Blackhawks roster cuts continue while the team identity takes shape on Day 8 of training camp

The Chicago Blackhawks entered their eighth day of training camp, and the roster is now down to 29 players, with some more players being sent to the Rockford IceHogs.

With only one more preseason game to go against the St. Louis Blues tomorrow (Sept. 26), the Blackhawks are having to put the final touches on things before the real season begins in Vegas on Sept. 29.

Here are some notes from practice.

Sights from the ice

The Blackhawks worked on a lot of offense drills today. They also worked on power-play drills, five-on-three situations, and overtime power plays with the four-on-three.

Blashill explained what he saw from the drills: "We worked on a few different things. Earlier, getting a little bit of skating in, plus kind of puck management, knowing when to attack and when to kind of lay it so we can keep possession. You want to hit that line with speed. So, if you don't have numbers necessarily and you have tight gaps, you have to find ways to still keep possession. Then, we obviously went through a change sequence where we were working on a bunch of changes. How we change; it's something we hadn't talked about yet. Something we were planning to do today and wanted to make sure we got accomplished. I think it's an important piece of it, both offensively and defensively. We looked further ahead offensively today than defensively, which is all right."

Notes from the coach

The big news today is that the Blackhawks sent Sacha Boisvert, A.J. Spellacy, and Connor Mylymok to Rockford.

Boisvert and Spellacy were expected to get more development time in Rockford. Although Boisvert has a little NHL experience (7 games), this will be his and Spellacy's first full pro season. However, with development camp, rookie camp, and training camp, they were able to work on and show the organization more, and that is what they want to see from them- more.

When Blashill was asked what he saw from Spellacy and Boisvert during camp, "A.J, I think, is definitely a better player today than he was when he came to camp a year ago. His game's a pretty simple game. So, I think that's a game that can show fairly....I don't want to say easily, but once you kind of figure out, 'Okay, I can be this and do a good job at this,' which he has, I think that's going to really help him. Now he's got to go down, and certainly there's things to learn in a process of continuing to get better. But I thought he did a good job.

"Boisvert, I think... we played him at center a decent amount of it. I don't know if he's a better center or wing. We're still trying to figure that piece of it out. I think he's also got to then figure out, 'Okay, how am I going to make myself a difference-maker at this level?' And I think it's going to be through being hard to play against. Which again, last night, he got in a fight. That's one way to be hard to play against. Physicality, winning puck battles, and I didn't think early in camp he did a good enough job of that, and I thought he did a better job in very limited ice time last night. And he's just got to go down to Rockford and keep kind of finding that identity of what's going to make him special in pro because he's got a really good skill set, and I think he can be special, but he's got to figure out that identity."

For the last preseason game, Blashill previously said they envision a "closer to a fuller lineup," but it won't be a complete NHL lineup, as the new training camp rules state that players with at least 100 NHL games can play in only two games.

Player quote of the day

I spoke with defenseman Alex Vlasic, and last season the defense was newer, as rookies like Sam Rinzel and Artyom Levshunov had limited NHL experience, and it was also Wyatt Kaiser's first full NHL season. This season, everyone has a little more experience.

I asked Vlasic about what he is seeing from the defense now: "It looks like some of the younger players have a lot more confidence, a lot more development under their belt. So, it's good to see. I feel like people look more comfortable here. We all feel like we're part of a special group, and it's just kind of fun to see everybody coming into their own and growing up together."

Speaking of the group, Vlasic mentioned in his exit interviews that the Blackhawks learned a lot last season. I asked him about the biggest thing he took away from that,

"I think we kind of figured out our identity as a team and who we want to be. I think we want to be a team that uses our speed and our work ethic to outcompete other teams. I think we have all the talent and skill in the world, but I think it comes down to how fast we're playing, how fast we're skating out there, and we have so much speed. I think that's going to be a big difference maker for us going into this year."

The Blackhawks have reiterated throughout training camp their belief in what they are building together, and there's a lot of excitement for them heading into their first game.

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