Petr Mrázek drew a step closer to fully recovering from a left groin injury and returning as the Chicago Blackhawks starting goaltender when the team activated him from injured reserve Thursday.
The Hawks installed Mrázek as the backup to Arvid Söderblom against the Seattle Kraken and reassigned prospect Drew Commesso to the Rockford IceHogs.
Mrázek, who has a history of groin problems, missed five games.
“It’s a relief that it wasn’t anything serious,” he told reporters after the morning skate. “I felt I was just being more careful with it. In the past you stay in the net and you get it worse.”
Teammates were happy to have him back.
“Just to hear his voice, he’s chirping everybody, (it) was nice to have him back out there,” Nick Foligno said. “He’s a big part of what we’re trying to do . … To see him feeling good and back out is really important for our group. And he brings a lot of energy.”
Interim coach Anders Sorensen said Mrázek “looks good, feels good” and “had some good days here” skating.
While Mrázek worked on his recovery, Söderblom worked on his game. Here are perspectives from both goalies.
Petr Mrázek didn’t want to risk further injury.
He exited a Dec. 7 game against the Winnipeg Jets with about nine minutes left in the first period, but he knew something was wrong even earlier.
“I think it was the second shot of the game,” Mrázek said. “I thought there was a backdoor play and I just kicked it away too hard, and there was no backdoor. (Mark) Scheifele didn’t drive the net how I thought he would.
“So I stayed for another seven, eight minutes to see how it was going to feel. But there wasn’t much going on around, so I couldn’t test it.”
Mrázek, who reinjured his groin in November 2021 with the Toronto Maple Leafs and was placed on IR twice early in the 2022-23 Hawks season, has learned not to push his luck.
“When you feel something, the way I felt it a couple of years ago when I would stay in the net, then you make it worse,” he said. “You just want to get off (the ice) and make sure that it’s nothing serious.”
This time he did, but the day after the Jets game, he started feeling ill too.
“Dealing with that (groin injury) and then with the flu, everything in one, was the thing,” Mrázek said. “Just get through it and get back on track.”
Mrázek has a 7-11-1 record in 20 starts. His .906 save percentage is nearly identical to last season’s .907, but he has brought down his goals-against average to 2.83 from 3.05. His career average is 2.80.
Mrázek said he doesn’t feel overworked.
“All season I’ve been feeling good and I just keep going,” he said. “Keep doing what we’re doing.”
Arvid Söderblom benefited from a recent rematch.
Thursday’s start against the Kraken was Söderblom’s fifth in the last six games, and he has played in seven of the last nine.
He had gone 3-2-0 with an .891 save percentage entering Thursday since relieving Mrázek in the Jets game, but the three wins came in a four-start stretch.
“He’s been playing well,” Mrázek said. “The games he played, he gave us a chance to win the game. So happy for him and the team that he got (two) wins in a row and (possibly a) third one tonight.”
Söderblom’s season numbers (2.70 GAA, .909 save percentage) represent a big improvement over last season (3.92, .879).
“First of all, it’s never fun with an injured teammate, but that’s a part of (the game) and that opened up for me to play more,” Söderblom told the Tribune on Thursday. “I feel like I’ve been playing good, especially the Rangers game” on Dec. 9 in New York.
He said the Rangers were a more skilled team that played from the outside, and “I saw the pucks, held on to them, made the big saves when I had to. And we played great defensively as well.”
The Islanders chased him in the next game with five goals, and Commesso started Saturday against the New Jersey Devils. But Söderblom rebounded to win a rematch against the Isles on Sunday at the United Center.
“Not happy with the Islanders game, the road game there, but that’s going to happen and that’s nothing to worry about,” he said. “The thing is how you handle it and how you bounce back.
“I just learned from the first game that they were going to come hard to the net. They were going to funnel pucks, have good screens, so I just tried to be even better (at) finding pucks through traffic, knowing that they were going to be busy around the crease.
“It was fun to play them right away again after that first game, to get the rematch and get the win right away.”
