{"id":8892,"date":"2025-01-02T15:58:57","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T15:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=8892"},"modified":"2025-01-02T15:58:57","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T15:58:57","slug":"blackhawks-recall-colton-dach-assign-joey-anderson-to-rockford-what-is-behind-blackhawks-goalie-petr-mrazeks-recent-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=8892","title":{"rendered":"Blackhawks Recall Colton Dach, Assign Joey Anderson to Rockford – What is Behind Blackhawks Goalie Petr Mrazek\u2019s Recent Play?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With rumors swirling that Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson expressed his displeasure with the performance after the Winter Classic, Chicago made a roster move on Thursday before the first practice of the new year. Forward Colton Dach<\/strong> has finally been recalled.<\/p>\n

Joey Anderson<\/strong> is headed to Rockford to make room for Dach.<\/p>\n

Dach, who turns 22 on Saturday, posted 25 points (12 goals, 13 assists) in 30 games with the Rockford IceHogs this season. He\u2019s been playing well in a legit power forward role for the IceHogs lately.<\/p>\n

What is Behind Blackhawks Goalie Petr Mrazek\u2019s Recent Play?<\/h1>\n

There\u2019s no denying that goaltender Petr Mrazek has been a staple for the\u00a0Chicago Blackhawks\u00a0since they acquired him prior to the 2022-23 season. As Jason Dickinson\u00a0said in December, \u201cIt\u2019s a guy that you know he\u2019s going to show up for us. We don\u2019t even need to worry about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a rebuilding team facing a lot of instability and question marks, having Mrazek as their constant has meant a lot to the group in more ways than one. However, he faces one of the worst stretches of his Blackhawks tenure, allowing four-plus goals in five of his last six games. Is he just experiencing a rut that every NHL player goes through, or is it fair to question other factors?<\/p>\n

Is Mrazek\u2019s Blackhawks Workload Starting to Show?<\/h2>\n

Mrazek has been no stranger to a strong workload in Chicago. Last season was his best, where he started 53 games, the most of his career. His .305 GAA (Goals-against Average) and .908 SV% (Save percentage) during that time even beat out top NHL goaltenders like Jake Oettinger (Dallas Stars- .905 SV%) and Andrei Vasilevskiy (Tampa Bay Lightning- .900 SV%), despite the Blackhawks being the second-worst team in the league. After maintaining a healthy season and working with Blackhawks\u2019 goaltender coach, Jimmy Waite, he earned a two-year contract extension in January 2024. With that, Mrazek\u2019s longevity concerns seemed to somewhat take a pause.<\/p>\n

He opened the season strong and, once again, with a busy workload. But he was content, as he told Ben Pope of the\u00a0Chicago Sun-Times<\/em>\u00a0in November, \u201cI\u2019ve been feeling the best I\u2019ve felt.\u201d Mrazek continued, \u201cOnce you play in more games, you feel confident, and you feel good. You don\u2019t even feel like you\u2019re tired \u2014 you just want to play. It\u2019s been fun. It\u2019s just time to win some games.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Petr
Petr Mrazek, Chicago Blackhawks (Photo by Michael Reaves\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

However, the end of November began to take a turn. It started with a 3-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Nov. 29, that progressed to a couple of atypical performances by him. But everything snowballed on Dec. 7 against the Winnipeg Jets when Mrazek hurt his groin in the first period and left the game. Afterward, the team put him on injured reserve. He then returned against the Calgary Flames on Dec. 21, which did not go well, as the Blackhawks lost 6-4, and Mrazek looked shaky.<\/p>\n

His following starts against the Buffalo Sabres and the New Year\u2019s Eve Winter Classic game against the St. Louis Blues were some of the team\u2019s worst showings of the season. It\u2019s not all on Mrazek, as the team in front of him has not been playing anywhere close to standard. But he has usually been the shield of his club\u2019s poor showings and hasn\u2019t looked as sharp.<\/p>\n

Mrazek has started 23 of the Blackhawks\u2019 38 games, posting a 3.23 GAA and .893 SV%. Is the workload beginning to catch up with him? Backup goaltender\u00a0Arvid Soderblom\u00a0has played better this season, and they could start deferring to him more. Naturally, you want your number one goalie to get the starts, but that might have to be considered if Mrazek\u2019s stretch continues.<\/p>\n

Is Mrazek\u2019s Injury a Bigger Concern Than Expected?<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s no secret that Mrazek has dealt with a recurring groin injury throughout his career, which makes me wonder if his injury is still prevalent. Especially because after the Sabres game on Dec. 27, interim head coach Anders Sorensen\u00a0was asked if Mrazek was okay\u00a0because he looked like he was possibly uncomfortable. Sorensen replied briefly, \u201cYeah, he\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because Sorensen said Mrazek is okay, it\u2019s hard to go that route when there is no confirmation that his injury is lingering. Even though his injury history (including dealing with\u00a0three groin injury stints\u00a0in 2022-23) and recently being on injured reserve makes it unsettling. Which takes us to question three:<\/p>\n

Is Mrazek Just In a Rut?<\/h2>\n

After all, maintaining a high level of play in the NHL is hard. Doing it on a team in last place is even harder. Mrazek could also just be experiencing a slump on top of everything else. It\u2019s been weird to see because it seemed expected that whenever he played, he would be \u201con,\u201d but no player is immune to the ups and downs of the season.<\/p>\n

The Blackhawks signed goaltender Laurent Brossoit over the summer\u00a0as a potential 1A\/1B situation with Mrazek.\u00a0But he has been out all season with a right knee injury. He has since had a\u00a0second procedure\u00a0and updates on his return have been sparse. Brossoit\u2019s signing seemed logical to help support Mrazek throughout the season, so he wouldn\u2019t have to carry so much, and the Hawks are missing having that second anchor. However, as previously mentioned, Soderblom has held his own this season, so it\u2019s not like the Blackhawks don\u2019t have options, which is a positive. If Soderblom were also struggling, it would be a different conversation about what to do in net.<\/p>\n

If anyone can get out of this rut, it\u2019s Mrazek. He has done it before with the Blackhawks, and there is still a lot of season left. Therefore, it\u2019s premature to hit the \u201cpanic\u201d button, but certainly, concerns are valid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With rumors swirling that Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson expressed his displeasure with the performance after the Winter Classic, Chicago made a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chicago-blackhawks","category-nfl","category-san-francisco-49ers"],"yoast_head":"\nBlackhawks Recall Colton Dach, Assign Joey Anderson to Rockford - What is Behind Blackhawks Goalie Petr Mrazek\u2019s Recent Play? - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=8892\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blackhawks Recall Colton Dach, Assign Joey Anderson to Rockford - What is Behind Blackhawks Goalie Petr Mrazek\u2019s Recent Play? 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