Don’t sleep on the Four Nations Face-Off. This isn’t the “glorified” All-Star game I thought it would be. We’ll look at the two international games played this week, recap some Chicago Blackhawks news, and look at how the Rockford IceHogs have been doing since our last update (it’s a little ugly).
If you were starved for hockey, I have good news for you my friend.
Four Nations Face-Off
The international tournament kicked off Wednesday, Feb. 12. Team Canada took on Team Sweden in Montreal to get things started. The debate was over whether this tournament would be worth the watch. Was it going to be a tickle-fest like the NHL All-Star games? Or would this live up to the hype?
Canada and Sweden made a statement on Wednesday. No one was shy about being physical. Sidney Crosby had three assists in Team Canada’s overtime win. At 37 years old (the oldest player in the tournament), Sid proved he still has it. Not that it needed proving anyway. Below are some Crosby highlights from Canada’s 4-3 OT victory.
Tournament favorite Team USA crushed Team Finland 6-1 on Thursday. Brady Tkachuk and Matthew Tkachuk scored two goals each. This was a close game… for the most part. Team USA and Team Finland were tied to open the second period until Matt Boldy scored on a beautiful redirection from Brock Faber. USA scored four more goals in the third period.
Teuvo Teravainen didn’t score for Team Finland but logged 10:34 minutes of ice time, had one hit, one giveaway, and a plus/minus rating of -1. The veteran is the lone Blackhawks representative in the tournament.
Closing Time – News Recap
The Hawks last played hockey on Feb. 8 against the St. Louis Blues. You can read about the 6-5 loss here. Other than that, there hasn’t been any news to discuss. Ethan Del Mastro was sent down to Rockford on Feb. 9, but that’s to get some ice time with the IceHogs during the NHL break.
We looked at Anders Sorensen’s first 29 games as interim head coach. I compared the Blackhawks analytics under Sorensen and Luke Richardson.
With the Mar. 7 trade deadline under one month away, I wrote about whether the Blackhawks should trade Ryan Donato. Donato is having a career year and it’s a question of either adding more draft capital or holding on to a player for continuity and the near future.
Spittin’ Piglets – Rockford IceHogs Updates
Oh boy. Look, I wish I could hype you up for this section. But I can’t.
The IceHogs lost three in a row since returning from their AHL All-Star break.
The game against the Texas Stars on Feb. 7 summed up Drew Commesso’s season. Up and down. He stopped all 11 shots in the first period, then the Stars turned it on and won 6-3. Cole Guttman scored twice and Andreas Athanasiou scored a goal in the loss.
On Feb. 8, the IceHogs lost again to the Stars, 4-3. Samuel Savoie, Athanasiou, and Joey Anderson all scored. Artyom Levshunov assisted on Savoie’s goal.
Rockford hosted the Milwaukee Admirals on Feb. 11 and lost 3-1. The lone scorer was Levshunov, his fourth of the season.
And it gets worse. Drew Commesso will be out 7-14 days because of an ankle sprain and Colton Dach will be out 7-10 days because of a hip flexor strain, per the IceHogs medical update.
Ending things on a positive note, Bryan Bickell will be inducted into the IceHogs Ring of Honor on Saturday, Feb. 15. You can read about that here.
Upcoming Games – Four Nations Face-Off Edition
Saturday, Feb. 15 is the Four Nations doubleheader. Team Finland takes on Team Sweden at 12 p.m. CT and Team USA takes on Team Canada at 7 p.m. CT.
Monday night, Feb. 17 is the last of the round-robin games with Canada taking on Finland (12 p.m. CT) and USA facing off against Sweden (7 p.m. CT). Thursday, Feb. 20 will be the game between the top teams of the tournament.