The Chicago Blackhawks’ veteran group asked for changes to how the team practiced after the end of last season. At the end of the season media conferences, Nick Foligno and Seth Jones both talked about addressing how practices were handled and Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson agreed that changes could be made to get the most out of practice sessions that were maybe more intense, but shorter and more compact. After the first two days of training camp for the 2024-25 season, those changes are already evident.
Following the conclusion of Thursday’s opening of training camp, Richardson emphasized wanting to push the pace to begin camp, “We want to use that pace to be up and down the ice, execute, and be a hard team to keep up with.” He said he expected players to come into camp ready to go from the jump, not using the first days of training camp to get into shape.
Also noticeably different over the first two days of camp was Richardson not skating the conditioning laps with the team. “You don’t need a clown coach skating around in a track suit doing a few laps when he didn’t do anything before,” Richardson said on Thursday. “It’s all business this year.”
Business picked up in the opening scrimmage on Day Two as groups B and C faced-off in a 0-0 tie. While the scoring wasn’t happening, the physical play was. Notably, newest Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno was not holding back on plays particularly against the younger players in camp. Foligno laid into defenseman Nolan Allan along the boards in the defensive zone on one play, while giving Samuel Savoie a hard shoulder check later on the same shift. In another engagement in his offensive zone, Foligno ran over Gavin Hayes in a loose-puck battle in the corner.
“The scrimmages have felt a lot more competitive than in year’s past,” Allan said after Friday’s practice. “It’s pretty physical and the pace is high. That’s a good thing. It’s only going to make you better and push for a spot even harder.”
The level of competition was designed by GM Kyle Davidson to be elevated heading into this year, both by the quality of players that are participating in camp (free agent and trade acquisitions) and by the expectations set for the 2024-25 campaign.
“We’re going to have a standard that is expected to be met every day,” Foligno said on Thursday at his introductory press conference as Captain. “If you don’t meet that standard, you’re going to hear about it.”
The comment that Richardson made regarding it being “all business this year” stood out as a potential shift in mindset. Kyle Davidson stressed competition coming into training camp. The expectation of this Blackhawks team is higher than in the past two seasons under Davidson and Richardson. No longer can roster spots be given to anyone, whether a young player or veteran, just because the team is in a rebuilding mode. The rebuilding portion of the plan is coming to a close and the part where winning more games and being competitive across the league is starting to become more of the focus, thus creating more competition for NHL ice time.
“No assurances were made. The players are going to decide who are in those forwards and defensive groups,” Davidson said on Friday. “It’s open competition, we made the players aware that we brought in a lot of new faces and that this team shouldn’t be an easy one to make or an easy one to hold your job in. There is a demand to get going right from day one.”
