Marc-Andre Fleury was placed in COVID protocols Monday. | Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
The Blackhawks-Jets game scheduled for Wednesday was postponed, leaving the Hawks idle until at least Saturday.
The Blackhawks returned to practice Monday for a roughly hour-long session at Fifth Third Arena.
Nine days removed from their last game, six days removed from their last practice and with an ever-increasing five days left to wait until their next game, the practice felt somewhat like the start of a new season.
“[We’re] a little bit out of rhythm of playing, but it should be fine,” Alex DeBrincat said. “The rest is very nice. It’s almost like the start of a new season. You feel rejuvenated and have some energy back. It’s just good to get practicing again. Through our [normal] schedule, we don’t have too much time to practice, so today was nice to get back to basics.”
The Hawks’ road game previously scheduled for Wednesday against the Jets was postponed by the NHL on Monday, one day after the league also postponed the Hawks’ scheduled home game Tuesday against the Blue Jackets.
The Hawks have now endured five postponements this December — including four in a row, spanning both sides of the holiday break that itself was extended — and now aren’t scheduled to play again until Saturday at the Predators.
On one hand, the postponements are somewhat fortunate considering Marc-Andre Fleury entered COVID-19 protocols Monday. Collin Delia was recalled from the AHL to temporarily back up Kevin Lankinen, and interim coach Derek King said Fleury wouldn’t have been available Wednesday even if that game happened. The fewer games the Hawks’ star goalie misses, the better.
But on the other hand, the Hawks are growing tired of losing chances to play despite being relatively healthy themselves. Calvin de Haan exited protocols as Fleury entered them Monday, keeping the Hawks’ total number of players with COVID at just one.
“It’s probably a higher frustration level [than the past two seasons],” Connor Murphy said measuredly. “Last year, we knew what we were getting into for a longer period of time. As much as it was hard to deal with some of the different protocols and the no fans in the bubbles, we [knew] that was the way it was going to be.
“Getting to play over 30 games pretty normally [this year], it is frustrating to go back. It’s something that’s out of your control, how the COVID outbreaks have hit lately. … We’re just trying to stick with that process and hope it clears and goes back to normal.”
The Hawks assigned just one player — Brett Connolly — to their newly reinstated taxi squad Monday, but King and interim general manager Kyle Davidson will talk soon about who else they could add.
Complicating that decision is the Rockford IceHogs’ new COVID outbreak, which has sidelined their interim coach, Anders Sorenson, as well as NHL prospects Mike Hardman, Ian Mitchell and Nicolas Beaudin and four other players.
The “majority” of Hawks players have received vaccination booster shots, King said, which might be contributing to their general healthiness.
“We’ve been talking through it like, ‘If this happens, or this happens, [what’s the] worst case?’” King said. “We’re just preparing ourselves as if we’re playing the next game.”
