

And that second unit is like, okay, the 145 for the first unit didn't go great.

So get out there and try to finish the last 15. So it's not like a true split time power play wise either.

So, hey, if you're depending on us for Olympic updates, Team USA just took a two to one lead over Latvia, Brock Nelson scoring the Hawks.

And that's habit. Team USA has had two goals disallowed in this game.

One on an offside, one on a gold tender in her fear.

And so they've put four pucks in a net. Only two have counted.

But right now they've got a two one lead on Latvia with just over halfway through the second period.

So, you know, they got a 23 to 11 shots on gold advantage.

So they're, they're in control of this game. But Latvia like we said in our Olympic preview, they don't, they don't go down easy.

They know they've got nothing to lose. And they just got like after that first review, the offside play.

That next shift Latvia was like, we're scoring. Like it was crazy. They were just like a dog on a bone.

Relayless in USA was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what happened? And that was in the back of the net quickly.

So they'll stick around. But if you've been really watching this game, you can see that the US isn't pretty firm control.

Well, just the two just a lot of goals make them look worse than it is.

They also hit two posts. So it's, yeah, it's, it's two video reviews and two posts away from being a blowout.

So I'm like, I'm not, uh, yeah.

Not too worried about it right now. Uh, USA is taking care of business as they should.

Yeah. All right. We've got one final break zone to get to. We're going to do that now. Hit that like button for us.

We've got a bunch of more categories coming up, including our buddy, Wendy City hockey's favorite black hawk.

Andre Burakowski. That's next on CHGO black hawks.

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We're going to get into Andre Berkowski here in our list of overs and unders. Maybe it's just the Olympic break talking, but I feel like he's going to be OK.

I feel like this break will he will be good for him. Good for his family and potentially we'll see the Andre Berkowski we saw in the first third of the season. I hope so.

I think this I think the team needs Andre Berkowski to get back to that that level of play that he had to begin the season.

And it's not not necessarily just for like the results are trying to you know get into the playoff picture whatever whatever like that, but you want the veteran players that are in that room feeling good about their individual games.

So that that can bleed over to the rest of the team so that everyone's feeling like hey, we're pulling in the right direction.

And if you have the veteran, along like what we talked about yesterday with Rockford, if you have veteran in a room of young players where it's very clear the future of the hawks is not Andre Berkowski.

It's the dark and nasar and all of the more in these young players that are in the lot of them, but you want Andre Berkowski to be a pot of influence in that room. And if he's playing well, he's going to feel better about himself.

It's going to be easier to feel like the team game is is is playing well and improving going in the direction when everyone's feeling like games are on point.

Just for him, I hope that he comes back from this break and can get back to that level of player because he is, he's important to this group.

And up until the week before the Olympic break, it was kind of locked into that top six role and leading into the break, kind of got the responsibilities and ice time pulled back a bit.

So maybe that can be a little bit of that that kickstart into the final 25 games of the season to where you can get back to that level and and things will feel a lot better for him and for the team.

All right, that was the original take brought you by hooters, check them out, get some wings at original hooters.com. Let's get to our Andre Berkowski.

Overs and others, we set the number at 45 and a half. And as we just said, he's kind of been the most recent target for black Hawks fans. He's got one assist in his last 13 games. He is still the team's third leading score with 30 points in 51 games and a 48 point per 82 games pace.

He's got, he's missed only six games so far this year. So if he continues at that pace, he'll fall just short of our projection with 44 points. But again, if we're averaging it over 82, he's on pace for 48 points.

You took the over Mario. You mentioned if he's healthy, he can fight with 50 points. I don't think that's out of the question. Greg took Berkowski's over as well. I took the under just assuming he wouldn't be healthy enough to complete enough games.

So I also added if he's healthy, it's an easy over. So I think the number there is certainly attainable for him.

It is. I mean, to be the team's third lead score in a stretch that you just said one assist for 13 games.

He got off to a hot start and he's at a pace that we've seen from him personally since he was with Colorado in the season.

So if he stays healthy through these final 25 games and he can hopefully find that pace again, like that's that's going to get him I think above that 45 plateau by the time we're done with the with the regular season.

15 points and 45 games based on what we've seen is is probably a little bit hopeful actually because that's what you have to do. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, 15 points and 25 games seems a little based on how he's played.

It might be a stretch, but it's not.

But if he comes back and like gets off to a good start, I think that that's, yeah, maybe it is a bit wishful thinking, but he the way he started this season, if he can find that level again, like I think he'll he'd be able to do it.

I think it'll just be interesting to see how things play out as we get past the trade deadline and the expected arrival of Anton Frontel at either mid to late March.

Who's going to get the opportunities, you know, if Berkowski comes back and he's not, you know, lighting things up so to say to where you would say, Oh, yeah, put him back up in the lineup.

They're going to give Lardus and Frontel and you know, the Oliver Moore and they're going to give these young forwards those opportunities up there in the top six that you.

We were seeing Andre Berkowski get to begin the year.

Yeah, and you know, when Blasho was asked about him before the break, he's like, yeah, you know, it's been a rough 10 game stretch for him.

But the 10 games before he was one of our best players and we actually ran the numbers and he was right like he was one of the most, even if the point production wasn't exactly what we all would like it to be.

The underlying numbers for Berkowski were really good.

The 10 prior to the last will not would be 11, I think.

Yeah, or 12, whatever it was, I forget when exactly Blasho said that, but he was right.

Like the impact, you know, possession wise and shot attempts and high danger chances, they were all very positive with him.

So I have a lot of room for understanding for him, considering new baby, but again, he's not the only guy in the NHL that have a new baby and have to come out and play at a high level.

Like a lot of these guys are parents and it figured it out more quickly than Berkowski hasn't I believe this is not his first child.

But then there was also he missed a game because of a health thing. So I'm allowing for some off ice stuff to be impacting his on ice game. It's understandable.

But I think after this Olympic break, we've got to see him look like the guy he was earlier in the season because what we've seen lately has been flat out bad.

Yeah. And even a small step forward would be just better puck possession. I think I think it's really been killing him and the team just how many times.

The puck just goes the other way when it's on his stick or when it's, you know, when he's trying to make a play. So even just cutting that down is going to make a make an impression.

All right. Next up on our list is Oliver Moore games played in this one. We did not set an over under. We just gave our thoughts on what we thought Oliver Moore would do. So you said 37 in row Greg said 39. I said exactly 50% of the season in 41 games.

He has already crushed our predictions playing 45 games in 57 Black Hawks games this season. I am for me now the conversation is, is he going to rock for it again?

No, why? Yeah, I don't think so either. No, no, I, I keep him up here. He himself for the break was just like, I don't, I don't want the break because I want to keep being, you know, in with this group guys and being in that groove of the sea.

But on the other end, I think he was very understanding of what I also probably could you the time off to kind of, you know, reset my, my body and reset my mind and have some time to come back and, and ready to go again.

I see no reason to put him down and talk for it again. He was the last game two games before the break got moved up to the, to the second line, like, I, I really think, as far as like some of the young guys go, like, he's, he's, he's the break out.

Yeah, this year, for me, at least. So I, I, I, I think there's, there's a spot for him in Chicago the rest of the year.

Yeah, and one thing to about him is like, if the production isn't there for him, he can, he helps out in other ways. He's so versatile. He is a guy that you can really put in all four lines and tell him to go do a job and he's going to do it well.

And, you know, what's the offense going to be that remains to be seen with all these guys, but especially all over more, but in, you know, 45 games a series got 16 points, nothing crazy.

But it feels like there's a lot more meat on that bone for him offensively. And as these veterans leave via trade or whatever it might be, he's going to get some opportunities too.

See him get some power play time. See what he can do. See what he can generate with his speed. He is relentless on the puck. So a guy who can pick up a lot of power play assists by chasing a dumping down or winning a board battle or whatever it might be.

The offense will get there for more where it goes. We don't know, but I already trust him for the most part in defensive assignments. Right. Look, am I put him up against Conor, my David, probably not.

But he's got the speed to hang with him. Right. Like so. And I think Nazar is another guy who has higher offensive upside than more, but even when he's not scoring, he brings other value to the team.

That's what we want to see. We saw that develop this year with the Dard. We want to see that develop with Lardus. And I've actually been a little pleasantly surprised with how effective he was at all ends in his short column. Nicholas, I'm talking about.

Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, how more has played this year.

It really kind of fits his player type because he's a guy that was drafted as a player that, you know, didn't expect it to put up monster numbers production wise, but impacts the game in so many different ways.

And you saw it when he played with team USA in the world juniors, even on his Minnesota team, like he wasn't necessarily asked to be go be top line, you know, point per game plus producer.

You can go, you can go get some offensive impact and production and get some goals and assist, but also you put your play at both ends of the ice, the energy he bring, like it's all impactful in different ways. So I really like him as a player and

a couple of people mentioning like, you know, he's once one stick and send his traded as we all kind of assume is going to be what happens.

Like there's more opportunity for Oliver more down the middle.

He's also the way that he's played. Now, I'm not going to make this comparison as he's a one for one plug in and replacement, but the way Oliver more has played this season and the way he's been used.

He makes me feel more comfortable with the outside idea of like, well, maybe the black hawks also trade Ilya McKayev, even though we've all kind of expressed like, hey, it would actually be nice to maybe bring him back the kind of player that he is.

But how Oliver more has played, I'm like, if they do trade McKayev and kind of strike when the irons hottest on him. I know Oliver more is not Ilya McKayev, but he can kind of fill that.

He's got to avoid a bit with like he's a more raw player of the speed and tenacity, you know, you're probably not going to play him both on power play and penalty kill.

But he's a guy that you could you could put in that kind of role and give him that opportunity to see how he see how he runs with it.

We've got a team USA update. It is now four one for team USA, Kachuk Brady, Brock Nelson, Tage Thompson, and I'm trying to see who got this fourth one.

Brock Nelson got the fourth USA goal. So make it all look stupid.

You know, I'm happy I'm happy to be wrong. Happy to be wrong.

We all, you know, think go garrons and idiot and then team USA goes out and wins a gold. All right, good. That's that's what we wanted to see happen anyways.

Yes, it's we're all rooting for yeah, exactly. All right, next up on our list is Kevin Kurchinsky games played again did not set a total just sort of ask for a guess.

Only two games for him so far this season now when the deadline comes. Perhaps he's called up perhaps he never goes back.

So this number can grow. But Mario, you thought he'd appear in 23 games. You said you think you'd have two cents of 10 to 12 the season, but doesn't stick all year.

That's what you had to say about it.

Yeah, I think I was kind of banking on a little bit of like maybe there was an injury. He would come up and play and then post their deadline. He'd come up and.

But knock on wood, the fence men have been really healthy this year. Like we haven't seen.

You have those guys go down with with long, you know, injuries or anything like that. So they've been reliable and available.

And every night and Kevin just has had to be patient with with getting his opportunity to to come up and play, but I.

Like with Dickinson, I'll assume kind of Murphy's getting moved to another extent, maybe Macrizzly gets moved.

If there's a team that interested in him.

So there there's your opportunity for Kurchinsky to go up and he's not a right shot. I so movie Murphy out.

Not like a Z put him right there kind of in a deal, but I still think even just, you know, the numbers game and what you want to see from Kevin at the NHL level.

Like if you move Murphy and or Grizzlyk.

That's two spots that that I think you can't say that Kevin Kurchinsky shouldn't get.

So we'll see it. We'll see how it plays out.

But I think after the trade deadline, there's still going to be like 20 games to play.

21 22. So maybe he's up for the rest of the year. Who knows?

Yeah, I don't know. It's funny. I saw it. I think I read this right. Maybe someone to check and correct me.

But I was reading through Scott Powers recent writing on the athletic.

And he mentioned the Hawks maybe bringing Grizzlyk back for another year.

So if that's the case, it doesn't seem like they're going to move him.

And I think the problem is if you do move Murphy and Grizzlyk, your entire decor is children.

It's like Alex.

Alex plastic is your oldest defenseman in that case.

Yeah.

But I get that.

And I mean, that's that's not something to just kind of brush to the side.

That does make a difference of having guys that are veterans, even Alex Vlasik is still a guy that can rely on a veteran here and there.

But but yeah, I mean, I think if you if you want to go with this, giving these players opportunities.

Some of them need need maybe a little bit more. Maybe you give.

If you do make two moves like that, then you just say like, okay.

You have Vlasik and Kaiser, like there are guys that are just like these are opportunities for you to kind of the reins and go forward.

That, you know, present opportunity to armlet them off.

Get get back in there and like, you know, be able to play things out and see where you're at.

I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. I'm also not like I'm not like this old that they will move Grizzlyk.

It's interesting to hear that they might even bring him back.

But like if if you know the deadline comes and goes and he's in the lineup that night when they play.

Grizzlyk that is I'm not going to be shocked because it's not like.

It's not like he's playing like he did last year in Pittsburgh where he was putting up 40 points and he's a million dollar defenseman.

He's a reliable guy reliable veteran on a very cheap contract.

But I just, I mean, how many how many rungs down the ladder do you have to go before team says we need Matt Grizzlyk.

Yeah, a lot, I would think.

Greg also picked the under he said, er, he picked 27 rather. I said 20.

Both of us sort of saying weren't overly jazzed about his early, you know, his preseason performance.

He was not jumping the way we thought he would.

We set it to over under for team shutouts.

This was a little bit tongue in cheek because they had zero last year.

So we set the number at one half.

And yes, we are already there.

I spent your night with three Drew commesso with one.

Arvid solder bloom is the hawks golly that does not have a shutout.

So there you go.

Three shutouts or four shutouts are ready for the hawks.

We just got to get solder blooms got to get one and everybody feels good about stuff.

Yes.

Yeah.

What's more surprising that a mezzo got one or that night already has three.

Commesso.

Yeah, I would say.

Yeah, especially he played what two games and that first one was kind of a train wreck.

And then the next game he was awesome.

Yeah, just yeah.

So that's more surprising, I think.

All right, we also did season point totals.

This was that we kind of all guests in the 70s.

I don't have the exact numbers.

I don't know why I didn't write these down, but I just missed this one.

But we were all between 70 and 75 right now.

The hawks have 53 points and 57 games.

That is a 76 point pace.

So we'd all be under I guess what would be the actual pace now.

A couple of things you had a month without Padard and Nazar.

So that's going to hurt things.

You're also going to have.

The pace is going to slow it down after the deadline when you do move veterans,

whoever they might be.

So I still think that's pretty unattainable.

But if they finish the season in the 70s.

That's that's a big jump from 61 last year.

Yeah, with all the factors in of.

Yeah, you missed Padard and Nazar together for the better part of a month.

You got to feel pretty good about that point total.

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's.

It's the, the step forward that.

You, you wanted from this team and it, you know, it hasn't looked.

I think at times.

The way that you would hope or the way that maybe even you expected,

because they got off to a hot such a hot start and then they kind of crashed for a bit.

And now they're, you know, kind of finding their way.

The break.

Comes at a time when they're like kind of finding their way back up a little bit,

which, which is nice, but.

At the end of the season, like it'll all kind of even out to being like.

As you go through the roller coaster, where you land is like where you expected to.

Or hoped to at least.

So if they're at, you know, on this pace, 75 76 points.

That's a, that's, that's a big improvement from last year.

And that's, that's what you want to see from these young teams,

from these rebuilding teams is your over your improvement.

If, if they finish anything above that, like if they're closer to 80,

then 75 or they get to 80 and above.

I think that's which we're thinking at this point,

but crazy things have happened.

But if you get to that point, then we're talking about like they hit.

Where we kind of put the lofty goal of, of being last year's.

Ducks and mammoth and, and being in those teams and being like.

Those were teams like on the cusp of that, that next step.

And I think if the hawks can finish this season,

having that kind of vibe about them of like they're,

they're on the cusp of that next step.

They're ready to go next year, where it's just like,

hey, we're talking about.

Anything below 80 points will be a disappointment.

I mean, that's, that's the improvement you want to see.

So it's a good point. Look at those teams, you know,

the mammoth and ducks have the two wild card spots.

The mammoth have 64 points.

They have a plus 26 goal differential.

The ducks have 63 points with a minus 10 goal differential.

Both of them on good streaks heading into the break.

Seven and three for Utah.

I know eight and two for the ducks.

That is certainly not out of the question for the hawks.

I mean, you know, they're, they're only 10 points behind them now.

I mean, that's kind of a big gap though.

It is, but again, you got a factor in like,

you're two most effective offensive players were gone for huge portions.

Yeah.

Like that just, it just can't be dispensed.

I know they, they ended that, they ended that stint pretty well.

But those, you know, you, if you win two of those first,

what was it six without a win or whatever it might be?

Yeah.

So you go two and four.

You're right, then you're right in the conversation again, right?

So it's, I don't know, I, I don't feel like them being next year's

mammoth or ducks, assuming Frandella's part of things,

whether it's this year or next year.

And the continued growth of the young players.

And who knows, maybe they do bring in a veteran that can help.

You know, as we talked about a while ago,

they were sniffing around Jason Dickinson this summer.

Or not Jason Dickinson, Jason Robertson this summer.

And we've talked about it many times.

He tried to get Jake Gensel.

So it's not that Kyle Davidson is refusing to try to upgrade the roster.

He's kind of cherry picking the opportunities.

If there is a guy that makes sense, I will try to get them.

Now he has to actually get them.

That would be the cool thing that actually happened.

But he's not totally opposed to it.

So growth addition from draft fix arriving.

And maybe a veteran player added to make the team legitimately better on the top six

or middle six as opposed to the bottom six.

You feel, I mean, I think you're looking at February right before the deadline

at or near a playoff spot.

I mean, I think that that should be the expectation for next year.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think, I think next season,

you're still going to need runway for those young players.

But I think the guys that are already here this year,

them taking that next step,

just puts that team at a new spot at a new level.

So that it gives you that runway for those young players.

And if, you know, I'm not expecting this.

But if Fran Dell, you know,

joins the team at the end of this year has a really good showing.

And then ends up being the player that a lot of people are expecting him to be

where he's, you know, 19 years old,

playing in the NHL.

Like he's already played professionally two seasons.

And then he, because of how big he is and kind of the skill set he has

and the game he can play,

if he steps in right away and looks like he belongs in the NHL from day one,

like that's, that's gravy for next season.

I'm not expecting that.

But if it ends up being the case, like you're talking about a team

that we've been, you know,

dying for counterpart to have like that guy that can go with him.

And I feel like if, if Fran Dell hits the ground running,

he can be that guy.

All right.

There's one more that we don't have the answer to yet.

We have an overrunner for NHL debuts for Hawks prospects.

We set that number at one and a half.

So far, we have one in Nick Lardis.

Lardis.

So I think the over is pretty safe.

I think someone else is going to debut this year.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's what we were just talking about.

No.

Yeah.

Come as I wouldn't have been a debut.

No, he played, he had a game last year.

Yeah.

More played last year.

Yep.

Renzel played last year.

Love should all play last year.

Green did too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm banking on that being Fran Dell.

We'll see how, you know, college seasons play out.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I think it's in that conversation.

I wonder if they would do that just to get the, just to do the contract thing with him.

Because I don't know if like he's been playing banged up all year and the production hasn't

been what we hoped it would be.

So I don't know if that changes.

If they want to make him play in the NHL this year, or even if it's for a handful of games.

But college Davidson does like to get that second contract early.

So theoretically, it's cheaper.

So we'll see.

It wouldn't shock me.

But.

I think merit based.

Maybe not.

But I think I could see for contractual reasons.

I'm doing it.

Yeah.

I do.

I do.

I do wonder how it's going to play out.

Because that's the beginning of the season.

I was like, yeah, guarantee it.

He's going to turn pro.

But, you know, how this season has played out.

I wonder if it's as much of a care of a guarantee.

That, you know, if it's season ends prior to, you know, mid April.

Uh, if they would do that and go that route.

Or if they would just say, hey, maybe we.

Maybe we let it play out another season.

But I think that's still less likely.

What about someone like AJ Spellisy making their debut?

That's what Charm Sticks asks in a chat.

Uh, you know, I'd have to see where.

Where Windsor's at in the, um, which of standings?

Because I don't think they're having a good year.

So if they maybe are out early.

Um, it might line up that he can, he can be one of those guys.

Let me see.

They are.

Actually, no, they're, they're right now.

They're close.

Yeah.

Who am I thinking of?

I don't know who I'm thinking of.

Um, yeah.

So I mean, they're, they're going to the playoffs.

I don't know if that's going to line up.

But I mean, if they're, if they're bounced.

So I think that's why this helps them.

The way that he designed up.

Then.

Hey.

Put it, you know,

give him, give him the opportunity.

That's a guy that feels.

Like he'd be able to play three or four NHL games.

Uh, where he's at right now and, and hang.

Even if it's just.

Being able to keep up with the speed and physicality of it.

Maybe is his, uh, you know, obviously, I don't think his NHL.

You know, brain is there yet.

He seems to be a head of some other guys at his age.

Definitely.

All right, we're going to wrap things up.

Let everybody get to the USA Latvia third period,

which is starting momentarily.

We'll be back tomorrow at three.

Mario has a day off.

So Greg will be with us,

but we're back in our normal time of three o'clock tomorrow.

We hope to see you then.

Remember every shift drops at five thirty.

I'll be on there for a few seconds anyway.

Talk to you then on CHG.

Black box.

We all feeling like the mayor.