The Blackhawks won’t have Kevin Korchinski in their lineup Sunday against the Canucks, but they will have him in their hearts.
The entire team on Friday attended the funeral for Larry Korchinski, their rookie defenseman’s father, after his death last week at 59. They flew from Seattle to Korchinski’s hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in the morning, then returned to Chicago in the evening.
After a 7-1 loss Thursday against the Kraken, the emotional event served as a reminder there are bigger things in life than one ugly loss.
“You don’t want to use it as a rallying thing, but it makes guys realize how fortunate we are to play, and that when real life hits, nothing else matters but your family,” Hawks de facto captain Nick Foligno said Saturday. “When a brother hurts, we all hurt. And we’re playing hard for him [Sunday].”
Kevin Korchinski has been gone since Dec. 9, when coach Luke Richardson first mentioned he was dealing with a “family matter.” The Hawks will give the 19-year-old as much time as he needs to mourn before he rejoins the lineup.
“It’s still obviously fresh for the family, and it’s good for him to be there,” Richardson said. “We’re ready to help him out when he gets back here.”
In the meantime, the Hawks’ defense remains a mess. On Saturday, the team put Seth Jones on injured reserve with a left shoulder injury, Alex Vlasic missed practice with an upper-body injury he suffered in Seattle and Jarred Tinordi (concussion) did not practice but skated on his own afterward.
The Hawks called up Wyatt Kaiser from Rockford after he played in five games there, tallying zero points in five losses. Richardson deemed Vlasic a game-time decision Sunday, but Kaiser might play regardless. Connor Murphy will likely need to shoulder a massive workload, as well.
Those roster-math problems aren’t yet on the forefront of anyone’s mind, however. The team is still processing the emotions of Friday.
“It’s unimaginable what [Kevin] and his family are going through,” Murphy said. “We were grateful to be there to show support, offer condolences ... [but] you can’t put into words the pain you feel for them.”
Said Richardson: “It was a sad day for everybody involved, but I thought it was really great that the schedule permitted us to be there to support Kevin and his family. It’s a tough time. Hockey is always great like that, but sometimes the schedule gets in the way. So that was great for us to be there. I’m sure they appreciated the support.”
Larry Korchinski played two seasons for the Saskatoon Blades in the Western Hockey League — the same Canadian junior league where Kevin developed the last few years — before playing three more seasons for the University of Saskatchewan in the 1980s. He was a lawyer for Cameco, a uranium fuel company in Saskatchewan.
Foligno can relate to Korchinski, given he lost his mother, Janis, to breast cancer in 2009, when he was a 21-year-old preparing for his third NHL season with the Senators.
“You grieve, and the only normalcy you really have is when you come in the [locker] room and you’re putting your skates on,” Foligno said. “Everything else outside the rink, when that happens, is not normal. You go home after a game and you’re used to calling your mom or dad, and you can’t anymore. So those are the hard moments.
“A lot of times, you’re the reason guys can pick themselves up off the floor when they’re going through something really difficult, because they know there are a lot of brothers in here that they can count on. So that’s what we plan on doing for ‘Korch.’ ”
