The Blackhawks played last night, but the organization also had five (5) prospects playing in the three NCAA tournament games on Thursday. It was an action-packed day of hockey watching for folks who weren’t watching college basketball or MLB’s Opening Day.

Before we get to the prospects, a quick word on last night’s game. I know Seth Jones is an incredibly polarizing player because when he wants to be good he can be pretty good and when he doesn’t care you can tell from ten miles away. Well, his effort defending the Senators’ short-handed scoring chance in the first period last night was what I like to call a single butt cheek. Because I know half-ass when I see it.

Ah yes the classic G💰 fake slapaway into the shorty! 🚨#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/QekRKjpUWr

— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) March 28, 2024

Let’s get positive around here! Here are updates on how the Blackhawks’ prospects’ teams did yesterday:

• Denver beat UMass 2-1 in 2OT. Aidan Thompson won 9 of 18 faceoffs and put four shots on net for Denver. The Pioneers will face Cornell on Saturday.
• Boston U. dominated RIT 6-3. Ryan Greene scored BU’s second goal of the night against RIT. He also won 8 of 15 faceoffs and was credited with one blocked shot in the win

• Minnesota beat Omaha 3-2 to advance to face Greene and BU this weekend. Neither Blackhawks prospect had a point. Sam Rinzel put three shots on net and blocked a couple shots. Oliver Moore won 5 of 11 faceoffs and blocked two shots.
• A reminder: Frank Nazar and the University of Michigan face North Dakota — the alma mater of both Jonathan Toews and Troy Murray — in an arena with a 2,500 capacity tonight. You can watch that game on ESPNU at 7:30 PM CT.
• For Thursday, Ben Pope wrote a good piece looking at what the Blackhawks have specifically focused on with Oliver Moore during his freshman season at Minnesota.

Oliver Moore and Sam Rinzel are two of the most-improved Blackhawks prospects since the start of the season, and their Minnesota team faces Omaha in the NCAA Tournament tonight.

Here's a look at what the Hawks have worked on with Moore: https://t.co/pIJ2zazOEk

— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 28, 2024

• Hey, the OHL playoffs started on Thursday night, too. And Gavin Hayes scored a goal in his first postseason game with the Greyhounds.

OHL Playoff 🚨 for #Blackhawks prospect Gavin Hayes tonight for @OHLHoundPower

pic.twitter.com/bBEALcVbbp

— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) March 29, 2024

• Harman Dayal at The Athletic listed the ten most underrated centers in the NHL, and Chicago’s Jason Dickinson rightfully got some recognition. Earlier this week I made the case for him to receive Selke Trophy consideration, and this shouldn’t hurt that case at all. In fact, this sums things up very nicely:

It’s borderline miraculous that a defensive specialist, on a roster that’s barely NHL-caliber, is matching up against top lines and winning those minutes.

The NHL’s top 10 most underrated centers and why they’re so valuable ⤵️https://t.co/RQnTchEq4H

— The Athletic NHL (@TheAthleticNHL) March 28, 2024

• Pretty cool note on the broadcast last night. Luke Richardson is going to be inducted into the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame in a few weeks. How about the salad in his photo for the announcement?

Congratulations to #Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson, who was recently named to the Ottawa Sports 2024 Hall of Fame class. Luke grew up in Ottawa and played minor hockey for the Ottawa West Golden Knights. He finished his #NHL career with the Senators https://t.co/TL7NsCBhEd

— Chris Vosters (@CJVosters) March 28, 2024

• Roman Josi appeared in his 900th career regular-season game last night, making him the second Swiss-born player to reach that number. He then became the first Swiss-born player to record 500 career assists. Congrats to a really good player and guy on a couple big, round numbers.
• I know the NHL is limiting it’s international tournament teaser next season to the US, Canada, Finland and Sweden, but I wouldn’t sleep on Switzerland as a potential threat to those four in the coming Olympics. When you can throw Josi on a roster with the likes of Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, Philipp Kurashev, Kevin Fiala and Nino Niederreiter, that’s not bad at all.

Congratulations to Roman Josi, who becomes both the first Swiss-born player and first member of the @PredsNHL to reach 500 NHL assists! pic.twitter.com/UHSjpk67kL

— NHLPA (@NHLPA) March 29, 2024

• This is both exciting and wild at the same time. If you remember, Ivan Fedotov was arrested in Russia two years ago for allegedly trying to avoid his mandatory military service. Now, his contract was apparently terminated and he got on the first flight the heck out of there to join the Flyers. He’ll reportedly join the Flyers and be part of their NHL roster immediately.

Everyone’s being very careful here for obvious reasons, but it is believed Fedotov is en route to beginning his NHL career for the Flyers. Wasn’t aware until news broke this morning, but all sides have worked on a solution for the last few weeks. https://t.co/Xb9ermvzjq

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) March 28, 2024

• The top two teams in each division in the Eastern Conference has now clinched a playoff berth after three teams punched their tickets on Thursday night.

Boston, Carolina & Florida have all clinched playoff berths tonight, so far. https://t.co/cIOhwmae3R

— David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) March 29, 2024

• Finally, the Cubs lost last night in extra innings but that wasn’t the bad part of the first game of the season. Their ace, Justin Steele, left the game early with a hammy issue. Here’s hoping it isn’t serious (he’s on both of my fantasy teams, too!).

Justin Steele Injury Update: New Classification, MRI Tomorrow, IL Stint Coming?https://t.co/TwdbmGZPdh

— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) March 29, 2024