Blackhawks Daily: Tugging at the Heart Strings; Hawks Q & A

Do you think you know what heartbreak is in sports? Maybe you do. Maybe you don’t. Nobody knows it better than the players from the 2023-24 Edmonton Oilers squad that lost game seven of the Stanley Cup Final. 

The Oilers had a terrible start to the year. They fired their coach, went on a run, made the playoffs, and eventually found themselves in the Final. They went down 3-0 to the Florida Panthers, climbed out of that hole, and forced game seven. 

In that final game where Florida won the Stanley Cup, the Oilers had it right in front of them but Florida snatched victory from the hands of defeat. It would have been a devastating loss for someone no matter what the outcome was. 

On Thursday night/Friday morning, a video surfaced of the heartbreak that the Oilers felt immediately following the loss. You can hear Gary Bettman presenting the Stanley Cup in the background while the Oilers players sit there shattered by their defeat. 

It makes it a lot more clear why Connor McDavid didn’t go out there and accept the Conn Smythe Trophy that he won as a member of the losing team. He’ll be happy about it someday but he couldn’t go out there and leave his teammates behind. 

Hockey is an emotional game and the Oilers showed everyone just how committed to winning they are. Zach Hyman told everyone in that locker room that he believes they’ll be back. He wanted everyone to stay for this upcoming season. They mostly listened. 

Meanwhile, Chicago Hockey Now has a Chicago Blackhawks Q&A up right now with a focus on Frank Nazar, Andreas Athanasiou, and win totals from the upcoming season. That goes with all of the prospect ranking that has been done by CHN along with some other great stories from around the network. 

Chicago Blackhawks

Kicking off CHN’s ranking of Chicago Blackhawks prospects, a look at prospects #7-10 led by Nick Lardis.

Oliver Moore leads prospects #4-6 in the Chicago Blackhawks pipeline

Ethan Del Mastro is the #3 prospect in the Chicago Blackhawks system.

The Chicago Blackhawks have studs in Frank Nazar and Artyom Levshunov. Who is #1 in the pipeline?

There are some great honorable mentions in the Chicago Blackhawks prospect ranking.

A second wave of honorable mentions in the Chicago Blackhawks prospect ranking.

What do the recently graduated Chicago Blackhawks prospects look like now?

National Hockey Now

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: Five interesting stats about the current Pittsburgh Penguins.

Philly Hockey Now: Don’t forget this Philadelphia Flyers icon if their building is renamed.

New Jersey Hockey Now: 3 things that must go right for the New Jersey Devils this year.