Blackhawks make changes to forward lines, defensive pairings, in attempt to get out of current funk

The Chicago Blackhawks are currently in a funk, with a 3-7-0 record through 10 games. They’ve also lost their last two contests 4-0 and 4-1, only scoring one goal while giving up eight. It’s not where they wanted to be at this juncture.

In an attempt to shake things up, head coach Jeff Blashill tweaked the forward lines and defensive pairings at practice on Saturday ahead of their Sunday matinee game against the Florida Panthers. He's been under a lot of scrutiny of late, as many feel he's in over his head and/or lost the locker room. With that in mind, let’s see if we can make some sense of the changes.

Blackhawks forward lines

Kantserov - Bedard - Kane

Bertuzzi - Frondell - Greenway

Teravainen - Nazar - Donato

Smith - Greene - Mangiapane

Extra: Moore

Let’s take a closer look at these new combinations.

The top line of Roman Kantserov, Connor Bedard and Patrick Kane remains unchanged. Blashill did have Tyler Bertuzzi up with Kantserov and Bedard for a segment of the third period against the Montreal Canadiens on Friday night (Oct. 23), while Kane moved down to play alongside Anton Frondell and Teuvo Teravainen. However, when asked postgame what he saw from essentially flipping Kane and Bertuzzi, he said, “Not enough, so I flipped them back.”

The second line, which used to be Bertuzzi-Frondell-Teravainen, now has none other than depth forward Jordan Greenway on it. After practice, Blashill said, "Greenway can bring a little bit of size that I think we need tomorrow up in the lineup a little bit.”

Blashill is referring to the heavy Panthers team the Blackhawks will be matching up against on Sunday. It sounds like he’s looking to add some grit and physicality to this line.

Teravainen replaces Moore on the third line. Now, Teravainen is a smart and versatile player. He can honestly slot in anywhere in the lineup. But why is Moore the odd man out? Blashill wasn’t very forthcoming about this.

“You know we got 13 NHL forwards in my opinion, and so there's reasons behind what we do for sure. But again, that's probably between us.”

Moore only played 11:07 minutes against the Canadiens, with 2:46 of that being on the power play. That’s only 8:21 minutes of 5-on-5 time, by far the least of any other forward. He wasn’t on the ice for any of the goals against, but he didn’t register any shots on goal, and was credited with two giveaways.

Earlier in the week, Blashill described what he wants from Moore. “He's going to have to be a puck-pursuit guy. He's going to have to use that tenacity both on the forecheck, on the backcheck to create pressure and turnovers. He's got enough skill to make plays, and he's just got to learn how to balance that. I think when you're young, you want to make every play, every shift. And the reality is, you might get three chances a game to actually make a real risk-reward play. And so he's just learning the balance of that risk-reward, and you just got to kind of live it.”

Perhaps Blashill wants Moore to sit out a game or two to get a better handle from above on his risk-reward play.

Finally, Mangiapane (who was just taken off of injured reserve on Friday) replaces Greenway on the fourth line. “Mangiapane brings energy, really good energy,” said Blashill. “He's a guy who's competitive. So hopefully he can come in, give us that competitiveness. Obviously, against a team that plays really hard in Florida, competitiveness will be at a premium, for sure.”

It does make sense to get Mangiapane back in the lineup. He’s been out since getting injured during the Blackhawks first game of the season. Blashill did say there would be a competition among the depth forwards though, since a lot of players have been playing well. It will be interesting to see if the 30-year-old veteran can stick in the lineup. Especially since I wouldn’t expect Moore to sit for very long.

Blackhawks defensive pairings

Moving on to the defensive pairings, here’s what we saw in practice on Saturday.

 Alex Vlasic - Ian Cole

Wyatt Kaiser - Artyom Levshunov

Kevin Korchinski - Sam Rinzel

Extras: Ethan Del Mastro, Bowen Byram (upper body)

The only difference here is that Kevin Korchinski has finally been added to the lineup, replacing Ethan Del Mastro. Korchinski has only played in one contest, against the Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 3. In that contest, he was a minus-2 and only played 11:21 minutes. When asked about the pairing of him and Del Mastro after the game, Blashill complimented Del Mastro but failed to even mention Korchinski.

The seventh overall draft pick from 2022 has had a rough road in his short NHL career. But many feel he deserves more of a chance than he’s being given. The Blackhawks signed both him and Del Mastro to two-year contract extensions in the offseason. But they’re also carrying eight defensemen on their roster, and both would have to clear waivers to be sent down to the AHL.

So, they’re doing a lot of sitting. Which isn’t very beneficial for their development. While Del Mastro played the last three contests due to an upper body injury to Bowen Byram, this is finally Korchinski’s shot. But will he get just this one game against very stiff competition? Here’s what Blashill said he’s looking for from the young blueliner.

“We want to get Korch in there, give him an opportunity as well. My thing to Korch was make sure he makes quick decisions with the puck, but he doesn't panic with the puck. When he handles the pressure he's going to face tomorrow, he's got to make sure he's not throwing it around, that he knows he has great intent of what he's doing with the puck every time he touches it.”

This will certainly be a tough assignment for Korchinski, and a lot of pressure. Let’s hope he gets more than just this game to prove himself.

However, that might not be the case. Byram, who’s been out of the lineup since Oct. 13, skated with the team in practice Saturday, albeit in a non-contact jersey.

“Yeah, it's good to see him on the ice,” said Blashill. “He took part in a decent amount of practice, so we’ll see how he does. I can’t really give any further timeline. He won't be available tomorrow (Sunday, Oct. 25).

More to follow on Moore, Korchinski, Byram and the line combinations. But these will all be storylines to watch over the next handful of games. Can these changes spark anything for the Blackhawks to help them get back into the winning column?!

The Blackhawks take on the Panthers on Sunday and the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday (Oct. 27). Then they’ll head on the road to face the Detroit Red Wings (Oct. 29) and the Boston Bruins (Oct. 31), to close out the month.  

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