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Toilet Bowl Hawks vs Sharks, Dickinson Extension, and Bedard Skating |
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The Hawks and Sharks take the ice in a battle of the league's worst tonight at the Madhouse. What else can we say about this one? Two teams in the midst of full-blown rebuilds are doing their best to get to the finish line, which is game 82, with hopes of winning the draft lottery and the chance of adding a franchise player in Macklin Celebrini. The Sharks come into this one with a record of 10-31-3, which puts them in last place in the league. They have a 1-9-0 record over their last 10 games and are currently on a two-game skid after being shut out by the Sabres last night in Buffalo. They will have Mackenzie Blackwood in net tonight, and while he hasn’t played great, he hasn’t been too bad either, considering the team around him. He sports a 5-17-2 record and a.892 SV%. He does play well against the Hawks; in four career games, he is 3-0-1 with a.910 SV%. To be fair, he was able to do that with much better Devils teams in front of him. All in all, this is a game the Hawks need to put together the progress they have made the last few games and take full advantage of a weaker team.
Project Line-Ups
The same forward group is in this one. Jarred Tinordi draws back into the lineup as he will take the spot of Connor Murphy, who is dealing with a lower body injury. Mrazek gets the nod in the net once again.
Dickinson is Staying
The Hawks announced they have signed forward Jason Dickinson to a two-year deal that will see him have a $4.25 million cap hit. He has been having a career year and looked to be trade bait come deadline time. Kyle Davidson had mentioned earlier this week that while they could trade him and Mrazek at the deadline, they would end up looking to replace them with similar players next off season, so why not cut the middle man and try and sign them? Well, KD was able to do that, and I absolutely love the way he is approaching this rebuild. Talking about his new deal, Dickinson mentioned wanting to be here long-term and was hoping for more years on this deal, but KD is sticking to the plan of short-term deals. It's amazing what having a GM who is confident in his plan can do compared to our last GM, who flipped the plan more times than a light switch. Now it will be interesting to see if they sign Mrazek for at least one more year.
Bedard Skating
Connor Bedard is once again out here, showing why he is just a different kind of animal. Just seven days after having surgery on his jaw, he was back on the ice. Of course, he had limitations that were being monitored heavily by the team, such as no slap shots and no clenching his jaw. This doesn’t change the time line for his return just yet, but it's exciting none the less to see him out there.
That’s going to be it for me, puck drop is set for 7:30pm central time and as always, Lets Go Hawks!
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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