What’s New

The Chicago Blackhawks are one of the worst teams in the National Hockey League as we have to discuss on pretty much a daily basis. The reason we have to discuss this is that it will heavily impact everything about their future.

Speaking of their future, the World Junior Championships are going on right now. The teams that the Blackhawks have their eyes on the most change every year but this year it is Canada. They have four Blackhawks prospects playing for them.

For the second straight game, Canada absolutely dominated their opponent. This time, they beat Austria by a final score of 11-0. It was a dominant performance from pretty much everyone as they seem to be all the way back following that one tough loss to the Czech in the opener.

In the last game against Germany, Colton Dach and Kevin Korchinski were the two Blackhawks’ prospects that found their way onto the scoresheet. In this game, neither of them found it.

However, neither Nolan Allan nor Ethan del Mastro had a point in the last game but they each had one in this game. del Mastro had an assist and Allan had a goal to help contribute to Canada’s dominance. This was a flawless game for them all against a much weaker opponent.

The Chicago Blackhawks have to love what they are seeing from Team Canada.

Lots of Blackhawks fans have their eyes on Adam Fantilli as he will be the second overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. He shot one through traffic that ended up in the back of the net. He also added an assist on the night for a two-point performance.

Connor Bedard, however, is a different story. After a seven-point night a day earlier, he followed it up with a six-point night this time. He had two goals and four assists to help lead Canada to this crazy big win over Austria. He will be the number one pick in the draft, a spot ahead of Fantilli.

This tournament has been a huge success so far for Blackhawks fans. Their guys are contributing and the two players that the team has their eye on at the top of the draft are doing their thing as well.

Canada’s next game will come on Saturday against Sweden who is very good as well. However, now that Canada is in a groove, it is hard to see anyone else beating them. This is one of the most impressive teams we’ve seen at the World Juniors in a while. It will be interesting to see how it ends.

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The Chicago Cubs are in the business of getting better right now. They have been rebuilding for a couple of years now and have made it clear that their intention is to start rising up the standings again. So far, the offseason has actually been good to them.

There have been some good acquisitions this offseason but there are a few more that they could make in order to build their team for a better future.

Jed Hoyer has a previous history with the Boston Red Sox as he was a big part of their organization for a long time. Now would be a great time for them to make a big trade that could help both franchises out in the long term.

It doesn’t sound as if they are going to pay Rafael Devers the amount of money that he is commanding. They have already traded Mookie Betts and let Xander Bogaerts walk in free agency so why would anything change with Rafael Devers?

The Chicago Cubs make perfect sense for a Rafael Devers trade right now.

The Cubs have a lot to offer that would make it a good trade for Boston. Guys like Brennan Davis, Pete Crow-Armstrong, or Ed Howard amongst others could be good players that the Boston Red sox consider for a player like Devers. It is going to take a lot in order to make a trade like this if you are the Cubs.

It would be worth it for the Cubs as they could use Devers as what would be a very good infield. Devers would play third, Dansby Swanson would be the shortstop, and Nico Hoerner would be the second baseman. After that, they would just need to work on first base in the long term.

There are going to be a lot of teams involved with Devers but the Cubs have some of the prospect firepower that would be needed in order to make a trade like this.

The Red Sox would be kind of foolish to let a player like Devers leave but if it happens, the Chicago Cubs should be all over it. If they added him right now, they would be considered a playoff contender for sure.

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The Chicago Blackhawks are a team building for the future. They are trying to be as bad as possible which will allow them to get one of the top-four prospects in the 2023 NHL Draft. So far, they are executing that plan perfectly.

They should also be looking around the league to try and get good young players to add to the organization. One person that they should be targeting is Alexis Lafreniere. He was the number one overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft as he was selected by the New York Rangers.

Lafreniere had a lot of hype while playing for the Rimouski Oceanic as he dominated up until he was drafted. The Rangers lost the lottery after losing the play-in round of the COVID bubble that saw the NHL finish the 2019-20 season there.

Since coming to the NHL, Lafreniere has had a tough go of it. He has not at all lived up to the hype that came with him. Not only that, but at least 10 players drafted after him have been much better since coming into the league. It has been challenging.

The Chicago Blackhawks could use a player like Alexis Lafreniere right now.

On Thursday night, the Rangers are going to make Lafreniere a healthy scratch which is not a good sign of his status in the organization. They don’t believe that he currently gives them the best chance to win so they are sitting him.

As a result, the other 31 teams in the league should be going after him and that includes the Chicago Blackhawks. Adding a young forward like that with all this talent would help them grow their depth. A change of scenery might help Lafreniere grow to his potential.

Everyone expects every top draft pick to be Connor McDavid or Auston Matthews because they were so good right away. However, kids like Nico Hischier, Rasmus Dahlin, and Jack Hughes took time before becoming stars in the league. That is much more realistic.

There are a lot of ways a Lafreniere trade could go if the Rangers decided to go that route but the Blackhawks should certainly be working the phones to see if that is likely.

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Chicago singer-songwriter Chris Connelly regularly releases an album of new material on his November birthday. For his latest record, Eulogy to Christa: A Tribute to the Music and Mystique of Nico, he hit that annual deadline with the digital version on Bandcamp, but the physical edition (a deluxe double CD) didn’t ship till early December. Connelly originally planned the project to be a covers album of songs by Nico, the German model, singer, and composer (born Christa Päffgen in 1938) who’s best known, albeit unjustly, for her brief stint fronting the Velvet Underground in 1966 and ’67. But Connelly was inspired instead to write a song cycle based on Nico’s life after reading You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone, a 2021 Nico biography by rock historian Jennifer Otter Bickerdike (who titled the book after a lyric from Nico’s “Alone” and contributed liner notes to the CD version of the album). The subjects he addresses include the teenage Nico’s claim that she was raped by a U.S. air force sergeant, her impressive roster of love affairs, and her struggles to be taken seriously as an artist. 

Thirteen tracks on Eulogy to Christa are by Connelly, while eight are at least in part by Nico. Connelly is particularly well-suited to take on this material. His David Bowie tribute project, Sons of the Silent Age, has included guest stars portraying Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, and other key figures of the late-60s and early 70s proto-punk scene. Reed is a character in Eulogy for Christa too, and he’s not always cast in a favorable light. “Andy, Incidentally” and “Union Square West” evoke the Velvet Underground, and “A Slow Jones in New York” emphasizes Reed’s cruelty, like a dark mirror of Reed and John Cale’s 1990 record Songs for Drella with 90 percent less hagiography. But Connelly’s take on Nico is hagiographic in its own way—most notably, it glosses over her history of racism, including an alleged violent attack on a Black woman at the Chelsea Hotel in the early 70s. 

Connelly’s greatest strength here lies in how he handles the traumas that informed Nico’s life. “I Cannot Care for You” is about parental absence, including the death of her father, the illness of her mother, and her own yearslong struggle to play a role in raising her son, Ari, who was never acknowledged by his father, French actor Alain Delon (though he was mostly raised by Delon’s parents). Other tracks touch on Nico’s struggles with addiction and poverty: “80s Beat Boys” is a melancholy snapshot from her Brixton period that’s evocative of her fight to survive, while “The Black Rooms of Richelieu” is a dark, hallucinatory tale of drug-fueled desperation in Paris.

Connelly’s stylistic shifts between episodes and personae are masterful, but what really makes this album outstanding is the kindness, even tenderness, that he shows his subject. The album’s compassion comes through especially strongly when it touches on her later career and the life she’d tried to build in Brixton and Manchester before her untimely (and likely preventable) 1988 death due to a brain hemorrhage caused by a cycling accident. “Fa Massa Calor” (“It’s Too Hot”), for instance, foreshadows the extreme heat of the day, which may have played a role in her demise. But perhaps Connelly’s greatest tributes to Nico are his many covers of her haunting, distinctive songs (“Frozen Warnings,” “The Falconer,” and “Valley of the Kings” are standouts), which underscore why her work remains vital decades after her death.

Chris Connelly’s Eulogy to Christa (A Tribute to the Music and Mystique of Nico) is available through Bandcamp.

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Chicago singer-songwriter Chris Connelly regularly releases an album of new material on his November birthday. For his latest record, Eulogy to Christa: A Tribute to the Music and Mystique of Nico, he hit that annual deadline with the digital version on Bandcamp, but the physical edition (a deluxe double CD) didn’t ship till early December. Connelly originally planned the project to be a covers album of songs by Nico, the German model, singer, and composer (born Christa Päffgen in 1938) who’s best known, albeit unjustly, for her brief stint fronting the Velvet Underground in 1966 and ’67. But Connelly was inspired instead to write a song cycle based on Nico’s life after reading You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone, a 2021 Nico biography by rock historian Jennifer Otter Bickerdike (who titled the book after a lyric from Nico’s “Alone” and contributed liner notes to the CD version of the album). The subjects he addresses include the teenage Nico’s claim that she was raped by a U.S. air force sergeant, her impressive roster of love affairs, and her struggles to be taken seriously as an artist. 

Thirteen tracks on Eulogy to Christa are by Connelly, while eight are at least in part by Nico. Connelly is particularly well-suited to take on this material. His David Bowie tribute project, Sons of the Silent Age, has included guest stars portraying Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, and other key figures of the late-60s and early 70s proto-punk scene. Reed is a character in Eulogy for Christa too, and he’s not always cast in a favorable light. “Andy, Incidentally” and “Union Square West” evoke the Velvet Underground, and “A Slow Jones in New York” emphasizes Reed’s cruelty, like a dark mirror of Reed and John Cale’s 1990 record Songs for Drella with 90 percent less hagiography. But Connelly’s take on Nico is hagiographic in its own way—most notably, it glosses over her history of racism, including an alleged violent attack on a Black woman at the Chelsea Hotel in the early 70s. 

Connelly’s greatest strength here lies in how he handles the traumas that informed Nico’s life. “I Cannot Care for You” is about parental absence, including the death of her father, the illness of her mother, and her own yearslong struggle to play a role in raising her son, Ari, who was never acknowledged by his father, French actor Alain Delon (though he was mostly raised by Delon’s parents). Other tracks touch on Nico’s struggles with addiction and poverty: “80s Beat Boys” is a melancholy snapshot from her Brixton period that’s evocative of her fight to survive, while “The Black Rooms of Richelieu” is a dark, hallucinatory tale of drug-fueled desperation in Paris.

Connelly’s stylistic shifts between episodes and personae are masterful, but what really makes this album outstanding is the kindness, even tenderness, that he shows his subject. The album’s compassion comes through especially strongly when it touches on her later career and the life she’d tried to build in Brixton and Manchester before her untimely (and likely preventable) 1988 death due to a brain hemorrhage caused by a cycling accident. “Fa Massa Calor” (“It’s Too Hot”), for instance, foreshadows the extreme heat of the day, which may have played a role in her demise. But perhaps Connelly’s greatest tributes to Nico are his many covers of her haunting, distinctive songs (“Frozen Warnings,” “The Falconer,” and “Valley of the Kings” are standouts), which underscore why her work remains vital decades after her death.

Chris Connelly’s Eulogy to Christa (A Tribute to the Music and Mystique of Nico) is available through Bandcamp.

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Unlike in thier first game of the tournament, Canada actually dominated their World Juniors match on Wednesday. After being stunned by the Czech the day after Christmas, they came out strong in this game against Germany. All of the Chicago Blackhawks prospects on this team are happy.

Canada defeated the Germans by a final score of 11-2. It was one of the most dominating performances by any team so far in this tournament.

Nolan Allan and Ethan Del Mastro each played well but didn’t collect a point. That is okay as they are defensemen just trying to keep the opposition from scoring. The other two Blackhawks prospects there got a point though.

Colton Dach had an assist on Canada’s seventh goal of the night which was one of the three goals scored by Brandt Clarke.

Defenseman Kevin Korchinski had two assists on the night as he had one on Canada’s 11th goal which was scored by Joshua Roy and one on their 10th goal which was scored by Zack Ostapchuk. Clearly, Korchinski wanted to get on the score sheet as the game was winding down.

There are more than just current Chicago Blackhawks prospects to watch here.

In addition to the Blackhawks prospects playing in this game, there are a few draft-eligible ones that Blackhawks fans have their eyes on.

Adam Fantilli had a rough go of it in their game against the Czech team in the first game. Some adjustments were made and he was solid in this big win over the Germans. Obviously, he is one of the younger players on the team but he is still very important. He collected one assist on the night.

Fantilli is going to be the second overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. Whoever ends up with that pick is going to be very happy with it but getting that top pick could change a franchise for decades. That was clear watching Connor Bedard in this one.

Bedard is going to be the number one pick made by whichever team wins the draft lottery. He is a generational talent that is going to make one team very happy. The Chicago Blackhawks would love to be that team.

In this game, Bedard had a hat trick and four assists to give himself seven points. That ties the record for the most points in a single game by a Canadian in the World Juniors. He is absolutely unbelievable.

This tournament has been amazing so far but Blackhawks fans are going to have an extra close eye on Team Canada because of the fact that they have four prospects playing there along with the draft-eligible players that they have playing for them right now. One can only hope.

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