Blackhawks’ Jarred Tinordi incorporates more balance-related training

Jarred Tinordi is another Blackhawks player who adopted an interesting new workout routine this summer.

While Taylor Hall ran stairs to improve his explosiveness and Nikita Zaitsev worked with a trainer to change his relationship between motion and power, Tinordi emphasized balance-related training.

He finally got to test out the effects at the United Center on Thursday, making his preseason debut in the Hawks’ final preseason home game, a 3-2 shootout loss to the Wild.

“As you get older, it gets harder to go in the gym and lift heavy every day. Your body starts feeling it a little bit,” Tinordi said. “This was a different approach to training that was less taxing on the joints and better for mobility.”

The rugged 31-year-old defenseman did a lot of exercises on top of BOSU balls — which are essentially rubber exercise balls cut in half — and foam rollers. By doing so, he intentionally destabilized himself (often on one foot) in order to focus more on maintaining his balance while working out.

“You start real easy, doing squats in that position,” he added. “Then you start incorporating some twists...and stuff like that. It trains those little muscles you don’t necessarily hit all the time.”

He still did some traditional weightlifting, too. At 6-6 and 230 pounds, that’s a necessity to stay strong. Nonetheless, he hopes this work will prevent some of the injury issues he has endured the past couple seasons. He made only 44 appearances last season.

“We’ll see how it goes as we get deeper into the season,” he said. “I hope it pays off.”

Tinordi logged 14:24 of ice time Thursday before the Wild rallied late to win. Connor Bedard received his first NHL shootout attempt but was denied by Marc-Andre Fleury after trying to get too fancy with his moves.

Richardson-Foligno history

Few people in the hockey world have overlapped more with the Foligno family than Hawks coach Luke Richardson.

First, Richardson — in his fourth NHL season — briefly played with Mike Foligno on the 1990-91 Maple Leafs. Nearly two decades later, he was a 38-year-old defenseman in his 20th NHL season on the 2007-08 Senators when 19-year-old rookie Nick Foligno trotted into the locker room.

“He looked at me and said, ‘I’ve got to ‘effing’ retire,’” Foligno quipped.

The two became friends that season as the Senators earned 94 points but lost in the first round of the playoffs. Foligno said Richardson was already acting like a coach. Based on Richardson’s stories, he indeed already was.

“I made Nick ride the bike beside me,” Richardson recalled. “One day, he was just kind of sauntering on the bike. He got off and thought he was leaving. I said, ‘Where are you going?’ I’m doing sprints because I’m the seventh defenseman trying to stay in the league. And I go, ‘Get back on the bike.’ He’s like, ‘Oh,’ [while he’s] running back to the bike.”

Now, their dynamic is somewhat similar and somewhat different as Richardson, 54, coaches Foligno, 35, on the Hawks. Meanwhile, Richardson hasn’t yet crossed paths with Nick’s brother Marcus Foligno, who scored Thursday for the Wild against the Hawks, but there’s still time for that to happen.

“It’s great to have [Nick] here,” Richardson said. “And he knows I’m the coach. We can have some fun, but there are going to be times when he’s not going to be happy with me and I’m not going to be happy with him in 82 games.”

Added Foligno: “To see [Luke] now getting the opportunity that he’s deserved is really cool. He’s so detailed. He cares a lot about the group. He’s a guy that I respect. I know he’s got our best interests at heart.”