Blackhawks Place Reese Johnson On IR, Make Roster Moves
Unfortunately, the news on Sunday after the Blackhawks’ tough loss in Toronto wasn’t good.
Reese Johnson, who was hammered by Jake Muzzin on Saturday night and did not return, broke his clavicle and was placed on IR. He’ll be evaluated further on Monday.
The organization’s response was recalling forwards Brett Connolly and MacKenzie Entwistle from Rockford and sending Mike Hardman to the IceHogs.
Connolly, 29, has five goals and six assists in 15 games this season with Rockford. He appeared in 10 games with the Blackhawks last year, scoring once with one assist.
Entwistle had two goals and one assist in 12 games with the Hawks earlier this year.
Calling up both Connolly and Entwistle seems to imply that Borgstrom is not going to be ready for Monday’s game unless Connolly is just here to be the 13th FW – if Entwistle is here there’s no point putting him in the press box so maybe likely he goes in for RJ and if Borg can’t play Connolly also slots in
Either way Mac is an upgrade over either RJ or Hardman so that’s good – he has been a good story for the Hawks when healthy
Pitty Lankinen didn’t tweak a tweeter and get placed on IR .
Be good if Connelly attracts some attention from another team, but with another year left may be a tough move without retaining salary.
Ian: Nobody wants Connelly. He has no trade value.
Hammer your probably right, may end up a buyout in the summer if still around and doesn’t make himself relevant. Only carry a 1.17m caphit on a buyout vs 3.5m caphit on the roster or 2.34m caphit in the minors.
That’s a rough break for RJ. He brings energy and physicality. I hope he heals and comes back healthy, next season. Bringing up Entwistle is great news. Connolly was having a good season with Rockford. He was second to Reichel in points. So…this will give Coach King some leeway with line combinations. I look forward to seeing what the line combinations will be and the 1 thru 4 centers. Connolly on a 3rd line, with Kubalik might be interesting. Strome at 3C? Dach is still seen as a 1C. Toews at 2C. Probably Slavin at 4C. This is gonna be interesting.
Connelly- NHL release- pretty meh other wise… I guess if you skated him w/ Kane and 19 – Maybe OK.
He might be productive. W quicker guys who can drive play… perhaps even Hagel or Slavin and Dach as Center
So looks like we can officially close book on 32.
Methinks after that Toronto game where he looked awful on 4, count em 4, of the 5 goals Toronto got, including GWG, his time had expired in the NHL.
If you think he was somehow not responsible for 4 of those 5 goals, then you do not know hockey. Period.
Ballet class is starting now for you.
He cost his hardworking teammates a point, maybe 2, and has been mediocre at best, behind 29 this year. He is something like 2-5-2 this year with a GAG over 3.
And after a year when he wilted down the stretch.
Rockford is calling his name.
Time to give another goalie a look for the #2 slot.
Game canceled tonight due to Calgary covid issues.
Cat strome kane
Entwistle Toews Hagel
Kubalik Dach Kurashev
Carpenter Slavin Connelly
Are the lines at practice today
Borgstrom still out sick
Connelly will just replace Khaira on the ice and on the books. He does have some history of success. We just have to let him play and succeed. The guy is a total professional, did not cry or whine about being sent to Rockford, and was a great role model for the young guys down there, and he did well.
I like Entwhistle and Slavin to be on the same line with Borgstrom. How nice would it be to have three 6’3″ forwards, who hustle, scrap, play defense, and occasionally score. The three of them could be twins! ;-)
What I have noticed about Lankinen in the past is that he has to play almost every night to be outstanding. He cannot come in cold and be successful. We traded that guy to Buffalo – Malcom Subban. While Malcom is better at playing once every two weeks, Lankinen needs to be a #1 and he will be fine. So, he just need to learn as much as he can from MAF, and he will be fine as our #1 going forward.
Tommy
I like the thought of Borgstrom Slavin and entwistle line also.
Connelly hopefully gives this team some lower line offense. If not back to Rockford to be the professional he’s shown he is.
You would you want in goal, Delia, Subban was given away for nothing to buffalo. No one else would be ready,
Chris, in 5 starts since King took over, 4 of them the tougher team each of the last 4 weekends, Lankinen allowed 10 goals at 5on 5 and 5 pp goals, 2.00 gaa at 5 on 5 pretty decent actually, 1 sh goal that was a breakaway on a giveaway. Yes a couple of weak ones but he doesn’t have nail holes in his hands, so to be expected. Ask any goalie in the hof or going to hof and they will tell you about getting burned by a bad bounce off the glass or boards. Sometimes they dive back and get piece of the shot or their teammates are coming back hard and bail them out on lots of occasions, unfortunately neither happened the other night. His record is 2 and 3, Saturday would have made it 3 and 2 against top teams in 4 of 5 starts. Even if they thought about sending Lankinen down, unlikely, the very slim chance he would clear waivers, makes it very doubtful it would happen right now.
Ian, my comment was in response to perimeter player who was tearing the kid up, trying to see who he wanted as back up to flower