Islanders @ Blackhawks: 0-3 road trip concludes with...? [Game #45 thread]
Hey, he’s on the other team now! (But also: injured) | Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images
Kyle MacLean makes his long-sought NHL debut in Chicago. The Islanders are 0-3 on this trip, visiting a terrible team that is also beset by injuries, including budding star (ain’t tanking grand?) Connor Bedard and former Islanders inconsistent cult hero Anthony Beauvillier.
They’re also without Taylor Hall, Nick Foligno and Tyler Johnson, in case those names still hold relevance to you.
In the Chicago Blackhawks system, the team is represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the forwards who try to score goals and the thankless defensemen who must contain the attackers.These are their forwards. pic.twitter.com/8ac5hvcu8c— Travis Flynn (@NDRedEagle) January 19, 2024
If the Islanders don’t take this one — and decisively — then what the hell are we doing here?
Meanwhile, it’s Kyle MacLean’s NHL debut. Unless you are family — like his dad, the former NHLer who is behind the bench — that likely does not excite you. But good on the kid, as a completely unheralded (and undrafted) son of a former NHLer, for keeping at it through an overage year in juniors and multiple summer camp invites to get a pro contract and then, after four years in the AHL, a mid-season callup at age 24.
Probably a temporary thing but you never know. And he’ll always at least have this....
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