Chicago Blackhawks teammates will face each other in Hockey World Championships Quarterfinals
By Todd Welter
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The Chicago Blackhawks are well-represented in this year's IIHF Hockey World Championship. Connor Bedard was the star of the tournament when it started. He has not been the star player during his past four games.
Bedard skated the least number of minutes in Canada's final game of pool play. Do not worry Blackhawks fans, it is an international tournament with pride of country on the line. It is important to play hard in these games, but it is not the end of the world that he has gone scoreless over Canada's final pool games.
He will get a chance to get back to being the rockstar of the tournament on Thursday when Canada faces Slovakia.
He is not the only Chicago Blackhawks player playing in the quarterfinals.
Seth Jones and Alex Vlasic will be going from helping Petr Mrazek block the puck to shooting it at him. That is if Mrazek plays. Petr has only been in goal twice during the tournament. He was outstanding in one of those games as he shut out Austria.
🎙️ 21 saves for shutout hero Petr Mrazek against Austria tonight.🇨🇿 #MensWorlds #CZEAUT @czehockey @NHLBlackhawks pic.twitter.com/0py5lesnju
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) May 17, 2024
Jones has five assists in the tournament while Vlasic has two. Jones had the secondary assist in Team USA's last pool game.
Lukas Reichel has been outstanding for Germany and will face his teammate Philipp Kurashev. Kurashev has registered two assists for Switzerland. Kurashev not scoring goals or racking up assists should not be a huge concern. Again, this is playing for the love of country, not the Stanley Cup. Reichel playing well is something that is great to see.
At least it shows that he is still capable playing of good hockey. The Hawks are going to need him to play well next season to justify the team extending him for two more seasons. If the offense is going to get from being anemic to lethal, it will need Reichel to score goals and dishing out assists.
This might be an international tournament, but it is close to an exhibition. While it is not the end of the world that Bedard or Kurashev are not producing offense. It is still good to see Reichel play well after seeing him struggle so badly this season.
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