Morning Skate Update: Stalock starts; Makar out for Avalanche
Photo by Norm Hall/NHLI via Getty Images
A couple of updates with the defending Cup champions as the opponent. A quick round of updates as the Chicago Blackhawks kick off a new week by facing the Colorado Avalanche in Denver on Monday night.
First, for the visitors, a the goaltending position remains the same but there will be a change on the blue line:
Alex Stalock starts in goal for Blackhawks at Avalanche.Mitchell replaces Kaiser. Rest of lineup the same. Richardson wants to continue easing Kaiser in, letting him watch and learn while playing intermittently.— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 20, 2023
Neither is too surprising, as Stalock has been the Hawks best goalie all season and will likely continue playing until there’s a reason to not play him. The Blackhawks have also been extra cautious in how they handle young players lately so it’s not a total surprise to see Kaiser get a night off after making his NHL debut over the weekend.
Over the weekend, there was an interesting quote from Calgary Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson on this very topic of young players being scratched from the lineup at times:
Darryl Sutter talked today about the uproar in Calgary when a young player is scratched. A few minutes later, #Flames D Rasmus Andersson provide terrific insight on the topic ... pic.twitter.com/8JY57PjUAF— Wes Gilbertson (@WesGilbertson) March 18, 2023
Anyway ... some reinforcements will be joining the Hawks later on this road trip:
Blackhawks injury updates:Petr Mrazek (groin) and Andreas Englund (hamstring) are good to go will join the team in Washington this week.Reese Johnson (concussion) will take his clearance test soon. Bjork (lower body) isn’t quite ready to return yet.— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 20, 2023
As for Colorado, it’s been dealing with injuries to key players all season long and it appears another one just happened, although it may not be cause for significant alarm for the residents of the Rocky Mountains:
Cale Makar tweaked something against Detroit. Felt good afterwards but was sore yesterday and today. He's out tonight but the team isn't concerned, Jared Bednar said. Day-to-day, and they didn't want to risk worsening it. Kurtis MacDermid will play in his place tonight.— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) March 20, 2023
And here’s your starting goalie for the Avalanche:
Looks like Georgiev will go in net again.— Evan Rawal (@evanrawal) March 20, 2023
Projected Lineups
Blackhawks
Reichel — Kurashev — Athanasiou
T. Johnson — Dickinson — Raddysh
Hardman — Entwistle — Robinson
Katchouk — Khaira — Anderson
C. Jones — S. Jones
Tinordi — Murphy
Zaitsev — Mitchell
Stalock
Khudobin
Avalanche
Rodrigues — MacKinnon — Rantanen
Nichushkin — Compher — Malgin
Cogliano — Eller — O’Connor
Nieto — Newhook — Galchenyuk
Toews — Girard
Johnson — Byram
MacDermid — Hunt
Georgiev
Johansson...
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