Mikko Rantanen coming back tonight “still the plan”, and Landeskog in regular jersey now

There was no morning skate today, hence no media access to any players or coaches.

But I’m told by a team official that Mikko Rantanen’s return tonight is “still the plan”, although there was one caveat: “We’ll see later.”

I think Rantanen will be in, folks. I wouldn’t stress about it. But I guess it isn’t 100 percent, positively official just yet.

I came to the rink anyway, maybe because I have no life, and there were some guys who skated, including…Gabe Landeskog…in a regular jersey.

Look, see for yourself:

Landeskog took a lot of shots on Philipp Grubauer, the presumed starter for tonight (that’s not official, just presumed). Matt Calvert was the other guy skating with them, and Calvy was wearing a regular jersey too, so that’s great news.

More video:

As I wrote yesterday, it looks like Landeskog is going to be back sooner than the Christmas time forecast I originally made. Maybe much, much sooner. He won’t play tonight, though.

There are a couple of new injuries on the Blackhawks to report: Duncan Keith (groin) and Dylan Strome (concussion) both are out for tonight.

Talk to you guys later…