The Blackhawks aren’t in a great place right now. Currently riding a five-game losing streak, Chicago ranks dead last in the NHL once again despite bringing in a number of seemingly quality free agents. The team fired its head coach on Thursday, and it won’t be long before fans are counting the days until the season is over. By then, Chicago will likely be fighting for the top overall position in the draft lottery.
On Sunday, the Blackhawks got hit with a double dose of bad news on the injury front, but the players they recalled could make things interesting moving forward. Chicago announced that Petr Mrazek and Alec Martinez would both be missing some time, with Drew Commesso and Kevin Korchinski being called up to take their places.
Mrazek is headed to IR with a groin issue, which is tough news for a player who has struggled with groin issues in the past but appeared to have gotten past them. He came out of Saturday’s game early after making an awkward save and headed straight for the locker room. The Blackhawks didn’t offer a timetable for his return, but given that he’s dealt with lingering groin issues in the past, that’s not a great sign. According to his most recent update, Laurent Brossoit will be available sometime in mid-January, but who knows whether he’ll be back at all this season.
To replace Mrazek, the Blackhawks made the unfortunate decision to call up Drew Commesso. The move is a fairly short-sighted one – Commesso, who profiles as the future between the pipes in Chicago, has yet to make his NHL debut and isn’t quite ready for the next level. The situation feels somewhat similar to the one Arvid Soderblom was thrust into last season; while it apparently worked out in the end, he endured some serious struggles last season. Hopefully, the Blackhawks won’t have to use Commesso much before one of Mrazek or Brossoit returns, but the team is also going into the busiest part of the season, so time will tell.
In an interesting situation, the Blackhawks said Martinez would miss some time with a neck injury but was not placed on IR. He was hit with a puck in that area Saturday, so he’ll hopefully just miss some time with a bruise or another less serious injury.
Chicago made a very interesting move when deciding who would take the place of Martinez. The team brought up Korchinski in what had to be a somewhat Anders Sorensen-inspired move. One of the first points brought up by the interim head coach was that his team would be utilizing defensemen more on the rush, and there’s no one who fits that archetype better than Korchinski. He’s been playing on both sides of the blue line recently in Rockford and he beat out skaters who appeared to be more “NHL-ready” in Ethan Del Mastro and Isaak Phillips, among others. It’ll be interesting to see whether Korchinski will be used on the power play (he should be). Either way, he should give Chicago’s offense a nice little boost for however long he’s here.
