Morning Chirps: Rinzel back to Rockford, Lightning & Panthers renew their hatred

The National Hockey League is officially paused for the Winter Olympic Games in Italy. The Chicago Blackhawks played their last game on Wednesday, while 14 teams finished out their pre-Olympic schedules last night. The NHL resumes on Feb. 25, and the Blackhawks return to action the following day. Don’t worry, we will still be talking hockey every day here during the break, so don’t go anywhere!

Blackhawks Chirps

• As expected, the Blackhawks reassigned defenseman Sam Rinzel to the Rockford IceHogs. In case you’re wondering why some other players, like Oliver Moore or Landon Slaggert, are going down, the CBA has some stipulations about who can be sent to the AHL during the break.  Any player who dressed for at least 16 of his team’s final 20 games before the Olympic break isn’t eligible to be loaned out. The same goes for anyone who was on an NHL roster for 80 days this season as of Jan. 21.

• Jeff Maroon put out his last set of NHL Power Rankings until the end of the month. Check them out to see where the Blackhawks landed.

• The Rockford IceHogs are getting ready to host the AHL All-Star Classic on Tuesday and Wednesday. The league announced that both Tuesday’s skills competition and Wednesday's All-Star Challenge will be televised nationally on NHL Network in the United States and TSN in Canada, along with streaming coverage on AHLTV on FloHockey. The broadcasts will be produced by the Chicago Sports Network and will also air locally on CHSN. New York Islanders broadcaster Alan Fuehring (play-by-play), former IceHogs captain Garrett Mitchell (color commentary), and the voice of the IceHogs, Dana Grey (rinkside), will make up the broadcast.

• Grey caught up with IceHogs leading scorer and AHL All-Star, Nick Lardis, to discuss the big event.

• On this date in 1971, Bobby Hull scored three times for his 26th career hat trick as the Blackhawks beat the Minnesota North Stars 6-2. This tied him with Montreal Canadiens legend Maurice Richard for the most hat tricks in NHL history. Bobby’s young brother, Dennis, chipped in with two goals and an assist.

• Blackhawks Birthday Roll Call, Feb. 6: Mike Hudson and Andy Hilbert.

• NHL Chirps

• Gavin McKenna was officially arrested on Wednesday and charged with aggravated felony assault stemming from an incident on Saturday that left an individual with a broken jaw. The State College police department announced that his court date is this Wednesday, Feb. 11.

• Connor Bedard was snubbed again by Team Canada. Carolina Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis was named as the injury replacement for Brayden Point of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Jarvis played for Canada at last year’s Four Nations Face-Off and recorded one assist in three games. While I think Jarvis is a terrific player, you can’t tell me he brings more to the table than Bedard does.

• Calgary Flames forward Jonathan Huberdeau requires hip surgery and, according to Elliotte Friedman, will miss the rest of the season. He was the key piece of the return in the Matthew Tkachuk trade with the Florida Panthers, but has not produced like many in Calgary had hoped. He has 65 goals and 194 points in 291 games, while Tkachuk has won two straight Stanley Cups and three consecutive Eastern Conference titles during his time in Florida.

• Do any two teams hate each other more than the Panthers and Lightning? Tampa Bay rolled its interstate rivals 6-1 in a game that saw plenty of flying fists. The Panthers are in serious trouble of missing the playoffs and will need a lot of help if they want to try for a third straight Stanley Cup.

NHL Birthday Roll Call, Feb. 6: Harry Cameron, Kent Douglas, Bob Sirois, Paul Gagne, Mike Hough, Tim Taylor, Adam Henrique, Vinni Lettieri, Ville Husso, Aleksanteri Kaskimaki, and Matthew Wood.