Morning Chirps: Lardis has huge return, West wins state championship

The Chicago Blackhawks have the day off after back-to-back bad losses. Not sure which one was worse, the gut-punch collapse on Thursday, or getting destroyed by the worst team in the Eastern Conference. They will need to figure something out quickly as they host the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche tomorrow night.

Blackhawks Chirps

• If you missed last night's game against the Buffalo Sabres, consider yourself lucky. Not much good came out of the embarrassing 9-3 blowout, but at least one line showed up.

• The Blackhawks are bringing back the black jerseys! They will wear them for the first time in 16 years on Black Friday against the Nashville Predators. Ty Glenn has all the details on the big announcement.

• The Chicago Bulls rocked the black Blackhawks jerseys on their way into the United Center Saturday night, including Colby White going with a Spencer Knight sweater!

• It wasn’t all bad news for the Blackhawks organization on Friday. The Rockford IceHogs snapped their four-game losing streak with a 4-3 come-from-behind overtime win over the Texas Stars. The outburst was only the second time they scored more than two goals in 10 November games. Nick Lardis returned to the lineup after missing the last two games and scored a pair of third-period power-play goals to erase a 2-0 deficit. Nolan Allan gave Rockford a brief 3-2 lead with a shorthanded goal. Texas scored 30 seconds later to force overtime. Midway through the extra frame, Aidan Thompson slammed home a rebound for the game-winning goal. Drew Commesso made 24 saves for his fifth victory of the year. These two teams will meet again tomorrow night.

• Mason West closed out his high school football career by winning the Minnesota 6A State Championship last night. He’ll now head to the United States Hockey League to play for the Fargo Force.

• On this date in 1947, Gordie Howe scored the first of his 121 career game-winning goals in the Detroit Red Wings' 8-5 win over the Blackhawks. Mr. Hockey held the record for the most GWGs until he was passed by Jaromir Jagr, who finished his career with 135.

• In 1967, Eric Nestrenko reached 200 points in his career with a goal and an assist in a 7-1 blowout of the New York Rangers. Bobby Hull scored the 21st hat trick of his Hall of Fame career to lead the offense.

• Three years later, Hull scored another hat trick, the 25th of his career, to help the Blackhawks destroy the Oakland Seals 9-0. Tony Esposito recorded his 20th career shutout by stopping all 32 shots he faced.

• In 1989, Doug Wilson became the first Blackhawks defenseman to score 200 goals in a 6-3 loss to the Los Angeles Kings.

• Blackhawks Birthday Roll Call, Nov. 22: Harry Dick and Darin Kimble.

NHL Chirps

• It appears that the change of scenery did not do much good for former Blackhawks first-round pick Lukas Reichel. He was a healthy scratch for the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday. He has one secondary assist in 13 games and zero shots on goal in the last six. According to Rick Dhaliwal on SN650, the Canucks are now looking to trade him. I have no clue what they expect to get for him at this point.

• Nikolaj Ehlers returned to Winnipeg for the first time last night after playing a decade for the Jets. He got a heartfelt tribute from the fans during the first television timeout. The Carolina Hurricanes won 4-3, with Ehlers getting the primary assist on Evgeni Svechnikov’s game-winning power-play goal.

• Nashville Predators general manager Barry Trotz squashed the rumors that he might return to the coaching ranks if he decides to fire Andrew Brunette.

• NHL Birthday Roll Call, Nov. 22: Albert Leduc, Jacques Laperriere, Yvan Cournoyer, Vladislav Namestnikov, Casey Mittlestadt, and Owen Power.