The Chicago Blackhawks hit the ice at Fifth Third Arena on Thursday for the first day of training camp ahead of the 2023-24 season. We're officially back.
Here are several takeaways from Day 1:
- Taylor Hall, Colin Blackwell and Jalen Luypen did not practice due to lower-body injuries. Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson didn't seem overly concerned about the Hall absence, but they should have more information in the next few days.
- Connor Bedard opened camp on a line with Tyler Johnson and Ryan Donato. I imagine Donato was a placeholder for Hall, who will surely be the left wing on Bedard's line once he's healthy.
- Lukas Reichel centered a line with Andreas Athanasiou and Philipp Kurashev. The three of them played a lot together last season, so it looks like they're running it back, at least to start. It's still early.
- Kevin Korchinski was paired with Connor Murphy in the second group. They actually started together on the first day of camp last year before Murphy got hurt, and that was the end of it. It certainly feels like they could balance each other out.
- Wyatt Kaiser was paired with Seth Jones in the first group. Kaiser had a strong showing in his only game at the prospect showcase in Minnesota, and he's going to have every chance to build on that in camp.
- Nick Foligno is already establishing himself as one of the leaders on this team. In post-practice stretches, he went around the entire circle and gave everyone a stick-tap. Bedard raved about how great of a teammate he's been already.
"He’s been unreal," Bedard said. "He texted me all the time throughout the summer or called me, see how I’m doing, make sure I’m working hard. He’s been great. I got to go over to his house, meet his family and kids and everything. It was a lot of fun. He’s been so good to me and he’s made me feel so comfortable, as well as all the young guys. He’s such a good person, such a good role model. It’s great for me to have a guy like that."
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- The Blackhawks will not have a captain for the 2023-24 season, in part out of respect for Jonathan Toews and the difficult shoes it would be to fill right away. Everyone knows, eventually, it will likely be Bedard and it's just a matter of when.
But as Murphy said, there are a ton of leaders on the team, so it will be a group effort, even if you don't have an 'A' on your sweater.
"I don't think it's something that anyone really thinks too much about," Murphy said. "Just cause you're a leader, whether you have a letter on your jersey or not, guys know that when you're on the ice, whether you played a year or 10 years or 20 years, it's something that you feel a responsibility to help your teammates and be with them and pick each other up and I think good teams have a lot of leaders that don't wear letters." - For the first time in forever, Patrick Kane and Toews were not part of Blackhawks training camp. Murphy admitted it felt "different" without them.
"Those guys have been such a staple here in this city for so long and it was such a normal to come to the rink and see Kane and Toews and watch them and follow them and try to play off of their leadership, whether it's off the ice and how they set the tone for us and habits we have or whether it's on the ice and trying to play and complement their strengths and them leading wins and getting goals at the big times," Murphy said. "It's a cool thing, a transition to have a couple of young players coming in now that are really strong and it gives you, I guess, a little bit of that taste of what it was like years ago when Toews and Kane were coming in as young guys. It's just fun to see new faces and to have that excitement and hope that everyone has that talent and potential to create something big." - Quote of the day comes from Bedard when asked what he's learning about the city of Chicago: "I’m learning about the drivers, they’re intense here."