Tonight the Chicago Blackhawks look to turn one win into a winning streak as they visit Matthew Schaefer and the Islanders (1-2-0) in New York.
After settling into forward lines that seemed to work well, Teuvo Teravainen went down with an injury, forcing Jeff Blashill to play line juggler once again. There was no morning skate today, here are the lines and pairings from yesterday’s practice:
Moore – Nazar – Kane
Bertuzzi – Frondell – Kantserov
Smith – Greene – Greenway
Donato – Tonintao – Lardis
Byram – Levshunov
Vlasic – Cole
Kaiser – Rinzel
Spencer Knight is expected to start.
Oliver Moore is back on the top line with Nazar and Kane, he played there in game one vs Vegas. Roman Kantserov gets bumped back down to the second line with Anton Frondell and Tyler Bertuzzi in place of Teravainen.
Kantserov has struggled to get much going offensively in the first four games of the season, although you can see the chemistry developing between him and Kane. Hopefully slotting him in with a red hot Frondell can help spark some offense.
Kantserov is someone who has high expectations and is expected to be a top six contributor upon arrival, getting him going would be a big boost for the Hawks.
Frondell has four points in his last two games (G, 3A) and leads the rookie scoring race as of the morning of October 8. Second place is a seven way tie with two points, including the New York Islanders own Victor Eklund. Eklund is also a good friend of Frondell.
The fourth line seems to now be the third line, just going off of ice time allocation lately. The usual third line of Ryan Donato, Oliver Moore, and Nick Lardis have been the Hawks most disappointing trio over the first four games. A big part of that is Nick Lardis can’t seem to generate any offense, and to make matters worse, he isn’t making wise choices defensively either.
Defensive pairings stay the same, it worked well last game so why change it?
A couples keys to success for the Hawks tonight is building on their shot frequency, as well as continuing to tighten their structure. The Hawks broke the 20-shot threshold for only the second time this season last game against St. Louis. It’s hard to win hockey games when being outshot almost 2:1 every night. They also need to play within their structure. too many times guys get out of place trying to do too much.
Jeff Blashill preaches “the process”. focusing on the process over the results, and the results will follow.
“There were large parts of the game tonight that our process was the best it’s been…especially in the sense of being on top of people. Our D gaps, ending plays early. Our forward reloads. That’s much more how we want to play.” Jeff Blashill after beating the Blues. (via Ben Pope on X)
Islanders projected lines:
Heineman – Horvat – Palmieri
Schenn – Ritchie – Eklund
Holmstrom – Pageau – Duclair
Palat – Cizikas – Maccelli
Stanley – Schaefer
Pelech – Pulock
DeAngelo – Mayfield
Sorokin
The Islanders had a nice run last season as a result of Matthew Schafer’s incredible rookie season. However, this team is not by any means “great”. you could argue that on paper they are the Hawks’ worst opponent so far this season.
No reason why the Hawks can’t head back to Chicago for their seven game home stand with two more points.
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