The Blackhawks rookies took part in the Traverse City 2018 Matthew Wuest Memorial Cup this past weekend. The rookies went 2-2 and lost in the third place game last night. While no players are going to make the Hockey Hall of Fame purely on their performance in this tournament, this exhibition play has been the springboard for players like Alex Debrincat and Collin Delia to show the NHL what they had to offer.
Last year, the Jeremy Colliton led team won the championship with players like Debrincat and Delia then taking big steps in their first pro seasons.
Watching the streams of a few games, some things came to mind regarding Blackhawks prospects:
- The organization clearly pushed the initiative on a few players. Dominik Kahun, Dylan Sikura, Victor Ejdsell, Alexandre Fortin and Nicolas Beaudin saw significant playing time in all situations.
- Dominik Kahun was the primary center and certainly has higher end skill, but where does he fit in the Blackhawks plans with Toews, Schmaltz, Anisimov and Kruger already slotted in?
- Graham Knott wore the “C” for Colliton’s squad. It seems strange to call him a veteran at 21, but he has been around the organization for three-year, and played 70 games with the Icehogs last year.
- Another “veteran” Alexandre Fortin wore the “A“.
- Adam Boqvist played three games (even though he is listed as playing all four), and was pretty invisible. He is raw and made some pretty egregious mistakes. Going to London is the best thing for him.
- In that same vein, Henri Jokiharju was held out of the third place game and did not stand out in his three games.
- Goalie Alexis Gravel looked to be the best Blackhawks goalie in the tournament. He had a very impressive 23 save win vs the Hurricanes and replaced Kevin Lankinen vs the Blue Jackets for the third period, making 11 saves. Gravel earned a shot at playing in the game last night, but they went with Lankinen instead. That decision looks to have possibly cost them a win.
- As far as the scoring went Ejdsell, Sikura, Knott and Beaudin each had two goals to lead the team. Point leaders were Ejdsell, Sikura, Beaudin and Lucas Carlsson with three each.
- The top two lines were very quiet when needed in crucial times, but the bottom six players like Knott, Bondra and even Nathan Noel came up with goals when needed.
- Despite their power play goal last night, the power play looked awful. The announcers mention several times how the Hawks looked like they were in disarray. They could not connect on simple first passes to break out of their own zone. Of the eight other team, only Carolina had a worse power play percentage (11.26% to 12%).
- The Blackhawks penalty kill was not much better. They were in the bottom three at 77.78%
These are the lineups and links to the score sheets for each game:
4-3 Loss vs. CBJ (9/7)
Sikura(1)-Kahun-Fortin(1 – Penalty Shot)
Nilsson-Entwistle-Ejdsell
Moynihan-Knott-Noel
Willms-Kurashev-Maksimovich
Beaudin (1)-Boqvist
Hillman-Jokiharju
Carlsson-Tuulola
Lankinen/Gravel (3rd)
5-2 Win vs CAR (9/8)
Sikura-Kahun(1)-Fortin (1)
Nilsson-Entwistle-Ejdsell(1)
Knott-Kurashev-Maksimovich
Moynihan(1)-Noel-Boomhower
Beaudin(1-EN)-Boqvist
Gilbert-Jokiharju
Carlsson-Tuulola
Gravel
4-3 OT Win vs STL (9/10)
Sikura (1)-Kahun-Fortin
Nilsson-Entwistle-Ejdsell
Knott (1)-Kurashev-Bondra
Willms(1)-Noel(1)-Boomhower
Beaudin-Tuulola
Hillman-Jokiharju
Gilbert-Carlsson
Marchand
Lines vs MIN 3-2 Loss(9/11)
Sikura-Kahun-Fortin
Nilsson-Kurashev-Ejdsell
Moynihan-Knott(1)-Bondra(1)
Willms-Maksimovich-Boomhower
Beaudin-Carlsson
Hillman-Boqvist
Gilbert-Tuulola
Lankinen