CALGARY Veteran NHL coach Gerard Gallant has been named Canada's head coach for the upcoming world hockey championship in Riga, Latvia. Hockey Canada said in a release Wednesday that Mike Kelly and André Tourigny will join Gallant behind Canada's bench as assistant coaches. Gallant, from Summerside, P.E.I., was an assistant coach with Canada's gold-medal-winning team at the 2007 world championship and its runner-up squad at the 2017.
The Chicago Blackhawks were the full hockey embodiment of the Undertaker sitting up out of the coffin GIF against the Nashville Predators on Wednesday night in the 5-4 overtime comeback win. The victory was a defibrillator to their Stanley Cup Playoff chances and was helped along with a win by the Detroit Red Wings over the Dallas Stars last night. Heading into Friday night’s season series finale against the Predators, the Blackhawks sit just one point behind the Stars and three points behind Nashville. A win, in regulation preferably, would put them ahead of Dallas on points and within striking distance of the Predators with just eight games remaining.
AP Photo/Jeff Haynes General manager Stan Bowman’s plan for the Blackhawks’ future will enter its second chapter this summer. Since announcing the Hawks’ semi-rebuild last fall, Bowman steadily has maneuvered them through the first chapter. The period leading up to the trade deadline Monday, during which Bowman executed six deals that converted expendable assets and salary-cap space into more draft picks, prospects and NHL players with possibly untapped potential, served as the climax of that chapter. The rookie draft, expansion draft and free-agency window this offseason will begin the next stage with a bang. What already has become clear, however, is that Bowman is playing a numbers game with the Hawks’ rebuild.
The Chicago Blackhawks played 20 good minutes of hockey least night. That’s not going to get it done. We’re 41 games into the season, and at this point, partial efforts are no longer acceptable if you are trying to convince us that the Blackhawks are a playoff contender. The light is fading and the potential for lottery ball to be in Chicago’s future is becoming more and more of a reality.
• Chicago dropped a 5-1 loss to the Dallas Stars last night. They held a 1-1 tie after the first period, but allowed four unanswered goals in the second and third period to pound the hammer on the nail in the coffin once more. It’s not all the way nailed shut, but it’s getting down there.
There were some favorable results in the Central Division last night, as both the Columbus Blue Jackets and Dallas Stars lost. Chicago remains two points back of the Nashville Predators for fourth-place in the Division, but things are not going to get any easier as the season continues down the final stretch of games.
• Chicago has lost 10 of their last 14 games, all in regulation. Over that 14-game stretch, they have been outscored 48-30 and are averaging just 2.14 goals per game since March 7th, which ranks 27th in the NHL.
• More damning numbers for the Blackhawks over their last 14 games include a league-worst 68.6% on the penalty-kill and a league-worst 45.0% at the face-off dot. They have also lost every game since March 7th in which their opponent has scored first (0-6-0).