Morning Chirps: Foligno returns, Lardis honored for huge weekend

The Chicago Blackhawks are off today as they travel to Tampa Bay. They will practice in the Sunshine State tomorrow before taking on the Lightning on Thursday night. Meanwhile, their captain rejoined the team and one of their top prospects was honored for his big weekend.

Blackhawks Chirps

• Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno was back at practice yesterday after taking a leave of absence to be with his daughter, Milana, who underwent emergency heart surgery last week. He updated us that she is already home and recovering, while looking forward to getting back to school. Great news, all around!

• Nick Lardis was named the American Hockey League’s Player of the Week. He scored two goals and seven points in his three games over the weekend. Two of assists came on the game-winning goals in both of their overtime wins. His eight points have him on top of the AHL in scoring. Captain Brett Seney is second with seven points, and Oliver Moore is third with six points.

• Every Monday, we take a look at the recent Blackhawks Trends with three upward and downward trends from the previous week. It was encouraging that it was so difficult to come up with three things trending downward. Let’s hope that becomes the norm this season.

• Anton Frondell is off to great start in Sweden, and Todd Matthews says Blackhawks fans should be very excited about the top draft pick from this past summer.

• On this date in 2023, Connor Bedard scored 90 seconds into the game against the Vegas Golden Knights. It was the fastest goal in NHL history scored by a teenager to start his team’s home opener, beat Mark Hunter’s previous mark of 2:09, set in 1981.

• Blackhawks Birthday Roll Call, Oct. 21: Larry Mickey and Ryan Greene.

NHL Chirps

• The Nashville Predators should get a boost to their blue line soon. Nicolas Hague returned to practice on Monday, and could return from his upper-body injury at some point this week. He was acquired from the Golden Knights for Colton Sissons and Jeremy Lauzon before getting injured during a preseason game.

• The Winnipeg Jets won their fifth straight game by beating the Calgary Flames 2-1. Jonathan Toews netted his first goal with the team to tie the game early in the third period.

• The Jets are 5-1-0 despite dealing with a slew of injuries. Head coach Scott Arniel gave an update on three key injured players before the game. Forward Cole Perfetti is targeting a mid-November return from a sprained ankle. Captain Adam Lowry could return from offseason hip surgery by the end of the month. However, they still don’t have a timeline for injured defenseman Dylan Samberg.

• Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy revealed that captain Mark Stone is out week-to-week with a wrist injury. The injury bug struck again when goaltender Adin Hill left with a lower-body injury midway through the first period against the Carolina Hurricanes. Meanwhile, Jack Eichel continued his red-hot start with the first goal of the game to extend his seven-game point streak. He has six goals and a league-leading 17 points.

• NHL Birthday Roll Call, Oct. 21: Brian Kilrea, Carl Brewer, Bill Berg, Alexander Burmistrov, Sean Durzi, and Tristan Lennox.