Colin Blackwell and the Blackhawks beat the Avalanche 3-2 on Tuesday.
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The difference between Lukas Reichel’s confident self and timid self is enormous.
Reichel has been stuck in timid form the majority of the season so far. But in the Blackhawks’ 3-2 win Tuesday against the Avalanche, his confidence seemingly returned.
In the first period, when Connor Bedard set him up on a two-on-one rush for his long-awaited first five-on-five goal of the season, he celebrated emphatically in front of the Hawks’ third sellout crowd of the season.
A couple shifts later, he deked two different Avalanche players figuratively out of their skates on a rush down the left wing, then placed a backhand pass perfectly onto Bedard’s tape.
That assertive swagger that had been so glaringly missing in the 21-year-old German’s game remained throughout the night as he fired at will and put full power into his skating strides. He has a long way to go to get his season fully back on track, but Tuesday looked like the closest thing yet to a turning point.
“We talk a lot [about] making sure he’s playing free of expectations and thought and just enjoying himself,” Ryan Donato said. “It looked like he was having fun. He was flying around.”
Bedard and Donato, who tallied two points each, and goalie Petr Mrazek, who made 35 saves, helped the Hawks keep pace before Tyler Johnson scored the game-winner on a third-period power play to snap a four-game losing streak.
Forward Colin Blackwell played in an NHL game Tuesday for the first time in 295 days. The veteran bottom-six forward looked like had 295 days’ worth of energy built up, too.
He was extremely active from the opening puck drop on, recording five shot attempts and six hits in 16:41 of ice time. He delivered big hits on Avalanche skaters Jonathan Drouin in the first period, Bowen Byram in the second and Nathan MacKinnon in the third, then helped incite a critical Ryan Johansen roughing penalty with 34 seconds left.
Blackwell’s most recent appearance had been Feb. 27 last season. He underwent surgery to repair a sports hernia shortly afterward, and his recovery ended up taking far longer than anticipated.
“The staff here did a great job in between all the periods, making sure I was all set,” Blackwell said. “Obviously [I was] a little anxious, nerve-wracking going into the game. And then as the game went on, I was good to go.”
The Hawks are close to getting two defensemen back in the lineup. That’s the good news.
Kevin Korchinski returned to Chicago on Tuesday after mourning his father’s death in Saskatoon. He participated in morning skate; he will just need a few days to get back up to game speed. Jarred Tinordi, out since Dec. 5 with a concussion, also participated in morning skate.
The bad news is Seth Jones’ upper-body injury — which appeared to specifically be a shoulder injury — “got worse” in the days after it happened Dec. 10, coach Luke Richardson said.
Jones won’t play before Christmas — meaning he’ll miss the Hawks’ games Friday against the Canadiens and Saturday at the Blues leading into the break — and could miss more time than that.
Alex Vlasic’s return timeline from his upper-body injury is ahead of Jones, Richardson said, but he skated on his own Tuesday without participating in full team activities.
And forward Andreas Athanasiou, out since Nov. 9 with a groin injury, is nowhere near returning. He was supposed to resume skating a few weeks ago, but that didn’t happen, and he’s now “getting further checkups.”
“It’s just one of those injuries that’s dragging for him, and we don’t have a timeline,” Richardson added. “He’s that quick-twitch, fast guy, and when he feels that he can’t do that...then he’s really not going to be a lot of help to us until he is back to 100%.”
