After three days off, the Hawks are back in action against the Colorado Avalanche as they play the ninth and final home game of the month of February. The Hawks have to be happy to see this month come to a close, as they are currently 1-5-3 and have only been able to muster 18 goals while allowing 31 against. Now, despite all that, it's crazy for me to say, but this has been a fun few weeks of hockey. Last Sunday was for sure the cherry on top, as we got to witness Chris Chelios head to the rafters and get a nice blast from the 90s past and see players who meant so much to this team in the 90s but did not get the love they deserved. Then you had the ending to the game against the Wings that I don’t think even the best Hollywood writer could have come up with when Patrick Kane picked up the overtime winner in classic Showtime fashion and got the entire UC on their feet celebrating a Red Wings victory, proving hell may have frozen over in the process. However, the best part of the miserable month of February was the return of Connor Bedard. Coming back a few weeks early, he has injected some much-needed life into this team. Despite not winning games, it is a night and day difference when the kid is in the lineup, and even new fans of the game of hockey can see how much better he makes everyone around him. In the six games since returning to the lineup, he has registered 7 points (2-5) and is reminding everyone why he deserves all the attention he gets. Bubble Conner Bedard is a different beast, and with the season winding down, I can’t wait to see where the numbers are once Game 82 has come to an end.
Up Next: Colorado Avalanche
With 22 games left on their schedule, the Avalanche find themselves in a tight battle for the Central Division title. Currently, they sit in 3rd place with 77 points and are 2 points behind the Jets for the lead. The bad news for Colorado fans is that the Jets have three games in hand on the Avalanche and are currently playing unbelievable hockey, going 7-3 in their last 10 and riding a 4-game win streak. Colorado’s last 10 is something they hope gets reversed quickly, as they are 4-5-1, but they have won three of their last five and are coming off a big 5-1 win over the Stars this past Tuesday. You can never count out this team, especially when their top guys are doing what they are supposed to do. Nathan MacKinnon continues to play out of his mind, as he has 98 points (35–63) in 60 games. On an interesting note, even though this is a road game, he is on a 29-game point streak at home. Mikko Rantanen continues to show he is a big part of this forward group, putting up 76 points (31-45) in 60 games, and Cale Makar is arguably the top 5 best defenseman in the league. Goaltender Alexander Georgiev has been having a solid season as well, sporting a 31-14-3 record with a.900 save percentage and 2 shutouts. They will be looking for revenge as they dropped the last meeting to the Hawks by a score of 3-2 back on December 19th.
The Hawks have had a nice rest after dropping their last game to the Wings on Sunday. During Wednesday's practice, we saw them running things with the same lines they sent out on Sunday. It was great seeing Athanasiou back on the ice with the team. He was taking reps on a 5th line of him, Katchouk, and Sanford. Athanasiou talked about his injuries that have kept him out of the lineup since November 9th and says it was an issue with his groin and hip, but while he’s feeling better, he's still dealing with some nagging discomfort, so it's not sure when he will be back in the lineup, but it sounds like it could be soon.
One more note before I wrap this up: going back to Sunday's game and the play that led to the Patrick Kane game winner led myself and my WCBPodcast cohost to take a deeper look at Seth Jones and Connor Bedard. It has been very obvious that Jones doesn’t seem to want to pass the puck to Bedard. It's more noticeable on power plays when there are questionable shots to the net by Jones than trying to get Bedard the puck to set up the play on the side board. It was painfully obvious when Jones had Bedard's wide open backdoor in overtime Sunday. When looking into this a bit more, we discovered an interesting stat. Of Connor Beards 17 goals this season and Seth Jones 17 assists, Jones has only assisted on 2 of Bedards goals, and only 1 of those is a primary assist. Both of Jones assists are at even strength as well, which doesn’t help the idea that he won’t pass to him on the power play. Just for laughs, can you guess who has more primary assistance for Connor Bedard than Seth Jones? Taylor Hall, who has played in just 10 games this year, This begs the question: Does Seth Jones hate Connor Bedard? Now, I am not serious about that, but the question of whether there are any chemistry issues is turning into an interesting story line that will be worth watching considering we have been stuck with Jones for six more years.
Ok, that’s going to be it for me. The puck drop is set for 8 p.m. central time, and good news: it's an ESPN game, which means no viewers on the call. As always, let's go Hawks!
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