Frank Nazar reacted immediately to being hit in the face by a puck, throwing his gloves down and heading straight to the locker room, indicating serious concern about his injury.
"He's 0-for-30. Simple as that. You can say there's a lot of line drives in there, but you get to a place of playing every day for a week and not having any results, and it wears on you. It wears on you mentally as much as anything."
It would also see third-year franchise centerpiece Connor Bedard exit the game; with less than a second to go, Bedard would suffer an upper-body injury that would keep him out of action for almost a month. He would later be placed on the injured reserve, a move which would not only end his chance at making Canada's Olympic roster, but also shelve him for four weeks.
We're nearing conference tournament time, which means we're also nearing the time when coaches and players are paying attention to their NPI ranking - and hoping to be part of the NCAA tournament. The good news is it appears the Blackhawks' prospects playing in the college ranks right now are as healthy as they have been in a while.