The St. Louis Blues reassigned forward Jeremy Welsh to their American Hockey League affiliate the Chicago Wolves Saturday. Welsh played in two games, a 3-2 win against the Winnipeg Jets Monday and a 3-2 shootout win against the Buffalo Sabres Thursday, for his first NHL stint of 2015-16.
“I think I made a good impression on the [Blues’] coach staff, so I just need to keep playing hard [with the Wolves],” Welsh said Sunday. “It was pretty flattering to put on a Blues jersey. They’re one of the best teams in the NHL.”
The transaction was made late Saturday morning in hopes that Welsh would be back in Chicago to take on the Grand Rapids Griffins later that night. Little did Welsh and the organization know, he would not be at Allstate Arena in time for the 7 p.m. puck drop.
Chicago was slammed over the weekend with the city’s heaviest November snowfall in 120 years. It was so bad that Welsh’s flight to O’Hare was rerouted to Quad City. After a few hours’ delay, Welsh finally landed at O’Hare at 4 p.m. but was unable to get off the plane since there were no open gates. Welsh sat on the runway for two more hours, listening to music on Spotify and texting a friend from the Iowa Wild while trying to relax, before eventually being let off the plane. By that time, he was unable to get to the arena on time for the start of the game.
“I played some games in some weird situations with call-ups and send-downs, so it adds a bit of excitement,” said Welsh. “I was just trying to stay relaxed and not freak out at the stewardess. That part sucked, but it’s exciting to do something different, I guess.”
Welsh has five goals and three assists in 12 games for the Wolves this season and is currently on a hot-streak, scoring four goals in his last six games. He attributes that success to his linemates Zach O’Brien and Ty Rattie.
“We have a lot of good players here, so when you play with good guys, pucks just show up on your stick. When you play with good players, it makes the game really easy.”
Colin Fitts is a credentialed Chicago Wolves writer for The Hockey Writers. You can follow Colin on Twitter, @FittsTHW, and e-mail him at 22fitts@gmail.com.