Chicago Blackhawks Roundtable: Toews’ Linemates And Good D-Men

Sean Fitzgerald

Question 1: Jonathan Toews should play with Tyler Motte and Andrew Desjardins on the same line. All three of these guys are grinding forwards who can score and wear down the other team. Well, Motte and Toews can score.

Question 2: I have most impressed with Duncan Keith. Keith was rumored to start the year on IR with a knee injury. He sat out the World Cup of Hockey because of the knee.

Keith has appeared in all 26 games and has played an average of 26:03 minutes a night. That figure is his highest average minutes total since 2011-12. While Keith has zero goals, he does have 17 assists this year.

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Aaron Goldschmidt

Question 1: Ryan Hartman and Marian Hossa should flank Jonathan Toews when he returns. Hossa has been the driving force this year for the Blackhawks and Hartman is finding a nice scoring touch. The ’Hawks should play the hot hand and throw this line together in offensive zone draws. It will be nice winning a few of those with Toews returns, too.

Question 2: Because none of the top guys have stood out to me, I’m going with Michal Rozsival. With TVR out and Forsling learning the game, Rozy has played a lot more than I thought he would and he’s been serviceable. I also like that he plays with an edge below the circles. We’ll probably see him more come playoff time, but hopefully it won’t be a Kimmo Timonen liability situation.