Today’s News Clips March 28, 2019

ChicagoBlackhawks.com

PREVIEW: Blackhawks at Sharks 3/28

By Austin Siegel March 27, 2019

The Blackhawks (33-33-10) will look to rebound from a tough loss in Glendale, AZ on Tuesday night with their final meeting of the season with the playoff-bound San Jose Sharks (43-24-9). Chicago has dropped both games against the Sharks this season.

The Blackhawks saw their playoff push take a hit against the Coyotes, as Arizona goalie Darcy Kuemper stopped all 31 shots he faced in a 1-0 win for the home team. turned in another impressive performance to lead the Blackhawks, with 28 saves in a losing effort.

The loss was Chicago's first defeat since a 4-0 setback in Philadelphia on Nov. 10.

A former Coyote continued to play well for the Blackhawks on Tuesday night, as Brendan Perlini managed a team-high four shots on . After being acquired from Arizona on Nov. 25, Perlini has put together his best month of the season in March. His eight goals this month lead the Blackhawks and his 10 points (8 G, 2 A) are also best on the team.

Perlini scored his first goal as a Blackhawk when the team faced the Sharks back on Dec. 16 at the .

San Jose clinched a playoff spot last week, but the Sharks are currently mired in their longest losing streak of the season. The six-game skid began back on March 14 in a loss to Florida and has continued with San Jose earning a lone point in an loss to Anaheim on Friday.

The Sharks are hoping to have Erik Karlsson back for a postseason run, as the biggest acquisition of the 2018 offseason hasn't played since Feb. 26. Karlsson will not skate on Thursday against Chicago, but the Blackhawks may have to worry about fellow 2019 All-Star Joe Pavelski.

The longtime Shark has missed San Jose's last five games with a lower-body injury, but the will be a game-time decision against the Blackhawks on Thursday night.

SEASON SERIES: This is the third and final meeting of the season between Chicago and San Jose. The Sharks won both previous matchups, with a 7-3 win at the United Center on Dec. 16 and a 5-2 win in the Bay Area earlier this month. The Blackhawks last defeated the Sharks in February of last season, with Artem Anisimov scoring his 17th goal of the season with an empty-netter to seal the 3-1 win.

OPPONENT TO WATCH: Brent Burns has kept the Sharks afloat during the team's recent losing streak with a four-game point streak that was snapped in San Jose's 3-2 loss to Detroit on Monday. The 34-year-old defenseman leads the Sharks in points this season with 77 (13 G, 64 A) and has enjoyed a career year during his 16th season in the NHL.

For just the third time in his career, Burns reached the 75-point plateau while recording a career-high 64 assists for San Jose.

ChicagoBlackhawks.com RELEASE: Blackhawks to honor Esposito brothers with One More Shift

By Communications Department March 27, 2019

The Chicago Blackhawks will honor former and current Blackhawks Ambassador and former forward with "One More Shift" as they take the United Center ice on Wednesday, April 3, prior to the Blackhawks game against the St. Louis Blues at 7 p.m.

The Esposito brothers will join the team on the ice during the anthem after the starting lineup has been announced on Wednesday. In addition to skating on the ice in full gear, in-arena elements will also feature the Espositos and the highlights of their careers.

Natives of Sault Ste. Marie, , Tony and Phil Esposito were inducted into the in 1988 and 1984, respectively. In 2017, they were each named one of the "100 Greatest Players in NHL History" by the NHL.

Tony Esposito, who played all but one of his 16 NHL seasons with the Blackhawks, is a three-time winner as the top goaltender in the league (1970, 1972, 1974) and was also awarded the in 1970 as the top rookie in the NHL. He remains the franchise's all-time leader in (74) and career wins (418), which includes seven consecutive seasons with 30-plus wins (1969-76). He set a team record with 15 shutouts during the 1969-70 season, and his career 423 wins rank 10th in league history among .

Tony Esposito's no. 35 was retired by the Blackhawks on November 20, 1988 at Chicago Stadium. He has also served as a Blackhawks Ambassador, a role that connects the Blackhawks' past and present through a variety of fan engagement activities, since March 19, 2008.

Phil Esposito's 18-year playing career is highlighted by two Championships with the (1970, 1972). Originally a member of the Chicago Blackhawks (1963-67), he went on to play with the Boston Bruins (1967-75 and (1975-81). He became the first player in NHL history to record 100 points in a season (1969-70) and reached that mark on six occasions. His 717 career goals rank sixth and his 1,590 points rank 10th in league history. He is a five-time winner (1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974), two-time winner (1971, 1973), two-time winner (1969, 1974) and winner (1978).

A founder and general manager during the team's first seven seasons, Phil Esposito is currently in his 19th year as the Lightning's home radio analyst. He also serves as the team's Vice President of Corporate Relations.

In its third season, the "One More Shift" campaign allows fans to recognize former players one more time as they skate on the ice. Previous honorees include former forwards and Dennis Hull earlier this season as well as former forwards Bryan Bickell, Al Secord, Eric Daze, Troy Murray and the late during 2016-17 and Blackhawks Ambassador Denis Savard, former forwards Steve Larmer and Jeremy Roenick, and former goaltender during 2015-16.

Next Wednesday's game against St. Louis can be seen on NBCSN and streamed on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app as well as heard on WGN Radio and WRTO-AM (Spanish).

ChicagoBlackhawks.com RELEASE: Blackhawks agree to extension with Dahlstrom

By Chicago Blackhawks Communications Department March 27, 2019

The Chicago Blackhawks announced today that they have agreed to terms with defenseman Carl Dahlstrom (DAHL- struhm) on a two-year contract extension that runs through the 2020-21 season ($850,000 AAV).

Selected by the Blackhawks in the second round (51st overall) of the 2013 Draft, Dahlstrom has posted six assists and a plus-minus rating of +8 in 35 games with the Blackhawks this season. He has also spent time with the Rockford IceHogs of the during the 2018-19 campaign. In 22 games with the IceHogs, he had one goal and seven assists.

Dahlstrom, 24, made his NHL debut on Feb. 10, 2018 at MIN. In 46 career games with the Blackhawks, he has nine assists. Last year with the IceHogs, he recorded career highs in assists (25), points (28) and was named to the 2018 AHL All-Star Classic. Spanning parts of five seasons (2015-18), Dahlstrom had 48 points (10G, 38A) in 162 career regular- season games with the IceHogs. He has added three goals and seven assists in 16 Calder Cup Playoff games.

Prior to joining the Blackhawks organization, the Stockholm, Sweden native spent time with Linköping HC of the Swedish Hockey League. In three seasons with Linköping (2014-16), he tallied 15 points (4G, 11A) in 117 regular-season games while adding a goal and four helpers in 31 postseason games.

NBCSportsChicago.com Blackhawks on track to finish with NHL’s worst kill in 30 years

By Charlie Roumeliotis March 27, 2019

One year ago, the Blackhawks finished the season in the bottom-third in both power play percentage (28th) and penalty kill (20th). The organization pointed to those rankings as something that needed to change going into the 2018-19 campaign.

Jeremy Colliton took over as head coach on Nov. 6 and immediately made it a priority to fix a power-play unit that ranked 27th out of 31st at the time of his hiring. Since then, the Blackhawks rank seventh with a 22.5 percent conversion rate. That boxed has been checked.

But the penalty kill? It’s actually gotten worse. Like, all-time bad.

After allowing a power-play goal in Arizona on Tuesday for the third straight game, the Blackhawks’ penalty kill percentage slipped to 73.1, which ranks dead last in the NHL. If the season ended today, it would be the first time in 30 years that the percentage has reached a level that low — the Maple Leafs had a 72.7 percent kill rate during the 1988-89 season.

The bizarre part about all of this is that the Blackhawks are actually one of the least-penalized teams. They’ve committed the third-fewest penalties (237) this season. And yet they’re allowing 9.91 goals per 60 minutes on the penalty kill, according to naturalstattrick.com.

The Blackhawks have often been able to outscore their defensive issues this season. When they give up four or five-plus goals, it’s the power play that’s help negated it all. But when the offense dries up like it has now with only nine goals in the past six games, the penalty kill hasn’t been able to return the favor. And that's a problem.

The last time a team made the playoffs despite having the league's worst penalty kill was the Canadiens in 1996-97 when they had a 79.9 percent success rate. They finished as the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference and were bounced in the first round. It's nearly impossible to overcome a bad PK.

The good news is, things can turn around quickly if they play their cards right this summer. Columbus (27th) and Tampa Bay (28th) each ranked in the bottom-five in penalty kill percentage last season and are now among the top-five this season with Tampa Bay second and Columbus fourth, respectively.

The Blackhawks need to be in the upper half next season or else they'll make it difficult on themselves yet again to contend for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

NBCSportsChicago.com Blackhawks agree to terms with Carl Dahlstrom on two-year extension

By Charlie Roumeliotis March 27, 2019

The Blackhawks locked up one of their restricted free agents on Wednesday after it was announced that defenseman Carl Dahlstrom agreed to terms on a two-year extension that runs through the 2020-21 season and has an average annual value of $850,000.

The Blackhawks now have five defensemen from their current roster signed for next season: Dahlstrom, Erik Gustafsson, Duncan Keith, Connor Murphy and Brent Seabrook. Gustav Forsling and Slater Koekkoek are the other two RFAs.

Dahlstrom, 24, has six points — all assists — and a plus-8 rating in 35 games with the Blackhawks this season. He's also averaging 18:30 of ice time. Earlier in the year the Blackhawks leaned heavily on the Dahlstrom-Murphy pairing for defensive matchups, and the duo drew the toughest competition on a nightly basis.

While Dahlstrom has been in and out of the lineup down the stretch, the Blackhawks have seen enough to bring him back for two more years and serve as a depth defenseman. But it will be interesting to see how the dynamic plays out this summer because Henri Jokiharju is expected to have a full-time roster spot on the blue line next season and there aren't many spots available.

Chicago Tribune Carl Dahlstrom is the 1st of 6 restricted free agents on the Blackhawks roster to agree to an extension

By Jimmy Greenfield March 27, 2019

The Blackhawks announced signed defenseman Carl Dahlstrom to a two-year contract extension Wednesday, making him the first of six restricted free agents on their roster to agree to terms.

The other RFAs are defensemen Slater Koekkoek and Gustav Forsling and forwards David Kampf, Brendan Perlini and Dylan Sikura.

Dahlstrom, 24, the Hawks’ second-round draft pick in 2013, made his NHL debut last season, posting three assists in 11 games. He began this season at Rockford but was called up in December. He has no goals and six assists in 35 games this season while averaging 18 minutes, 30 seconds of ice time per game.

Dahlstrom, who had been in a rotation with Koekkoek and Forsling over the last two months, was a healthy scratch the previous two games against the Avalanche and Coyotes.

Esposito brothers getting ‘One More Shift’: Legendary Hawks goalie Tony Esposito and his brother Phil, both Hall of Famers, will get “One More Shift” with the Hawks before the April 3 game against the Blues.

The program honors former Hawks, bringing them back to skate in full uniform at the United Center before a game. Previous honorees include Eddie Olczyk, Dennis Hull, Al Secord and Steve Larmer.

Tony Esposito, whose No. 35 was retired in 1988, is the Hawks’ all-time leader in wins (418) and shutouts (74).

Phil Esposito, who scored 74 goals during 3½ seasons with the Hawks, was part of one of the most notoriously bad trades in team history. In 1967, he was sent with and to the Bruins for defenseman , center and goalie Jack Norris.

Phil went on to score 643 goals in 15 seasons after leaving the Hawks and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1984. Tony was enshrined in 1988.

Berlin sold out, Prague going fast: Tickets for the Hawks' preseason game in Berlin this September went on sale Wednesday and sold out in 19 minutes, according to the NHL.

The Hawks' season opener on Oct. 4 against the Flyers in Prague is not sold out yet but only about 10 percent of tickets remain for the 18,000-seat O2 Arena.

Chicago Sun Times Blackhawks sign D Carl Dahlstrom to 2-year extension

By Jason Lieser March 27, 2019

The Blackhawks have been impressed enough by defenseman Carl Dahlstrom in half a season that they signed him to a two-year extension.

The team announced his deal this morning, and it carries an average annual value of $850,000 for 2019-20 and the following season.

The Hawks called Dahlstrom up in the second half of 2017-18, and coach Jeremy Colliton made him a regular this season. He has played 35 games this season and has six assists with a plus/minus of plus-8.

Chicago Sun Times Elimination lurks, but Blackhawks still dream of playoffs

By Jason Lieser March 27, 2019

There’s no point in bailing now, not after all the work the Blackhawks did to give themselves a at the playoffs. There’s a minimal chance after their crash the last two weeks, but they intend to see how much chaos they can cause while trying to beat their long odds.

“Oh, yeah, of course,” coach Jeremy Colliton said. “We’ll play right to the end. We’ve just gotta find a way to put some points on the board. That’s all we can do.”

The Hawks aren’t mathematically eliminated, but that’s pretty much the best thing anyone can say about their pursuit. Even sweeping the last six games wouldn’t be enough without significant help.

Their last, last, last reasonable chance came Tuesday in Arizona, and their offense let them down again in a 1-0 loss. With six games left, the Hawks are tied with the Oilers at 76 points, seven behind the Avalanche, who hold the second wild-card spot after beating the Golden Knights on Wednesday.

The Coyotes are two points behind the Avs, and those teams will meet Friday. The Wild are in the mix, too, at 79 points. The Stars hold the first wild-card spot with 86 points.

Elimination lurks for the Hawks as they get ready to visit the playoff-bound Sharks on Thursday, and it hasn’t been a fun matchup for them. San Jose combined for 12 goals in the first two meetings.

If the Hawks can stay alive for the rest of the week, a brutal four-game finish awaits them with home games against the Jets (No. 3 in the Western Conference), Blues (No. 5), and Stars (No. 7), then a season -finale on the road against the Predators (No. 4).

But they’re still going for it.

“Yeah, why not?” goaltender Corey Crawford said.

That was basically the Hawks’ rallying cry when their season started to turn, and it stopped sounding absurd when they went on a seven-game winning streak to pull into the second wild-card slot Feb. 20.

That surge is why this has felt more like a failure than an admirable fight as the Hawks have come up short in the final weeks of the season. Merely getting here would’ve been a nice thought for the Hawks when they were 9-18-5 in December, but they thought they were past moral victories.

They were in position to run away with the race a month ago but have gone 7-7-1 since. It was theirs to take, too, considering no one else in the mix was overwhelming. The Coyotes and Avalanche were the best at 9-5-2 during that stretch.

The Hawks have played better lately, but it’s too late in the season for good efforts to mean anything if they don’t result in points.

“We’ve just gotta keep getting better,” Colliton said. “I think we’ve made some strides and we’ve found a way to win some of these games, but not enough.”

The Hawks’ biggest problems have been on special teams. They have been in the bottom 10 in power-play conversions and penalty kills the last 15 games.

The power-play woes are especially troubling after that unit was the most dangerous in the NHL for a long stretch. They have converted on four of their last 36, which is hard to fathom with a group that has Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Alex DeBrincat.

But every team slumps eventually. It’s bad timing for the Hawks, but they’d be able to weather it if they hadn’t started so poorly. Colliton opened 3-12-2, and if the Hawks had flipped even three or four of those losses, they’d be having a much different conversation now.

The Athletic Gray sludge, kettlebells and a good night’s sleep: The NHL postgame routine has come a long way from ‘cigarette and a beer’

By Mark Lazerus March 28, 2019

For years, there’s been something of a running gag on the Blackhawks beat. Every time a new writer shows up and inevitably starts kicking around the tried-and-true story idea of hockey players’ superstitions, one of us — OK, maybe it’s always me; who can remember — strongly suggests that reporter talk to Brent Seabrook about his legendary, borderline mythical, pregame routine.

It’s sort of like Shooter McGavin telling Happy Gilmore to be at the ninth green at 9 o’clock. And to dress nicely for it.

See, Seabrook is probably the most superstitious member of the Blackhawks. There’s food involved, a mantra of sorts, very specific equipment organization, fist bumps, being the last player on the ice — and that’s just what we know, gleaned from daring teammates willing to divulge state secrets. Because Seabrook hates talking about his superstitions. Hates it. Trust me, I’ve been on that green. You’d rather have your suit soaked.

But the truth is, Seabrook’s routine isn’t that unusual. Hockey players are creatures of habit, and they all have their routines, from Collin Delia’s hallway stretches way down by where the United Center food-services people eat their pregame meals, to the game of two-touch (or sewer ball, as some refer to it), to Patrick Kane flipping a puck into the crowd and being the last player off the ice. You’ve heard about them a hundred times. Yawn.

But what happens after a game? After 60-plus grueling minutes on the ice, after losing liters of sweat, after lunging and twisting and contorting and barreling and colliding in a sport built on the most unnatural of human motions? What happens when a player is at his most exhausted, when he’s totally spent?

Well, a lot, it turns out. And it starts, unbelievably, with working out.

Before we get into the mind-numbing idea of lifting weights after playing a game, let’s begin with the little bottles scattered all over the dressing room. There are regular water bottles. There are water bottles filled with a viscous gray sludge. There are Gatorade bottles that are filled with what can only be described as very clearly not Gatorade. And then there’s the little red plastic shot glass — picture the little measuring cup that comes on a bottle of NyQuil — sitting in Brendan Perlini’s locker stall after a game in Toronto earlier this month. The one he downs in one shot while I ask him about scoring yet another goal during his hottest stretch of the season.

“One sec, that’s terrible,” Perlini said, coughing.

“What is that, Robitussin?” I asked.

“I don’t know, it’s like a cranberry shooter or something,” he said. “It’s awful.”

While so many hockey players are fanatical about what they put in their bodies, they’re not so picky right after a game. They’re usually badly dehydrated, ready to drink just about any liquid in front of them, and they’ve placed their full faith in strength and conditioning coach Paul Goodman, who makes all these concoctions, many of which are half Gatorade, half mystery.

“I trust him,” Erik Gustafsson said. “He’s a good guy. But sometimes they taste different. You never know which Gatorade he used — the red or the orange. The blue one is good. I like the blue one.”

Every player is different, and while most partake in the greasy postgame spread laid out after road games— often pizza, but occasionally something with some local flair, like poutine in Montreal, In-N-Out in Los Angeles, or wings in Buffalo — everyone is chugging those bottles. Whatever electrolytes are, these guys need them.

“I’m not really hungry after a game; I’m too dehydrated,” Jonathan Toews said. “I need to rehydrate and then after a while I get really hungry (and eat on the plane).”

“I’m definitely a sweater, as you can tell by looking at me right now,” a drenched Cam Ward said after a morning skate. “You lose a lot of fluids throughout a game. So my first priority is getting rehydrated.”

Downing mystery liquids of varying palatability is the easy part.

Toews and Connor Murphy are splayed out on the floor of the cramped visitors dressing room in Anaheim’s Honda Center, their feet occasionally touching as they try to work out the kinks and shake out the lactic acid after another grueling on-ice session. There’s a giant pillar in the middle of the room, a handful of media types loitering, a couple of equipment guys shuffling in and out, and there simply isn’t much floor space to work with. Murphy is rolling out his muscles with a foam roller under his right thigh, while Toews is doing hurdler stretches and some basic yoga as best he can under the circumstances. Just outside the main entrance to the locker room, Brandon Saad is throwing kettlebells around while avoiding camera cables, team staffers and arena employees.

On the road, you do what you can. Sometimes that means risking life and limb on an exercise bike literally held together with packaging tape. Other times it means flinging kettlebells around in a tiny side room and trying to avoid your teammates’ skulls. Other times it means lifting weights in the hallway while ducking massive metal carts loaded with two dozen hockey bags. And sometimes it just means plopping down in the middle of the dressing room and doing what you can before the bus leaves.

It’s a glamorous life.

The one thing nobody is doing? Sitting around, catching his breath. No time for that. The first bus to the airport leaves around 20 minutes after the game ends. The next bus is slotted for 10 minutes later, but a few stragglers usually end up making it about 20. Hey, it’s not like the team is going to leave Duncan Keith behind or something.

I’ve been stooging outside NHL dressing rooms for seven seasons now, and it’s still hard to fathom how these guys are lifting weights moments after grinding their way through a 60-minute hockey game. But the thing is, there really isn’t a better time to do it. You can’t lift the day before a game, because you don’t want to be sore when the puck drops. You can’t lift the day of a game, because you have to conserve your strength and energy. And the hockey schedule is so compressed, there are precious few times during the season when you have enough days between games to get a good workout in.

So Goodman makes them do it after the games. Like, immediately. Off come the skates and pads, and off they go.

“It is weird, but it’s not intense,” Murphy said. “It’s not anything close to what we do in the summer.”

It’s lighter weights, it’s fewer reps. Maybe two sets of six to 10 exercises. Much of it is core-centric, and involves keeping players’ bodies properly aligned. Getting hit is rough on your entire body. The torque of shooting is rough on your torso. Skating, in Murphy’s parlance, “attacks” your hips and groins. The postgame work is designed to undo the damage done by a generally unnatural and unhealthy sport, realign the body to prevent future injuries, and slow the inevitable decline of muscle mass over the course of a season.

Nobody really wants to do it. But most guys suck it up. Those who play 20-25 minutes a night might take a night off here or there, or do one set instead of two. Those who hardly play at all will do an extra set or two. Older guys who know their bodies well might have their own routine; Ward, for example, will lift on nights he doesn’t play, but will do 10 or 15 minutes of stretching, instead, when he does play. He’s one of the guys frequently holding up that second bus.

But only veterans get that leeway.

“Being a young guy, you can’t really miss a workout unless you’re banged up or something,” rookie Dylan Sikura said. “It’s a little different than the AHL up here; you’re always working pretty hard. (In the AHL), we work out Mondays and Wednesdays, because we only play weekends. Here, it’s more about maintaining. At the start of the year, we worked out more. At this point in the season, it’s about keeping up your weight and trying to maintain some strength. It’s nothing too crazy. It’s good to get in there and get up a little sweat.”

What, you didn’t sweat enough in the game?

“Well, it depends on the game,” chuckled Sikura, who until recently found himself playing a mere 5-10 minutes a night.

Every arena is now required to provide the very basics for a postgame workout — a room, some weights, a few elastic bands, etc. But not all arenas are created equal.

“Calgary’s pretty bad,” Gustafsson said. “It’s a big locker room, but outside the locker room, it’s pretty bad. The changing room is not big, and the training room and the changing room is the same room, so it’s small. You’ve got to walk outside and maybe do it in the hallway. And there are people walking around, so it’s kind of tough. But I’m from Sweden. And a Swedish away locker room, oh, man, it’s terrible. I’m pretty glad wherever I go that it’s not like that.”

Then there are those bikes. Lots of players like to hit the bike after a game, or even between periods, to work out all that lactic acid. But even at the United Center — one of the nicer rinks in the league despite its age — the bikes in the hallway outside the visitors dressing room are comically dilapidated, held together with tape. Put it this way: no arena is springing for new Pelotons for the bad guys.

“I stay away from those,” Gustafsson said. “And the fucking display is always broken. It’s like, ‘How long have I been going for?’ It’s just terrible.”

“It’s usually the older buildings that have the older ones,” Murphy said. “The pedals are always torn apart and sometimes the seat that goes up and down is just stuck on a certain level. I’m 6-4 and I’m using one meant for a guy that’s 5-8, just slowly pedaling away.”

At home, it’s easier. The gym in the home suite at the United Center is state of the art, the training tables are plentiful, and the meals are fully catered and packed up to take home. Also, there’s no rush. A lot of players will alternate between the hot tub and the cold tub. Some linger in the sauna. Others sit around the dressing room rehashing the game. Still others get their workouts in, grab their meal and head home as quickly as possible.

Sleep can be a challenge. Hockey players’ bodies and brains are wired to be at their peaks between the hours of 7 and 10 p.m., and it’s difficult to just flip that switch off. Anyone who’s ever worked a second-shift job knows the feeling.

That’s one of the added perks of working out right after a game.

“You’ve still got a lot of adrenaline in your body from the game, so it’s good to get a lift in and get it out,” Strome said. “By the end of it, you’re pretty tired.”

Sikura said he goes straight home after his postgame routine and tries to “pass out” as quickly as he possible. Gustafsson tries, but often fails. He had to cut himself off from looking at his phone and watching TV after games.

“It’s pretty tough for me to (unwind) and sleep,” he said. “I’ve just got to get home and have a dinner and try to stay away from my phone. If I look at the phone too much, it feels like my mind is racing and I just want to pop off. My dad (in Sweden) is always awake after a game, so he wants to text me. I just text him back and say ‘I’m going to sleep now.’ He called me a couple times after games and I said, ‘You’ve got to stop calling me! I can’t talk after a game. I’ve got to sleep.’ It’s kind of tough, because you’re all hyped up after a game.”

Of course, players of yesteryear would scoff at these guys exercising and then going straight home to bed. Hell, the 2010 Blackhawks would scoff. The postgame routine used to be quite a bit different.

“Cigarette and a beer,” Ward said with a laugh.

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, back when the Blackhawks were mostly young and single, they were regulars at local steakhouses for lengthy late-night dinners. And drinks. Lots of drinks. Like so many NHL players for nearly a century before them, the 2010-era Blackhawks were famous for their nighttime adventures. On an off night in Nashville, they’d roll into Tootsie’s 15 or 20 strong. On a game night in Chicago, they’d take over a few tables at Chicago Cut at 11 p.m. or so and keep the joint open past its usual 2 a.m. closing time. Sleep was a distant second to fun.

“Maybe I should start doing that now,” Gustafsson said with a shrug. “Nah, it’s not me. I’ve got a kid, too. Gotta go home.”

Occasionally, after the rare 7 p.m. start at home, a handful of guys will go out for dinner. But hardly ever after 7:30 p.m. starts.

“It gets pretty late,” said Gustafsson, that party animal.

Proper nutrition, hydration, exercise and sleep are all crucial to a hockey player’s career and longevity. Every half hour of sleep is counted, as is every calorie, every carb. But it’s still a relatively new phenomenon in a sport famous for its hard- partying history. That was the image of a pro hockey player when these guys were growing up, aspiring to be one. Don’t they ever wish they could live like that, too?

Not really, it turns out.

“I don’t think I can handle that,” Gustafsson said. “Maybe a few years back, but now? I can’t do it.”

He just turned 27 this month. An old man.

Seabrook is one of the few guys left who can remember what it used to be like. In the late 2000s, when he was in his early 20s, it wasn’t uncommon for fans to see him, Keith, Troy Brouwer and any number of players out for a few beers on any given night. No more. The game has changed. That means drinking protein shakes instead of Bud Lights, lifting weights rather than lifting forks, and going right to bed instead of going right to the bars.

“When I first got into the league, it wasn’t really a big thing to train the day before a game, or two days before a game, or after games, or anything like that,” Seabrook said. “Guys would ride bikes and do certain things like stretch, maybe, but nothing crazy. Paul Goodman came in and really put an emphasis on training, not just in the summer, which a lot of guys were already doing when I first came in the league. It makes everyone better.”

What about during games? What’s going on during those 18-minute intermissions? Not much, it turns out.

“I sit I my stall,” Gustafsson said. “That’s all I do.”

There’s not much talking going on, aside from the quick analysis and pep talk from Jeremy Colliton that you’ve seen countless coaches give on all those Winter Classic documentaries. Guys are just in there catching their breath. Many take their skates off to give their feet a break, though anyone who blocked a shot with their skates is leaving them on until after the game, for fear of the foot swelling up and not fitting back in.

Some guys like to grab a quick bite to eat. Bananas are popular — Seabrook wasn’t lying when he credited “fruit and crap” for the Blackhawks’ success in playoff overtimes — as are protein bars and, yes, more of those shakes. Gustafsson slowly nibbles away at one bar over the course of a game, a bite or two after warmups, a bite or two at the first intermission, a bite or two at the second intermission. He once had a teammate in Sweden who rode the bike for seven or eight minutes every intermission. “Fastest dresser I’ve ever played with.”

Then there’s Maple Leafs veteran Patrick Marleau.

“I heard the Patty Marleau story, that he goes in the cold tub between periods,” Sikura said. “Leaves his skates on and goes in the cold tub.”

Wait. Leaves his skates on? That can’t be right. Let’s do some quick myth-busting.

“No, no, no,” Marleau said with a laugh. “I go in the cold tub between the second and third (periods), but not with my skates on. I’m undressed and in there within four minutes, stay in there for four minutes or so, then get everything back on. Different underwear, but everything else is the same. It works. I feel like I’m going out for the first shifts of the game.”

The 39-year-old Marleau’s been doing that for nearly nine years, and he thinks it’s helped keep him productive well into his late 30s. He, too, marvels at how much the postgame routine has changed over his two decades in the league.

“I always tried to be pretty good about that type of thing, but when I first came in, there might have been one or two guys on the bike after, compared to the whole team being in there lifting weights now,” Marleau said. “It’s good. I mean, you’re already worked up and you’ve already got the blood flow going, you’re already warm, so you might as well.”

Sure, maybe the game was more colorful when guys were fueled by alcohol and red meat rather than protein sludge and Pilates. And nobody’s particularly excited to see a kettlebell lying on the floor moments after a hard-fought win or gut- punch loss on the ice.

But it’s hard to argue with the results.

“The game’s evolved so much now,” Ward said. “You look at the young kids in the league and how mature they are physically. It’s a lot different than when I broke into the league. I’m not going to lie, my first workout was probably when I came to my first training camp in the NHL. The game has changed a lot in that aspect. There’s so much more available for younger kids to develop not only their skills, but their physique. You’re seeing guys that are a lot bigger and stronger these days. And for us older guys, we need to do whatever we can to keep up.”