Alarm bells kept ringing in Caleb Jones’ head every time he pushed deep into the offensive zone Tuesday.
As a defenseman, he indeed would’ve been far out of position. But he repeatedly reminded himself he was actually playing forward. Technically, he was the Hawks’ third-line left winger.
“There’s a few times on the clips I could see myself backing up and not coming up,” he said Thursday, laughing. “I started skating backwards — that was the defenseman in me, for sure. But better safe than sorry in that situation. That was my mindset: I’d rather not be too aggressive and just come back.”
Jones was originally going to be a healthy scratch against the Lightning. He wasn’t planning to go out for warmups — and therefore not doing his usual pregame stretching — when the Hawks let him know around 6:30 p.m. that they’d need him to dress.
And he didn’t realize that playing meant playing forward — essentially in the place of Tyler Johnson, who’d come down sick — until coach Luke Richardson told him at the last minute.
“I said I could probably play a couple shifts up there,” Jones said. “Then before the first puck drop, Luke said, ‘I’ll probably just keep you up there the whole game.’ It was definitely a new experience, but I made a couple good defensive plays and had a couple O-zone shifts.
“I know our ‘D’-zone [system], like what our forwards are supposed to do and what their jobs are, so I didn’t feel too nervous about any positional stuff. ... But when you just have to go in and play, sometimes you can actually have a good game, not thinking too much.”
He ended up logging 13:48 ice time over 15 shifts with decent results. The Hawks outshot the Lightning 5-3 during his five-on-five ice time; neither team scored during it. Richardson praised him for taking advantage of the opportunity and doing “whatever we asked him to do.”
Roster puzzle
It’s probably for the best, though, that Jones won’t have to masquerade as a forward a second time.
The Hawks’ roster remains in heavy flux entering Friday against the Coyotes, but not in enough flux to necessitate that degree of creativity.
The Hawks called up forwards Lukas Reichel and Brett Seney from the AHL, and both will be in the lineup Friday no matter what. It’ll be Reichel’s second appearance of the season, presenting another chance for the top prospect to finally translate his offensive upside to the NHL. He’ll be playing wing, not center.
Seney isn’t exactly a prospect at age 26 but has earned this opportunity nonetheless. The former Devils and Maple Leafs depth winger is the AHL’s second-leading scorer this season with 38 points in 32 games. Rockford coach Anders Sorensen said Seney plays at a fast pace and gets to the net well.
Patrick Kane, meanwhile, is a “maybe” for Friday; he’ll test out his lower-body injury in the morning before doctors make a determination. Either way, though, it doesn’t sound like a major long-term issue, which would’ve been the worst-case scenario after he didn’t return for the third period Tuesday.
“There was no sense to flare it up today,” Richardson said of Kane’s injury. “It’s just settling down. If he can...let the inflammation get out of there and if he feels good [Friday], he’ll definitely try and push through. So that’s good.”
Johnson returned to practice Thursday, but Andreas Athanasiou has now contracted his illness and missed practice because of it.
And MacKenzie Entwistle and Jujhar Khaira were retroactively placed on injured reserve with right wrist and lower back injuries, respectively, although both are eligible to be activated at any time. Entwistle and Jarred Tinordi (facial surgery) skated individually Thursday; Khaira did not.
