Tonight is a big night for the Blackhawks for multiple reasons. Home opener against the rival St. Louis Blues, Patrick Kane’s return to the United Center, and Bowen Byram’s first regular season home game.
All of which would probably be bigger talking points if the Blackhawks weren’t heading into this one 0-3-0.
On a positive note, Bowen Byram is back in the lineup after his wife gave birth to twins. The timing unfortunately caused Byram to miss his return to Buffalo.
Not only does Byram have new dad strength. but he also has a new defensive partner, Artyom Levshunov.
The Blackhawks offence was better in Buffalo than they had been in the first two games of the season, probably due to the fact that Blashill went back to similar lines from training camp.
The defence last game is what left people concerned. Granted, they were missing Byram, but the overall play was inexcusable. So it seems Blashill has changed up the pairings:
Byram – Levshunov
Vlasic – Cole
Kaiser – RInzel
Korchinski – Del Mastro
Slotting Levshunov on the top pair makes sense for a couple reasons. It allows Byram to play his natural left side, but it also gives Levshunov the chance to play with a very skilled partner. Levshunov has been one of the few bright spots on the back end this season, albeit far from perfect.
Keeping the second pairing of Alex Vlasic and Ian Cole is a wise decision. Vlasic had by far his best game in Buffalo and he was paired with Cole. Vlasic was using his stick effectively, using his body, and jumping up into the play offensively. He had two assists.
Sam Rinzel gets back into the lineup after being scratched for poor play. Rinzel seems to have a longer runway than other defenseman. Korchinski has looked better most of the time and can’t seem to get into the lineup.
Spencer Knight gets the start tonight for the second straight game.
The forward lines stay the same:
Kantserov – Nazar – Kane
Bertuzzi – Frondell – Teravainen
Donato – Moore – Lardis
Smith – Greene – Greenway
Anton Frondell is coming off of a good game. There has been conversation around whether he is better as a center or winger. I think it’s too early to rule him out as a full-time center, he looked good there in Buffalo. However, I would like to see a larger sample of him with Connor Bedard.
Bedard joined the Blackhawks for practice for the first time yesterday. He was taking rushes, and doing one-on-one drills with light contact. There is still no update on his return date.
It’s too early in the season to call a game a must-win game, but the Blackhawks are almost there. Given how high expectations were coming in to this season and how bad they have been to start, they need to make a statement tonight. St. louis in town, Patrick Kane’s first game back, and Byram’s first regular season game should be enough to get the guys going early.
St. Louis Blues projected lines:
Holloway – Thomas – Snuggerud
Buchnevich – McTavish – McMichael
Neighbours – Dvorsky – Berggren
Dean – Suter – Dube
Broberg – Parayko
Lindstein – Carlo
Fowler – Jiricek
Hofer
The St. Louis Blues come into town 1-1-0 and they should definitely come out with some gas after losing to Colorado 6-1 on Saturday.
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