Lukas Reichel was a healthy scratch in the Blackhawks’ 6-1 preseason loss to the Wild on Friday after a poor performance Tuesday in Minnesota.
Considering how important it is for Reichel to put last season’s struggles — which caused him to be scratched several times, not to mention relegated to the fourth line and eventually sent to Rockford — behind him quickly this season, that’s a bad sign.
The 22-year-old forward at least doesn’t seem to be feeling down confidence-wise. He has matured and improved at staying even-keel through adversity and mistakes.
“[I’m working on] getting pucks on the breakout, making quick plays and creating offense out of the D-zone,” Reichel said. “And then I can get to the net when I have the puck, but first I have to get the puck and be in position where I can get it and make plays and have time.”
Coach Luke Richardson’s advice for him has sounded eerily familiar to last year.
“We need to get him creating and slashing and shooting pucks more and getting more offense without giving up any defensive lapses,” Richardson said. “It’s a tough job for a forward, but that’s a tough league, so you have to do it.”
It is worth noting the rest of the Hawks still played terribly without Reichel on Friday, so the lineup could look different in the regular-season opener next week. Richardson called the blowout loss “not fun and not acceptable.”
The Hawks are now winless in five preseason games — having been outscored 13-3 by the Wild over the last two combined — heading into their final exhibition Saturday in Milwaukee against the Blues.
“It’s not ideal,” forward Ryan Donato said. “You’d rather have it be us 6-1 up and being confident. But if there’s anything you can take out of it, obviously you can see things in the game we need to work on. It’s an exhibition game, so when the season comes, we know we can’t let that happen.”
Like Theodore
When the Hawks signed Alec Martinez this summer, it seemed like he might fit nicely as a partner for Kevin Korchinski. After all, Korchinski has modeled much of his style after Shea Theodore, and Martinez played quite a bit with Theodore the last few years on the Golden Knights.
Now that Korchinski has been sent to Rockford, that evidently won’t happen this season — at least not for a while. But Martinez, who was previously unaware of Korchinski’s connection to Theodore (they both played for the same junior club), nonetheless noticed that similarity.
“I didn’t say it out loud, but that’s actually who I was thinking of,” Martinez said. “The way that he and Shea skate, they make it look effortless out there. This is not a knock, but it looks like they’re not even working that hard — and then, all of a sudden, they’re just flying around the ice.”
Down in the AHL, the Hawks want Korchinski to learn ways to use that speed and fluidity more effectively while also improving his defensive positioning and toughness.
He’ll only be able to do that, however, if he can keep the right mindset about the demotion — something Reichel, who can personally relate to Korchinski’s disappointment, can give advice on.
“I know it sucks,” Reichel said. “Everyone wants to play in the NHL. I was frustrated too when I was there — even last year — but if you keep working hard and trying to be positive, [that helps].”
Off the ice
Connor Bedard hasn’t lost his rookie habit of lingering on the ice, all alone, for sometimes 20 or 30 minutes after practice ends. Hawks coaches would prefer for him to conserve the energy instead, but there’s only so much persuasion he can do.
“We tried last year,” Richardson said, smiling. “We took his sticks, and then he flirted with his contract with Sherwood by taking someone else’s stick. And then we took the steel out of skates one day and hid it. We’ll just have to have some fun with it.”