THREE THINGS: The Youth, Hello Again and One Community

The fans were back and the goals followed on Sunday night as Chicago struck thrice in the opening period at the United Center.
The Blackhawks took a 4-2 final over the Dallas Stars in front of a limited capacity crowd for the first time this season, seeing tallies from MacKenzie Entwistle, Brandon Hagel and a pair from Alex DeBrincat in the win. Kevin Lankinen made 37 saves in his final start of the season as well, his 17th victory in his rookie campaign.
"It was a fun night. The energy and enthusiasm from the crowd right from the start really gave our guys a boost. Feel like it was a pretty entertaining game."

"It's a lot of fun when they're in the building," said Alex DeBrincat, who reached 31 goals on the year with a two-goal performance. "You can see that energy that we have. I think we were all excited to play today. It's good to have them back."

Here are three takeaways from the win:

THE YOUTH

In a year set out to develop the young players for years to come, the Blackhawks' youth movement was on full display in the penultimate game. Ten rookies took the ice on Sunday night for Chicago -- a single-game high for a tilt this season and the first time in over five years that it's happened in an NHL game. All told, only one player on the ice for the Blackhawks was born prior to 1993: Patrick Kane.
MacKenzie Entwistle's first NHL goal and Brandon Hagel's ninth of the season pushed Chicago's NHL-best rookie goal total to 41 on the year, seeing 94 points total from first-year players as well.
"It's a dream come true. It felt awesome," Entwistle said of his first NHL tally. "You dream about it as a kid. I woke up this morning and called my mom for Mother's Day and the one thing she said was 'Try to get me a goal.' Mom, if you're watching, I got you one."
"Going into the year, that was one of the things that we knew we wanted to do was give opportunity to a lot of young players," Colliton said of the youthful night. "I'm not sure we expected to play so many so early. I think a lot of the guys that ended up playing 40-50 games, we probably expected them to be getting their taste late in the year. But instead, they broke in in the first few weeks and then played all year, so now we've been breaking in sort of a new crew at the end.
"I don't know how many teams end up playing 10 rookies in a game. It's not the last one, either. We're going to do it again tomorrow."
The only other time in franchise history the Blackhawks dressed double-digit rookies in a game was during the 1926-27 season. It happened 19 times that year with future Hall of Famers Dick Irvin, George Hay, Mickey McKay and Hugh Lehman among the rookies.

HELLO, AGAIN

The points on the board held little meaning for either team on the ice on Sunday night as both are out of the playoff hunt, but the game was the biggest yet for the home side, who played in front of a hometown crowd for the first time all year at the United Center.

A limited-capacity crowd witnessed a live rendition of the national anthem, saw Kevin Lankinen make a flurry of 37 saves on the night and cheered as Chelsea Dagger blared after goals from Entwistle, Hagel and DeBrincat.
"It felt amazing," Lankinen said of the fans in attendance. "My first real experience with all the Blackhawks fans. Obviously can't wait to see what it looks like when it's a full building, but at least it was something and I really enjoyed it."
"With the amount of fans we had today, even during the national anthem you still get chills," Entwistle said. "The fans here are amazing and it's easy to play out there with all those screaming Blackhawks fans."

Lankinen has said all season how much he wished he could share the moments from his rookie campaign with a packed building and the netminder took a few extra seconds during lap around the ice after being named the game's first star .
"I wanted to soak it all in," he said. "Those are the moments you dream of growing up, playing hockey as a kid. Especially here in the United Center, you know how loud the fans can be. It's probably the best place to play a great game here. I really took my time and enjoyed it. It's going to be a good memory for me going forward."

ONE COMMUNITY

As the Blackhawks welcomed fans back inside the United Center for the first time this season, they recognized the unique and unprecedented challenges the COVID-19 pandemic placed on the city and and celebrate Chicago's resiliency on One Community Night.
Throughout Sunday's game, essential workers were honored for their tireless work and the team wore special city-inspired warmup jerseys that are available for auction at
Blackhawks.com/CommunityJersey
benefitting the Chicago Blackhawks Foundation.

"The healthcare workers and front-line workers throughout this past year, it's been amazing the amount of work they've continued to put in," Connor Murphy said in a message played in arena. "I know we've spoken volumes about the sacrifice and attention they've given to our community over the short period when the pandemic seemed to hit hard initially, but on the scale of the whole year, for that impact to continue to carry on, it's amazing. There's a lot of miracle workers out there in this community that we truly appreciate."
"I'd like to thank all the healthcare workers on the front line," Patrick Kane said in a message of his own. "We wouldn't have been able to play without you them and all the sacrifices they made to help insure that we're healthy and we're playing the game that we love."
As part of the night, the team, in partnership with NBC Sports Chicago, Powering Chicago and CDW spotlighted Three Stars of the community during each period: