DRAFT PROSPECTS HOCKEY

Tag: spencer knight

  • Blackhawks vs Islanders game preview

    Blackhawks vs Islanders game preview

    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.

  • Blackhawks vs Blues game preview

    Blackhawks vs Blues game preview

    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.

  • Blackhawks vs Sabres game preview

    Blackhawks vs Sabres game preview

    It’s only the third game of the season for the Blackhawks and it already feels like a must win game.

    After losing both of their first two games by wide margins, 5-2 to Vegas and 6-0 to Utah, fans are worried that this will be another bottom of the league season.

    Players, coaches, and the GM all publicly said that playoffs are the expectation this season, and being at the bottom of the league is no longer an option, leaving fans and media with high expectations.

    This is the last game before the home opener vs St. Louis on Tuesday, and if the Blackhawks hit the United Center ice 0-3, the reception might not be so warm.

    Who’s in, who’s out

    Spencer Knight gets the start tonight. Arvid Soderblom by no means played bad against Utah, although he did let in six goals, but the team as a whole played miserably and did not give him a chance whatsoever.

    Blashill has resorted to similar lines from training camp. Regardless of how tonight goes, keeping consistent lines is key until Connor Bedard returns. There is some bad news, however, Bowen Byram was not one the ice during morning. (Via Ben Pope on X)

    Via Matthew Fairburn on X, Bowen Byram won’t play tonight because he is tending to a family matter.

    Blackhawks projected lines:

    Kantserov – Nazar – Kane

    Bertuzzi – Frondell – Teravainen

    Donato – Moore – Lardis

    Smith – Greene – Greenway

    *Defenceman all rotating

    Both Ethan Del Mastro and Kevin Korchinski will make their season debuts tonight, as confirmed by Blashill. Korchinski in particular had a really impressive camp and preseason. I feel he should have been in the opening night lineup, better late than never.

    Sam Rinzel will be scratched tonight, no surprise, as he has been subpar at best to start this season and could really use a reset.

    Sabres projected lines:

    Norris – Thompson – Doan

    Benson – Ostlund – Quinn

    Krebs – Mcleod – Helenius

    Kulich – Carrick – Malenstyn

    Dahlin – Samuelsson

    Power – Zellweger

    Grzelcyk – Crevier

    Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

  • Blackhawks vs Mammoth game preview

    Blackhawks vs Mammoth game preview

    After a forgetful game one in Vegas on Tuesday, the Blackhawks are in Utah and look to get back on track. It felt like a rivalry in the making last season. Every time these two teams played it was chippy and emotional on both sides.

    It’s only the second game of the season and we have already seen three different forward lineups. Andrew Mangiapane will not play on the rest of the road trip after getting hurt in the second period vs Vegas, Teuvo Teravainen will slot in as a replacement.

    Projected Blackhawks lines:

    Bertuzzi – Frondell – Kane

    Teravainen – Kantserov – Lardis

    Donato – Nazar – Moore

    Smith – Greene – Greenway

    Vlasic – Byram

    Kaiser – Levshunov

    Cole – Rinzel

    Korchinski – Del Mastro*

    Knight

    *Korchinski and Del Mastro took reps in practice, it is unknown whether they play tonight or not.

    These lines do make more sense than what Jeff Blashill put out in Vegas. Frondell gets his chance at first line center, where he will play with a distributor in Patrick Kane, and a puck retriever in Tyler Bertuzzi.

    Teravainen goes from healthy scratch to the second line, giving the Blackhawks more playmaking options. Teravainen is playing with two shooters in Kantserov and Lardis. A defensively reliable second line with speed and two players who can score.

    The third line is all speed with Ryan Donato, Frank Nazar, and Oliver Moore. Bumping Donato out of the top six is probably the right decision as he is best used as a depth scoring option.

    The fourth line stays intact, as it was easily their best trio on Tuesday.

    Watch for Bowen Byram to have a bounce back game. Byram looked great in the preseason, but the nerves of game one got to him. “I just think we weren’t necessarily dialed in on what we had to do, and it showed in the first…30, 45 minutes of the game” (via Ben Pope on X)

    The key for Chicago is simple hockey. They tried to be way too fancy in Vegas, firing blind passes up the middle. If the Blackhawks can make the short, simple plays tonight, they will see more success.

    Utah is a team with a lot of speed who will be looking to attack off the rush, something the Blackhawks struggled to defend against Vegas on Tuesday.

    “You either have to be right down on the puck down the walls or you have to be inside the dots. If you’re in between at all, which we were a couple of times, they fly out of the zone and it’s going to be a 2-on-1 instantaneously.” Jeff Blashill on defending the rush (Via Ben Pope on X).

    Projected Mammoth lines:

    Keller – Schmaltz – Trocheck

    Lee – Cooley – Guenther

    Crouse – Hayton – McBain

    O’Brien – Stenlund – But

    Sergachev – Weeger

    Schmidt – Marino

    Simashev – Peeke

    Vejmelka

  • Key takeaways from Blackhawks loss to Vegas

    Key takeaways from Blackhawks loss to Vegas

    The Blackhawks dropped the ball last night in Vegas, losing 5-2 to the defending Western Conference champions. There are plenty of things the Blackhawks could have done better, plenty of individual performances that left me wanting more, but there were also a few bright spots.

    Let’s start with a positive, Spencer Knight. Knight’s numbers on paper don’t look amazing as he logged an .889 save percentage, allowing four goals on 36 shots. However, I would attribute that more to the team in front of him rather than his individual play.

    There were moments in this game where Vegas could have opened the flood gates, perhaps leading to a seven or eight spot against the Blackhawks, but Knight came up huge. He made two incredible odd-man rush saves when his team was on the powerplay, but kept turning the puck over upon entry.

    That leads me to the first negative, the powerplay. The Blackhawks had two powerplays this game, scoring on zero of them. In fact, the Blackhawks only had two shots on the powerplay all game, plus a one attempt off the post from Patrick Kane.

    The issue with the powerplay remains the same as last season, the zone entry. Powerplay coach Mike Vellucci is insistent on the push back entry, which has not worked consistently for the Blackhawks at any point. Adding Patrick Kane and Bowen Byram help with that, but we didn’t see it tonight. Too many times the defenseman came up the ice posing zero threat, allowing Vegas to read the drop pass and get in the way.

    Once the Blackhawks are in zone, however, they can look dangerous. The second powerplay had some consistent movement in the third period.

    The much anticipated Bowen Byram debut did not go how many pictured it would, especially after the hattrick in his unofficial debut. Byram led the team in time on ice with 25:08, was a -2, and had zero shots on goal. Notably, he also didn’t play a second on the penalty kill.

    The fourth line of Cole Smith, Ryan Greene, and Jordan Greenway was pretty much the only line for Chicago that was consistent through the entire game. Greenway scored in the second to get the Hawks on the board. The line was dangerous offensively at times, physical, and overall relatively safe. If your fourth line is your best, however, you probably aren’t winning the game.

    Forward Andrew Mangiapane also left the game early in the second period and did not return. Jeff Blashill confirmed Mangiapane will not play the rest of the road trip. expect Teuvo Teravainen to slot in.

    To end on a good note, Patrick Kane scored a beautiful goal in his first game back in a Hawks jersey. His goal moved the Hawks within one in the third, however, Vegas struck back 39 seconds later to re-take the two goal lead. That was a theme in this game, anytime the Hawks got momentum, which they did a few times, Vegas took it right back.

    Patrick Kane had a decent game, he showed he still has it and that he can be a contributor on this team.

    All in all, it’s the first game of the season, the Hawks are young, have plenty of new faces, and started on the road against a good team. Give them time to settle in, this team is better than it was last year.