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goaliekisses · 2 years

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Malkin’s teammates share what sets him apart; favorite memories before his 1,000th game

they’re all like ‘he’s so BIG AND FUNNY AND BEAUTIFUL’ and sid is like, repeatedly ‘he’s so DOMINATING also let me rattle off a list of my favorite geno goals and also did i mention, he’s so dominating? i’m so lucky to have seen them close up i’ll cherish them forever (like i cherish him)’

Sidney Crosby still remembers the first time he saw Evgeni Malkin play.

It was the 2005 World Junior Championship in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was the second World Junior appearance for both Crosby and Malkin, but the two hadn't gone head-to-head in the tournament in Helsinki, Finland the year prior. They finally met in the gold medal game, with Crosby and Team Canada winning the tournament with a 6-1 victory over Malkin and Russia.

Malkin made his World Championship debut with the senior Russian team later that season. Watching that tournament, Crosby couldn't help but take notice again of the young Russian prospect who had been drafted by the Penguins the year before.

"He was just dominating," Crosby recalled when I sat down with him earlier this week. "He was just 18 then. I thought he was pretty special from the first time I saw him play."

Crosby and Kris Letang were both drafted by the Penguins that summer, and Crosby made his NHL debut in the season that followed. Letang and Malkin joined Crosby in Pittsburgh a season later, and the three have been together now for 17 seasons.

Through Malkin' career 999 games, he's amassed 451 goals, 714 assists and 1,165 points, ranking No. 3 all-time in franchise history in each category behind Mario Lemieux and Crosby. When the puck drops for the Penguins' game against the Blackhawks in Chicago on Sunday, Malkin will join Crosby in the record books as the only players in franchise history to play 1,000 games with the Penguins.

I spoke with Crosby, Letang and a number of other teammates of Malkin about what makes Malkin so special and some of their favorite memories of Malkin over the years.

Crosby remembers it being "pretty hard to communicate" with Malkin during those early years together, when Malkin's English was extremely limited. Still, that didn't stop Malkin from quietly tagging along with his teammates when everyone would hang out outside of the rink.

"I mean, he didn't say anything," Letang said. "He would just come and have dinner and not say a word. He would just say the same thing, 'hamburger,' all the time. ... He was so shy earlier on and didn't speak much, but his humor is funny, like joking around making fun of everyone."

Letang was a little amused recalling that Malkin insisted on his teammates calling him "71" rather than his name back then.

Players who made their debuts with the Penguins later in Malkin's career remember being a little intimidated by Malkin at first.

"Obviously, you're pretty scared," Jake Guentzel said with a laugh about his first time meeting Malkin. "He's a superstar. My first game I sat alongside him and Phil (Kessel), I think you get pretty nervous. You don't want to mess up."

"It was a lot of intimidation on my part," Bryan Rust said. "I was probably feel a little nervous to meet him, just a guy of his stature both physically and with what he's done."

Brian Dumoulin said that he felt like he was "tiptoeing" around Malkin early on, and was a little nervous being around someone of Malkin's stature, until he realized he just had to talk to Malkin like any other person.

"I wouldn't say he's the most outgoing guy when you first get to know him," Dumoulin said. "It takes some time to get to know him and for him to open up and for you. I remember people were saying to Geno, like 'Why don't you say hi?' He's like, 'Why don't you say hi to me?' That's kind of how it was for 'G'. I mean, you've got to approach him just like anyone else. That's how he wants to be treated."

A common trend in players' first interactions with Malkin is Malkin getting their names wrong, much to the amusement of his teammates.

"It's such a Geno thing to do, to not remember names," Kasperi Kapanen said. "I don't know, I actually should go ask him now to see if he remembers my first name or not."

Consensus seems to be that Malkin's gotten better with names over the years, but it's still a bit of a running gag for a teammate to ask him what a newer teammate's name is to see what he says. Marcus Pettersson remembers being in the stick room with Patric Hornqvist in his first week after being traded to the Penguins when Malkin walked in the room. Hornqvist pointed to Pettersson and asked Malkin what his name was. Malkin paused, then pointed to the stick Pettersson was holding, and read the "Pettersson" label out loud. Players used to do the same at the yearly rookie parties, making it a game to see if Malkin knows the actual names of the younger players. He might know a guy as "Rusty" or "Dumo," but beyond that?

"That's the thing," Dumoulin said with a laugh. "He might not know my first and my last name, but he knows my nickname, you know? That's all that really matters, I don't care. He doesn't have to know my name or anything like that. It's pretty funny."

Some players think that Malkin's notoriously bad memory with names might be a little bit of an act, given his sense of humor.

"He called me 'goalie' for the longest time," Casey DeSmith said. "He's definitely a character in the room. I remember the first time he said like, 'Good game Casey' I was like, (shocked face) 'What'd you say?!'"

"He just kept calling me Jack," Guentzel laughed, recalling his rookie year. "I don't know if he was just messing around with me, playing a prank on a young guy. But it was just funny, because nobody really knows."

When you ask players what makes Malkin so special or how they'd describe him, it's that sense of humor that is often mentioned first. He keeps his teammates laughing, and keeps the room light.

"There's no filter," Letang said of Malkin. "It comes out raw with that kind of broken English. It's the broken English that makes it funny."

"His sense of humor, I think is awesome," Rust said. "He just kind of sticks to himself, he's kind of quiet most of the time. Then all of a sudden, he'll just start cracking jokes, he'll just kind of pop in there just at the right time. He has the whole room laughing."

"Every day, he always says something," Kapanen said. "He's got those one-liners that make everybody laugh, and he's just a funny, fun guy to be around. He's one of the funnier guys I've ever met. So it's been a pleasure to be here with him.

"He's always got some smartass comment to make or something sarcastic," DeSmith said.

"He's spontaneous," Tristan Jarry said. "He's just always yelling, always getting the guys to laugh."

On the ice, it's Malkin's passion, drive and skill that get mentioned by his teammates as what sets him apart.

"It's just his natural ability," DeSmith said

"He's generational talent," Jarry said. "Being able to watch him every day in practice and in every game, it's something special."

"He's passionate," said Rust. "He loves coming here and he loves playing hockey. He loves being with this team, in this organization, in the city. You can see it when he's playing well, you can see it when he's playing bad. He just wears his emotions on his sleeve and he just wants this team, he wants himself, and he wants everybody else to do so well. You can see how much he cares."

Pettersson compared Malkin to a train, and spoke about admiring that same passion Rust spoke of.

"He's fire," Pettersson said. "He's like a locomotive when he takes over the game, he's so powerful the way he drives the puck. I just think about whenever he gets fired up on the ice, scores a big goal or something like that. Like when we were in Toronto and he had a pretty bad tripping call on him then scored. When he gets fired up, he creates so much energy for us and it's fun to see him in beast mode when he gets like that."

Dumoulin said that Malkin is a "magician" with what he's able to do on the ice.

"Pittsburgh is very lucky and I think I'm very lucky to be able to watch him play for so long," Dumoulin said. "I mean, on the ice, he's the magician. You never really know what he's going to do with the puck, whether it be D zone, offensive zone, neutral zone. It's just fun to watch him get the puck and just go. He's always a game changer every time he's out there. It's exciting to watch."

"I think of him as a beast," Letang said. "He's just so strong, so big, skilled. He's kind of unstoppable when he's playing well."

Crosby said that if he had to choose one word to describe Malkin, it would be "dominant."

"The way he can take over a game is pretty rare," Crosby said. "There's not too many guys who can do that, and he's done it for a long time."

Crosby said that he has "tons" of favorite on-ice memories of Malkin, with a big one being his first NHL goal against the Devils in 2006.

"Then against Tampa, when he walked through everybody," Crosby added, referring to this goal in 2012.

"Edmonton, the spin-o-rama," Crosby said, talking about this goal from 2015.

"That Carolina game, the hat trick he had in the playoffs," Crosby said, on Malkin's performance in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final in 2009.

"I've been lucky," Crosby reflected. "I got to see a lot of those close up. Those are memories that I'll cherish forever."

Letang mentioned Malkin's entire performance in the 2009 playoffs -- when Malkin led the team in scoring with 14 goals and 22 assists in 24 games -- as one of his favorite memories. He also named Malkin's goal in the last game of the 2011-12 regular season against the Flyers: It was the first (and only) time Malkin hit the 50-goal mark in his career, and capped off a regular season in which Malkin won the Art Ross Trophy as the league's leading scorer, the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league MVP, and the Ted Lindsay as the league's top player as voted by the players.

Letang was asked what he thinks Malkin's legacy will be in Pittsburgh, and he thought it was a tough question to answer. He mentioned the three Stanley Cups they won together, and Malkin's impending 1,000th game, but said that Malkin's legacy to him will be something different.

"I don't remember those guys for the hockey part," he said. "I remember those guys for being with them. He's funny. He's hilarious. He's loud in his own way."

If one were to make a Mount Rushmore of the top four Penguins in franchise history, Malkin would surely be on it. His skill, dominance and passion are what has made him one of the greatest to ever play for the Penguins. But it's who he is off the ice that has him so beloved by his teammates.

#HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE SO BEAUTIFUL AND FUNNY AND TALENTED #THEY LOVE HIM ahhhhhh #i love him #evgeni malkin #sidney crosby #kris letang #tristan jarry #jake guentzel #brian dumoulin #marcus pettersson #kasperi kapanen #pittsburgh penguins

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stereax · 9 months

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is there a reason why Carolina is losing all their affiliates???

Other than being assholes to Erik Haula?

Okay, but in all seriousness, there's a short answer and a long one.

The short answer is two words long: Pyotr Kochetkov.

The long answer? Meet me under the cut.

Alright, hi there. So to answer this question fully, we need to talk about the AHL in depth. The AHL, or American Hockey League, is the second-highest league of North American pro hockey, under the NHL. Most people tend to believe it's just "where prospects play before they hit the NHL". This is... only a part of the story.

There are 32 teams in the AHL to match 32 NHL teams. The idea there is that every NHL team would have an AHL affiliate - the most recent expansion, for example, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, is the AHL affiliate for the newest NHL team, the Seattle Kraken. Many of these teams are owned by the same group as owns the NHL team - Harris Blitzer, for example, owns both the New Jersey Devils and the Utica Comets. Others don't - the AHL's Charlotte Checkers, for instance, are owned by Michael Kahn, whereas their NHL affiliate, the Florida Panthers, is owned by Sunrise Sports (aka Vincent Viola).

Why is this important? Well, if you're an NHL team that owns your AHL team, you can let that AHL team leak money. You're turning a good profit on the NHL team, so you don't have to make your AHL team economically viable on its own - you just put it in as a massive tax write-off and go on with your day. Thus, you can put all of your AHL team's resources into developing your AHL players to get ready to play at the NHL level. Of course you sign some vets and such of your own, maybe get a few undrafted guys for the AHL team too, but generally, an NHL-owned AHL team's sole purpose is to develop NHL players. Winning the Calder Cup (the AHL equivalent to the Stanley Cup, not to be confused with the Calder Memorial Trophy given to the best NHL rookie) is just gravy on top.

Contrast this to independently-owned AHL teams, where this is not the case. For these teams, making money is paramount. How do you make money? When you win. Fun fact - the Chicago Wolves, incidentally, used to be televised on main channels partially as a fuck you to Bill Wirtz, who didn't let the Chicago Blackhawks' home games be televised, presumably to drive ticket sales. The Wolves saw that and pounced on the opportunity to make some cash. So if nothing else, love them for sticking it to the Hawks. You can still watch Wolves games on My50, it seems, if you've got that channel, as well as AHL streaming options.

But back to independently-owned AHL teams before I go on my daily anti-Hawks crusade. You want to make money. You do that when you win. When you make the postseason. When you win in the postseason. Independently-owned AHL teams want to win, not necessarily develop for the NHL. So when your NHL team keeps taking your best player away for weeks and then giving him back... you get annoyed.

Let's now talk about the ECHL and the Norfolk Admirals. Thankfully, this is going to be a lot simpler. The ECHL, unlike the AHL, has only 28 teams. This means 4 NHL teams don't have an ECHL team. In addition, very few, if any, ECHL teams are owned by their NHL affiliates. This further incentivizes them to play for profit (winning the Kelly Cup, the ECHL version of the Stanley Cup) instead of development. On top of this, relatively few ECHL players actually make it to the NHL. ECHL affiliates change fairly frequently, especially due to many of the teams folding because of financial issues (most recently the Brampton Beast, Manchester Monarchs, and Quad City Mallards). So if an ECHL team decides to drop its NHL affiliate, or vice versa, there are four other suitors, all of whom would probably want to pay the ECHL team decent money to be their associate. For the Admirals, it's easy - they see the Canes lose their AHL affiliate and decide they'd rather take the Jets' offer instead, whether it be for the money (Carolina's supposedly notoriously stingy) or for the security. It's just really fucking funny that it happens at the same time Carolina loses their AHL team. Get fucked lol.

Now let's play Chicago Wolves Simulator. You are Don Levin and Buddy Meyers, the Wolves' owners. Your goal is to win the Calder Cup or at least come pretty damn close so you can pay the bills. You have a good team - hell, you won the Calder last year! - but your best asset is this star goaltender named Pyotr Kochetkov. When Koochie's in net, you usually win because he bails out your team. When he isn't there to help you win, you kind of don't. Now, Carolina's going through its own issues in net, so they keep calling Koochie up and down. And, as previously mentioned, you kind of suck without Koochie. To be fair, you're not all that great with him, but you suck without him. And you have no control over when he goes up to Carolina, even just to sit on the bench.

You miss the playoffs by one point. One. And your three-year contract with the Canes is up. What do you do?

Waddell Young, GM of the Wolves, says their philosophy and the Canes' fundamentally differed. The Wolves develop and win. Winning develops, to them. The Canes wanted the Wolves to focus solely on development. Not winning. So, when their deal with the Canes was up, the Wolves said "no thanks, we're not going to continue this, we're going independent". This decision makes them the first non-NHL affiliated team in almost 30 years. Now, this isn't to say all independently-owned AHL teams are doomed to fail in partnerships because of divergent philosophies. Look at the Hershey Bears and the Washington Capitals for a prime example of that - the Bears are one of the best teams in the AHL and have won four Calder Cups with the Caps as their affiliates since their affiliation began in 2005. But the Wolves were quite unhappy with the Canes, and so the two split. Also notable is that the Canes have also poisoned the waters with who should be their local AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, to the point where the Checkers affiliated with the Panthers instead. So... there's that.

So what can the Canes now do with non-roster players? They can affiliate with another AHL team (co-affiliation); one instance of this was when the Seattle Kraken affiliated with the Charlotte Checkers in 21-22 because the Coachella Valley Firebirds weren't yet ready. Supposedly the plan is to get an affiliate for 24-25. But what do they do this year? Especially if they can't find an affiliate to share, which seems more and more likely as the summer drags on? Well, you can't sign players to two-way deals with the Wolves anymore, so you can't really keep veterans around in the AHL to call up if needed. So you... sign nine defensemen to NHL contracts and carry them on the roster at all times. Yep. Don Waddell, Canes GM, has basically stated outright that his roster is probably going to have to carry 22 or 23 players at all times to be sure to have replacements in case of injury. And your prospects? They either go to Europe, where they're basically inaccessible for the whole year, or you loan them to other AHL clubs. Waddell has said plans are in place with several teams to send 2 or 3 players each to several different AHL clubs. For your youngest, they go back to major junior in the CHL and related leagues. Same for your veterans - if you want to keep them, you'll have to sign them one-way (I believe) and then loan them down to scattered AHL teams across the league. Prospects who you could have signed to play in the AHL and develop? You're probably going to have to let them go to free agency (see: Kevin Wall, leading player for Penn State and Carolina draft pick, who just inked a deal with the Milwaukee Admirals, AHL affiliate of the Nashville Predators). And then you can send your worse prospects to your ECHL tea- wait. Oops. They just lost that too. Can't do that either. Well, shit.

And remember, one of the Canes' biggest assets is their system of play (with strong defense) that they execute well. The Wolves needed to teach their players the Canes' system and prepare them so the jump from AHL to NHL wouldn't be that tough. The Canes put their coaches on the Wolves for that purpose (the Wolves have since cleaned house and instated their own). Loaning your players to another AHL team? Why would that team be incentivized to teach your player(s) the system? So now even when you're calling up someone to play for the Canes, you have no idea how well they know the system and no idea how well they can play in it.

This now begs the other question - how will the Wolves fill their roster? Well, they've got options. Generally, an AHL team takes the prospects of its NHL affiliate and then fills the rest of the roster with AHL veteran free agents that the AHL team signs to AHL-only deals. But without an NHL team, it's a smidge more complicated, or perhaps easier. Firstly, other NHL teams can loan their prospects to the Wolves instead of their own AHL teams if they consider the Wolves better at developing them, for instance. The Wolves can now also sign whatever free agent players they find roaming around that could be a good fit for their team - undrafted college players, good ECHL players that can't seem to get called up enough, AHL veterans, players on European teams (especially Russians who might want the chance to get the fuck out of Russia) and so on. These free agent players could see the Wolves as a stable AHL team that can pay solid money (the AHL doesn't have a cap) with a strong chance at contending for the Calder as well as a possible stepping stone to an NHL contract. The Wolves also don't have to worry about these free agents taking ice time away from the Canes' prospects, who would need to be prioritized under an affiliation, which would also be a strong incentive for AHL free agent veterans to sign with them - they'd be able to get a truly fair chance, unlike under an affiliate system where prospects are the priority and free agents are generally playing fewer (and worse) minutes.

And remember - Chicago just drafted Bedard. The city's getting back into hockey and Hawks tickets are expensive. Want to watch some quality hockey on the cheap? Why not come to Wolves games! They're only 18 miles away from the Hawks, too!

TL;DR stan the Wolves for rejecting the system. Canes Suck.

#stereanswers #stereanalysis #stereducation #carolina hurricanes #chicago wolves #norfolk admirals #ahl #echl

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kikiskeysgame · 1 year

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#chicago blackhawks #blackhawks prospects

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estapa-edwards · 1 month

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FRANK NAZAR IS GOING TO THE NHL THIS SUNDAY!! WHAT!

yall im so sad he’s leaving michigan, but so happy he’s making it to the big leagues now!

#frank nazar #hockey #chicago blackhawks

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sergeifyodorov · 3 months

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ok so this is a bit of a rookie question maybe but in 2022 leafs traded for a second round pick, why would they trade their first round pick and a player for a second round pick? dont they have a second round pick?

sorry if thats worded badly maybe this quote will explain my question better (Petr Mrazek was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks along with the No. 25 pick in the 2022 Upper Deck NHL Draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday for a second-round pick (No. 38).) its a rookie question but i really dont understand sorry :/

(also idk if this was sent twice. tumblr is an absolute joke of a site)

thank y for the quote i was confused for a bit!

As someone who was There (tm) when that trade happened, i can actually explain this particular case really well: Petr Mrazek was godawful as a Leaf. For a position so important as goaltending, having a fairly expensive (iirc ~3.5 mil?) goalie who loses you every game he starts is. How do i put this. Bad For Your Team.

This trade was designed to get rid of Petr Mrazek. You could call it a cap dump, whatever, but having a player like that on a team that's trying to go for it is a bad move. However, in order to accept an obviously bad player, sometimes a GM will throw in sweeteners, like a pick. Because a first-rounder (a low first-rounder, but one nonetheless) is pretty valuable, it was determined that the return would be a second round pick. Kind of like addition by subtraction:

10 (your first-rounder) - 6 (really bad goalie) = 4 (second rounder).

ALSO: you can pick multiple times in a round! Teams are Given one pick per round, but they can trade to acquire a bunch more if they want!!! Having more picks means more prospects means more trade chips or young valuable players

#asks

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nebulein · 2 years

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Text transcript under the cut

The Freedom of Choice

Windy City Sports, August 2022

"I didn't pick the city, the city picked me," Toews says with a rueful smile. Hockey prospects have no input over who will own their rights for the first few years of their careers, their fates left up to the whims of a bunch of senior executives to decide. "All I ever wanted was to play hockey." Chicago picked Jonathan Toews third overall in the 2006 NHL entry draft and—after another year at college to develop—he's played here ever since. The 34-year-old captain of the Chicago Blackhawks has settled well into the city that picked him, embracing a town and a club that's been his home for over 15 years.

Now, though, he may soon get to pick his next destination. Toews is on his last contract year, and in a full teardown initiated by newly appointed Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson it doesn't look like there's a roster spot for the veteran captain anymore. "It's hard to know where you're supposed to fit in," Toews says, taking a sip of his coffee.

He looks cozy in the hip but quiet upscale coffee place not too far from his home, dressed down in a lightweight cream hoodie, athletic shorts, and his trusty Birkenstocks. Off the ice, Toews is unassuming, a quiet guy with intense dark eyes that netted him a lot of nicknames early in his career. Age has mellowed the serious center, who was famously prone to outbursts on the bench, loudly arguing with referees over every call he didn't agree with. "Oh yeah, he's gotten soft in his old days," Patrick Sharp, former teammate and good friend of Toews jokes. But age hasn't taken the competitive drive from Toews. He still wants to win. "I don't think time is ever gonna change that," he admits with a laugh.

The Blackhawks are about as far from winning as you can get. With disappointing performances these past few seasons, barely dipping their toes into the playoffs, Davidson finally decided to burn it all to the ground, trading away the few hopeful young talents in Debrincat, Hagel and third overall pick in the 2019 draft Kirby Dach. Toews doesn't like to speak about Davidson's decision, but the stoic mask his face becomes as he politely "no comment"s does all the talking for him. He doesn't agree with the new management the Wirtz family brought in, publicly disagreed with other trades in the past. But the loss of a good teammate is easier to stomach if the return is more than a limp handshake and vague hopes of picking the right prospects years down the line. And Toews' time is running out. For him to still be a part of the rebuild, it would have needed to happen four years ago.

"It is what it is" seems to be the mantra echoed by the players in the locker room, at least the few that were there, that still know what it could've been—if only. Once upon a time Kane and Toews turned Chicago into the most successful hockey team of the last decade, bringing home three Stanley Cups in five years to a city whose streets were lined in red jerseys as far as the eye could see. Now they're the last stragglers of the old guard as one by one the rest of them retired, got traded away or decided to sign elsewhere. Dallas, Tampa Bay, Edmonton, Columbus, Montreal, Washington, Ottawa: the list of possible destinations for a former Blackhawk spans 31 cities and two whole continents overseas. What would it mean for Toews to play with an old teammate again? He shrugs, tracing the wood grain of the coffee table. "Sure, it'd be nice," he says, in the listless way I tell my wife that visiting her parents on the weekend is a great idea.

Jonathan Toews doesn't want to play anywhere else. Fifteen years ago Chicago picked him, and in return he gave everything he had to this city. It's certainly cost him: His health, weathering numerous concussions and most notably sitting out a whole season while his body slowly recovered from a condition that might best be described as physical burnout. His relationships, recently splitting from long term partner Lindsey Vecchione and watching even his retired friends move out of town, back to Canada or Europe. And ultimately, his career.

There's no question he's going be a hockey hall of famer, most likely a first ballot inductee, joining ex-teammates Marian Hossa, Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith. But what seemed so certain before has now become doubtful under new GM Davidson, who doesn't appear to share Stan Bowman's deep appreciation for Toews and all he did for this city: whether he'll see his number 19 raised to the rafters of the United Center, or whether it'll be Patrick Kane's 88 alone that'll hang up there, next to Chicago greats Mikita, Hull, and Esposito.

The tides have turned in Chicago. Leaving town would mean giving up a dream that Toews still harbors in a tiny corner of his heart: to retire a Blackhawk, never having donned another jersey than the red and white, the C stitched on his chest a sight so familiar few can remember the single year it wasn't there.

But Toews doesn't sound ready to hang up his skates, even though he's got plenty of projects dear to his heart he could focus on, such as his Jonathan Toews Foundation that fosters kids' wellness and nutrition, planting gardens for schools in low income neighborhoods.

"It's a tough choice, but at least it's mine this time," Toews says, trying to make light of a situation that's clearly ripping him apart. It's a statement that's true only on paper. Sure, he'll have the freedom to sign wherever he wants to. But how many clubs can afford to pay the veteran a salary that he deems himself worthy of in a time where the salary cap is flatter than America's Midwest? There may be fewer choices here than Toews makes it out to be. And the one choice he really wants isn't even on the table: to win one last time with the Blackhawks, the team that drafted him.

Hockey life is tough on young players whose only choice is to sign with the club that owns their rights or forego the NHL, but it's even tougher on its veterans whose only choice is the way in which to break their own hearts when the only home they've ever known forsakes them.

#neb writes #fanfic #sometimes you just gotta spend your saturday breaking your own heart #click on the pics to make them readable #jonathan toews #mixed media #chicago blackhawks #i never write gen except when it's to wax poetically about my captain #i have too many feels #hockey baby

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dchan87 · 11 months

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Blackhawks prospects hanging out at Second City—Oh LoOk At CoNNeR, He’S nOt AcKScHuLALy SmIlIng, HE MuSt Be uNhApPy!

#chicago blackhawks #connor bedard #martin misiak #ethan del mastro #gavin hayes #drew commesso #landon slaggert #jaylen luypen

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chetbakeralmostblue · 2 months

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i had this revelation a couple of weeks ago during the game against the flyers. the camera was on athanasiou and he was looking up at the jumbotron and he honestly looked kind of stupid and i had this superflash of a thought--i love that guy. i love his play. he never fucking quits. tank was not in his vocabulary. i missed him a lot while he was on ltir.

and then i thought about bedard and how lightheaded i got when we drafted him and how incredible he's turned out to be, better than i had even hoped bc he plays for my team. i've already waxed poetic about the fishbowl helmet but it really does bring me a certain type of joy every time i see it, bc the sight of it means he went through something and he still came out the other side guns blazing. he's gonna win the calder but it wouldn't matter to me if he didn't bc i love him too.

korchinski and foligno and kurashev and mrazek and dickinson and entwhistle and tyjo and blackwell and reichel and murph and on and on and on. i love those guys, the ones we haven't seen for five months bc of injury and the ones who've had hot streaks this season like you wouldn't believe and the ones you lowkey forget about until you see their name on the scoresheet.

i looked at athanasiou and then i texted my partner "this team makes me aware of my capacity for love" and then they beat the flyers 5-1 and i said "i think they heard me" and he said "i think they did."

my friend, who doesn't follow hockey but checks the standings occasionally, asked me the other day, in a manner that was clearly bracing to sympathize, "so how are we feeling about the blackhawks," and i was really excited to say, i love this team so much. the doomerism of being a bottom 2 team comes so naturally for me that i think for a long time i was defaulting to it, and it was a little bit of a shock to my system to realize i don't feel that way at all. even when they get shut out. even when--forgive me--soderblom starts. there's something going on that feels really good, to say nothing of what's to come. i'm not even thinking about celebrini. they keep signing players who are so exciting. prospects whose names have become like a litany. jaxson stauber is collecting franchise firsts in rockford like someone double dog dared him to. the future looks so bright in chicago. i love this fucking team.

#if this post ages badly i need you to remember one thing: the love was still there and it did matter. to me #hawks

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asunsetgrace16 · 2 months

Text

⌜ ｍａｓｔｅｒｌｉｓｔ ⌝

Note: This is not an exhaustive list of the players I will write for. This is just a list of who I currently have added to the list and is subject to change. Please don't be afraid to request other players, more than likely I will be willing to write for them.

⌜ ｗｏｒｋｓｉｎｐｒｏｇｒｅｓｓ ⌝

Friday I'm in Love - Crystal Skies AU Patio Lanterns - Crystal Skies AU Karaoke - Toronto Maple Leafs Hard Launch - Nathan MacKinnon IG Edit - Posted May 23 Finalist - Connor Bedard IG Edit Worlds - Juraj Slafkovsky IG Edit Back Home - Tim Stutzle IG Edit

Guide:

🌼 they are a current prospect

🌿 they are under 20

🌺 fluff

🌙 angst/sad

Started: March 31, 2024

Last Updated: May 16, 2024

Total Works: 13

⌜ ａｕ＇ｓ ⌝

⌜ ｎｈｌ ⌝

Anaheim Ducks

＃５１－ｏｌｅｎｚｅｌｌｗｅｇｅｒ 🌿

Buffalo Sabres

＃２４－ｄｙｌａｎｃｏｚｅｎｓ＃２５－ｏｗｅｎｐｏｗｅｒ - 1 work

Boston Bruins

Calgary Flames

Carolina Hurricanes

＃７６－ｂｒａｄｙｓｋｊｅｉ＃３７－ａｎｄｒｅｉｓｖｅｃｈｎｉｋｏｖ

Chicago Blackhawks

Karaoke

＃９８－ｃｏｎｎｏｒｂｅｄａｒｄ - 3 works ＃５５－ｋｅｖｉｎｋｏｒｃｈｉｎｓｋｉ - 2 works ＃２７－ｌｕｋａｓｒｅｉｃｈｅｌ

Colorado Avalanche

＃２９－ｎａｔｈａｎｍａｃｋｉｎｎｏｎ＃８－ｃａｌｅｍａｋａｒ

Columbus Blue Jackets

＃１１－ａｄａｍｆａｎｔｉｌｌｉ＃９１－ｋｅｎｔｊｏｈｎｓｏｎ - 1 work

Dallas Stars

＃５３－ｗｙａｔｔｊｏｈｎｓｔｏｎ

Detroit Red Wings

Edmonton Oilers

Florida Panthers

＃１９－ｍａｔｔｈｅｗｔｋａｃｈｕｋ

Los Angeles Kings

＃９２－ｂｒａｎｄｔｃｌａｒｋｅ - 2 works

Minnesota Wild

＃１２－ｍａｔｔｂｏｌｄｙ - 2 works

Montreal Canadiens

＃６２－ｏｗｅｎｂｅｃｋ＃２２－ｃｏｌｅｃａｕｆｉｅｌｄ＃２０－ｊｕｒａｊｓｌａｆｋｏｖｓｋｙ

Nashville Predators

New Jersey Devils

New York Islanders

＃１３－ｍａｔｈｅｗｂａｒｚａｌ

New York Rangers

Ottawa Senators

＃１８－ｔｉｍｓｔｕｔｚｌｅ

Philadelphia Flyers

Pittsburg Penguins

Seattle Kraken

St. Louis Blues

＃６３－ｊａｋｅｎｅｉｇｈｂｏｕｒｓ

Tampa Bay Lightning

Toronto Maple Leafs

Karaoke

＃２３－ｍａｔｔｈｅｗｋｎｉｅｓ＃３９－ｆｒａｓｅｒｍｉｎｔｅｎ - 1 work + AU ＃６０－ｊｏｓｅｐｈｗｏｌｌ

Utah HC

＃９－ｃｌａｙｔｏｎｋｅｌｌｅｒ＃１３－ｍａｖｅｒｉｃｌａｍｏｕｒｅｕｘ

Washington Capitals

Winnipeg Jets

Vancouver Canucks

＃６－ｂｒｏｃｋｂｏｅｓｅｒ＃４３－ｑｕｉｎｎｈｕｇｈｅｓ

Vegas Golden Knights

⌜ ｃｏｌｌｅｇｅ ⌝

Boston University

＃７１－ｍａｃｋｌｉｎｃｅｌｅｂｒｉｎｉ - 1 work

Boston College

＃９－ｒｙａｎｌｅｏｎａｒｄ＃６－ｗｉｌｌｓｍｉｔｈ

UMich

＃２－ｒｕｔｇｅｒｍｃｇｒｏａｒｔｙ＃９４－ｍａｒｋｅｓｔａｐａ＃６３－ｌｕｃａｆａｎｔｉｌｌｉ

19 notes · View notes