Blackhawks notebook: updates on Byram, Levshunov, Bedard on the power play, remix jerseys, more

The Chicago Blackhawks returned from their two-game road trip licking their wounds after a humiliating 4-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings and a heartbreaking 5-4 overtime defeat at the hands of the Boston Bruins. All in all, the Hawks have suffered losses in five of the last six contests. It’s hard to remain upbeat, but the players have to continue to put their best foot forward. After all, there were a lot of positives that came from the last game.

Here’s the latest updates as the Blackhawks look to take on the Colorado Avalanche tonight (Nov. 2).

Byram NOT yet cleared to play

Defenseman Bowen Byram has been seen practicing with the team a few times last week and he did travel in the recent Dad’s trip. These seemed like indicators he would be able to return to play very soon. It’s been reported that Byram has been cleared but is not yet comfortable to play, but head coach Jeff Blashill told the media on Monday that this is not the case.

“At the end of the day, there's a ton of things that go into being cleared to play, a lot of factors that go into it. Byram is not clear to play. It’s not a setback. Ultimately, trying to get him over the last hurdle, and he's seeing a specialist to try to work through that to get him over the last hurdle.”

The situation with Byram is certainly murky at this point. Hopefully he will be able to return to the ice soon.

Blackhawks morning skate line rushes

That said, let’s get to some lineup changes in morning skate. Here were the line rushes.

Kantserov-Bedard-Donato

Bertuzzi-Frondell-Mangiapane

Moore-Nazar-Kane

Smith-Greene-Teräväinen

Vlasic-Cole

Kaiser-Levshunov

Del Mastro-Rinzel

Knight/Soderblom

Extras: Korchinski, Greenway

This is all the same as Saturday’s contest versus the Bruins, except Jordan Greenway is the odd man out while Teuvo Teravainen draws back into the lineup. Said Blashill on the Greenway scratch,

“I said this to Jordan, sometimes when guys sit, it's like, ‘oh, I did something bad.’ It has nothing to do with that. We have 13 good NHL forwards, and different guys are going to get different opportunities at different nights. Ultimately, I think when Greenway's at his best, he's been a big part of that line being a really good line that is a momentum line that plays in the other team's end, that kind of does everything right. He's had plenty of nights that he's done that. We expect him when he goes back in to get the opportunity to do that again.”

Since Andrew Mangiapane has returned from a lower body injury he sustained during the first game of the season, he’s suited up twice and played quite well. It appears the Blackhawks want to give him some more oppportunity. This makes Greenway the odd man out.

Ethan Del Mastro will play in his second consecutive game, and has suited up for five games previously. Blashill obviously favors the more defense-first playing style of Del Mastro over Kevin Korchinski, who has only played in four contests this season.

Spencer Knight will get the nod in net versus the Avalanche. It will be his 12th of 15 games so far. Arvid Soderblom has played in the other three contests, including the previous overtime loss to the Bruins. The Blackhawks have back-to-back games later this week against Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning, so I’m sure Soderblom will be in the crease for one of those contests.

Bedard continues as the quarterback on the top power play unit

Another thing that remained the same from the Bruins contest was the power play units. Here are the units.

PP1: Bertuzzi, Kane-Kantserov-Frondell, Bedard

PP2: Greene, Nazar-Donato-Moore, Rinzel

With Byram out, the Blackhawks went to a five-forward top power play unit, which had Teuvo Teravainen playing the point. While he didn’t really negatively affect the power play, Teravainen wasn’t doing much to make it any better either. He wasn’t distributing the puck all that well, and certainly wasn’t a shot threat himself.

Against the Bruins the Blackhawks moved Bedard to this spot, as he did a handful of times at the end of last season. Anton Frondell was correspondingly promoted to the right flank. As we know, this unit immediately produced with a goal.

Another thing I noticed was that Bedard stayed on the ice when the rest of the top unit changed. I was curious if this was something discussed with the coaching staff, or just Bedard being the hyper intense player he is. Here was Blashill’s response,

"No (chuckling), I just think really good players have a tendency to stay on the end of the power plays and try to, if they didn't score, try to milk out that last little bit. And it was probably enough tweener time that, especially when you're that guy, you're usually going back for the puck too. So it's not an easy change. Sometimes it's whistle, and sometimes if there's 20 seconds or 30 seconds, outside of getting another D on the ice, I'm okay with it. But no, that wasn't necessarily planned…If you're up and down the sheet breaking out four times, then it's time to change. Sometimes you're in the zone the whole time, and you’re fresh. But might as well stay out there if you're an elite player.”

So there you have it! The top unit really was in the O-zone most of their power plays, so Bedard felt fresh and took advantage of staying on the ice. Basically, Bedard being Bedard. And it obviously doesn’t sound like Blashill has any issues with that!

Blackhawks unveil hometown remix jerseys

Along with the rest of the league, the Blackhawks announced their Hometown Remix jerseys Monday morning. We had a hint they were green when Soderblom sported goalie pads with green striping in practice a while back. And the Blackhawks have been breaking in tan leather gloves for a bit now as well. (tweet from Blackhawks).

I’d say these jerseys aren’t very inspiring, since they basically just look like St. Patrick’s Day jerseys that have been highlighted in the past. However, they should look sharp with the leather gloves.

The Blackhawk will debut the jerseys versus the Avalanche tonight (Nov. 2) as well as five other times throughout the season.

Dec. 29 vs. Vegas Golden Knights

March 8 vs. Tampa Bay Lightning

March 10 vs. Washington Capitals

March 14 vs. Anaheim Ducks

March 16 vs. San Jose Sharks

For those interested, here are all 32 Hometown Remix jerseys from across the league.

Quotable quote of the day, "Scoring is fun!"

I caught up with Artyom Levshunov after the morning skate. The Belarusian defenseman is a man of few words, and he’s also very soft-spoken. This makes it hard to really get much information out of the shy 21-year-old. But he always has a big smile on his face!

I wanted to congratulate Levshunov for celebrating his 100th NHL games milestone against the Bruins on Oct. 31, as well as for his game-winning goal against the Winnipeg Jets on Oct. 15.

Levshunov amassed 22 assists last season, but only two goals. I told him he was already halfway there, and asked if he thought he’d score more goals this season. To which he said, “Hopefully. I need to warn you, my team will help me. Help me to get more goals. Scoring is fun.”   

By the way, the girl with Arty at the Blackhawks’ Halloween party is indeed his girlfriend, and her name is Evalina.

Hopefully the Blackhawks can get over the hump and turn their recent better play into some wins. But it won’t be easy; they match up against the Avalanche on this night (Nov. 2) and then head on the road to visit the Panthers, Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes. They’re bound to win one of them, right?! Perhaps Levshunov can get that second goal, or Bedard will stay on the man advantage just that much longer to tally one of his own.

Either way, let’s remember that scoring is fun, and hockey is fun too!

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