Blackhawks back to work implementing defensive zone tweaks

The Chicago Blackhawks were back on the ice today for the first full-time practice of the Olympic break. The only non-injured player missing at the Blackhawks Ice Center was Teuvo Teravainen, who is still in Milan playing for Finland at the Olympics.

“We’ve got a chance to reset,” head coach Jeff Blashill said. “It’s a pretty good opportunity for us because we only have one guy playing at the Olympics. So a bunch of guys got to reset and rest. We’ve got a whole bunch of guys playing really important minutes that have never been through this schedule.”

Two Recalls from Rockford

As we learned at yesterday’s optional skate, defenseman Wyatt Kaiser will not be available coming out of the break. Head coach Jeff Blashill was hopeful he would be back sometime in March, so the lower-body injury is not as bad as it first appeared in Columbus.

Moments before practice began, Kaiser was placed on injured reserve, retroactive to Feb. 4. The Blackhawks also recalled defensemen Kevin Korchinski and Sam Rinzel from the Rockford IceHogs. Korchinski made sense, as both he and Kaiser are left-handed. Rinzel, a righty, was a bit of a surprise recall.

This gives the young duo six practices with the NHL club to better prepare them for game action, if and when needed. The last time we saw Korchinski in January, he was a last-minute replacement while the team was dealing with a rampant stomach bug, and he struggled.

“He played better that second night than the first night,” Blashill said of Korchinski. “He’s got to keep putting himself in a position where if he gets an opportunity, he plays well. That’s what this league is. There are very few guys who just get handed jobs over and over. You’ve got to keep earning it. If he gets the chance to go in, he’s got to go in and play well.”

Defensive Zone Shake Up

Blashill hinted yesterday that he was going to make some small changes to the defensive zone coverage over the next six practices. While he wouldn’t go into any specific details, he said the tweaks are being made to try to create more pressure. He wants the success on the penalty kill to carry over into 5-on-5 play.

“The thing with pressure for me is if you can dictate where the puck is going, you can pressure,” he said. “If you can’t dictate where the puck is going, then you can’t pressure. On the penalty kill, we’ve done a good job of dictating pressure points. And we’ve known when to reset and protect the middle. Those are two things that are going to be important for us in the D-zone, as well.”

According to Blashill, the IceHogs implemented these small changes over the weekend so he could have some clips to show his team this week.

First Day Line Rushes

Blashill admitted that he has made zero decisions about what his lineup will look like when they take the ice next week in Nashville. With Connor Bedard taking faceoffs again, he and Frank Nazar can be on separate lines again to balance out the offense. Blashill said they’ve had the most success when Bedard has been with Andre Burakovsky, and Nazar has had Tyler Bertuzzi on his wing. So, that’s where they started today:

Greene-Bedard-Burakovsky
Moore-Nazar-Bertuzzi
Donato-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Dach-Foligno-Slaggert

Vlasic-Crevier
Grzelcyk-Murphy
Korchinski-Rinzel
Levshunov

Take these lines with a grain of salt because Teravainen will slot into one of these lines when he returns from Milan. Also, Blashill said he hasn’t ruled out using seven defensemen if he feels the situation calls for it. It will be interesting to see how he handles the back end with Artyom Levshunov. Keep in mind, the upcoming trade deadline will likely clear up one spot and maybe two if both Connor Murphy and Matt Grzelcyk are dealt.