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The Chicago Blackhawks have to be happy with how the 2022-23 World Junior Championships shook out. They sent a few players to the tournament from their farm system and a lot of them had a lot of success.

None had more success than the four that played for Team Canada in this event. Colton Dach left the tournament early due to injury but he was still a big part of what they did in the preliminary tournament.

Canada won the Gold on Thursday night in overtime over Team Czechia. Canada went up 2-0 thanks to goals by Dylan Guenther and Shane Wright. Both of those guys are awesome NHL prospects with the Arizona Coyotes and Seattle Kraken.

The Czech team, who has been one of the best stories of the tournament, found a way to get it tied with two goals 44 seconds apart late in the third period. From there, Canada was on their heels for the rest of regulation.

Clearly, they had a good reset in the overtime intermission as they won it thanks to Guenther’s second of the game. The Golden Goal scored in overtime is always special and now Guenther has that for the rest of his life. It was an incredible moment.

The Chicago Blackhawks have four players going home with Gold Medals.

Dach watched the game from the press box as he is injured but Kevin Korchinski, Ethan del Mastro, and Nolan Allan all played in the Gold Medal-winning game. Each of them had moments where they contributed to the team’s success.

There were also a couple of other prospects playing for Canada that should be interesting to Blackhawks fans. Of course, the 2023 NHL Draft is an event that Chicago is heavily relying on to improve their rebuild.

Connor Bedard was the best player for any team in this tournament and it wasn’t even close. Team Czech clearly had a game plan for him and he was unable to collect a point but he did manage to have some shots and shot assists.

Bedard will go first overall to whatever team wins the lottery later this year. The Blackhawks would love for that to be them because he projects to be one of the best players in the NHL. He shoots like Auston Matthews while seeing the ice like Sidney Crosby. He could be very special.

Adam Fantilli was also on Team Canada. He is likely to go second overall in the 2023 NHL Draft to whoever gets the second lottery pick. He isn’t Bedard but he could be an All-Star in his own right. His tournament wasn’t as highlight-filled as Bedard but he has a lot of development ahead of him.

The Blackhawks are very happy with all of their prospects who played here and should be excited about the two players that they might get a chance to draft over the summer. This was a great tournament that went very well for Chicago fans.

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Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

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Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

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For a very long time, the Chicago Blackhawks were sending one of just a few players to the NHL All-Star Game. Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, and Brent Seabrook all had their fair share of appearances amongst them which was so fun to watch for a long time.

Now, times have changed. The NHL decided not to take Patrick Kane who figured to be the guy for them since one person from every team was going. Kane leads them in scoring with 27 points. It isn’t his usual total at this point in the season but it is still really good.

Instead, Seth Jones is going for Chicago as a defenseman. He will play with the Central Division All-Stars. He will be on a team with Clayton Keller, Cale Makar, Jason Robertson, Kirill Kaprizov, Juuse Saros, Vladamir Tarasenko, and Josh Morrissey.

Jones has two goals and nine assists for 11 points in 27 games played so far this year. This isn’t a great year for the Hawks so there isn’t much to pick from for them in terms of All-Stars but Jones is definitely an interesting choice.

Seth Jones is the 2022-23 All-Star for the Chicago Blackhawks this season.

He is the team’s seventh-leading scorer and hasn’t been that good defensively. Taking him over Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, or even Max Domi feels weird but it is the choice that was made for them.

You have to wonder if any of the aforementioned names weren’t named in case they are traded before the All-Star Game takes place in Sunrise Florida. That is a wrinkle that could be in play here but we won’t know until later if ever.

The NHL is not done adding players to the All-Star Game. Of course, there are injuries to think about and certain players opting out of the game. Each division will also add two more skaters and another goalie via a fan vote so there is hope for another Blackhawks player.

Choosing Jones is a wild choice for the Chicago Blackhawks but he is the guy. He will be around some of the league’s best players like Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, and Alexander Ovechkin so that will certainly be fun for him. It is an interesting choice but someone had to go.

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Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

Read More

Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

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For “Yo Soy Museo” at the National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago artist Alberto Aguilar mines the relationship between the museum and the artist, cannily playing with notions of display and presentation. Having the distinction of being the first exhibition in the museum’s history to not have to take out a single loan agreement, “Yo Soy Museo” presents and re-presents artifacts from the museum’s archival holdings, trinkets from employees’ work spaces, catalogs from previous exhibitions, and other museum ephemera all intermingling with Aguilar’s own photographs and works that similarly consider the potency of the everyday objects in the spaces we inhabit. Record covers from the museum archive, selected on the basis that they feature a human face, are hung on the wall and then partially obscured by hanging prayer flags, an installation analogue to the 27 self-portraits of Aguilar in which his face is obscured by a seemingly random object (a basketball, a cardboard Pacifico box, etc). While the many objects that populate “Yo Soy Museo” have their own respective strength, Aguilar’s move in this exhibition has less to do with finding meaning in discreet artifacts. Rather, the deeply relational system Aguilar evokes insists that exhibition is everywhere, that possibilities for the crafting of new meanings and art making can occur with a slight variation in the habits of creative approach.

“Yo Soy Museo”Through 2/12/23: Tue-Sun 10 AM-5 PM, National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th, nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org

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