Blackhawks' Nick Lardis settling into NHL rhythm alongside Oliver Moore

Blackhawks rookies Oliver Moore and Nick Lardis are figuring out how to thrive in the NHL together.

After every practice, morning skate or game period, they return to the Hawks' locker room, sit down at their adjacent stalls and discuss whatever is on their minds. On Friday morning, that subject was Moore's pinpoint cross-ice pass to set up Lardis' power-play goal Wednesday against the Blues.

"Was that a no-look?" Lardis asked.

"Yeah," Moore replied. "You're always there."

"I guess he knows I'm there, which is nice to know," Lardis said.

For Lardis, that friendship is one of several things helping him settle into a rhythm with the Hawks after a chaotic, high-pressure first few weeks.

His first three NHL games were each against Original Six teams, and the weight of trying to replace Connor Bedard's production rested on his shoulders. The Christmas break offered a brief respite with family in the Toronto area, but then flight cancellations forced him to take a nine-hour-long overnight van trip with Jason Dickinson's family to get back to Chicago afterward.

Fortunately, January has brought with it a long-awaited sense of rhythm and normalcy.

"The first half of the games, you're still in like a surreal feeling — it still feels like a dream," Lardis said. "But now I've kind of settled in. I just want to keep getting better every single game. The confidence has always been there since game one, so I just want to keep showing that."

He entered Saturday's game against the Predators with points in consecutive games and eight shots on goal over his last four games, increasing his totals to four points and 22 shots through 13 games (spanning almost a month now).

Assistant coach Mike Vellucci would like to see Lardis speed up his shooting release slightly.

"He’s a very intelligent player," Vellucci said Friday. "He’s finding ways in areas to score here compared to the OHL and AHL, and that takes an adjustment. But what’s great about it is it hasn’t taken him that long to figure it out."

Shootout prowess

One area where Lardis' presence has notably helped the Hawks is shootouts. He has converted two of his first three NHL attempts — including the game-winner Dec. 27 in Dallas, immediately after that grueling overnight trip — and looked extremely comfortable doing so.

"I don't really feel nervous going down," he said. "It's a good opportunity for me to showcase myself."

Strangely enough, Lardis actually wasn't a shootout regular for the Brantford Bulldogs during his ridiculous 71-goal OHL season a year ago.

"I told my coach, 'I'm good to go fourth. We've got some other guys that look pretty good,'" he said. "Usually they could get it done before I could even go."

Tall fashion

It has become a running joke among some Hawks to repost Instagram photos of towering defenseman Louis Crevier's outfits arriving at the United Center or the team plane.

Objectively, Crevier does appear to have a sense of fashion. He frequently pairs long, dark jackets with gray beanies — a quintessential "hockey player" look, just stretched to fit his 6-8 frame. He insists he doesn't put thought into it, though.

"I'm too tall to be fashioned," Crevier said this week. "I'm doing American Tall and Costco XXL."

Alex Vlasic, Landon Slaggert and Colton Dach are the usual culprits on Instagram. All the publicity has led to an influx of requests to follow Crevier's account, which he keeps private.

"It's growing my followers, so I wouldn't say I like it," he said sheepishly.