Blackhawks Postgame Musings: Defensive roster battles starting to sort themselves out

The Chicago Blackhawks were back on the United Center ice for the first time since last April. The Detroit Red Wings were not kind houseguests, as they swept the two-game preseason series by beating the Blackhawks 3-1.

It wasn’t an awful effort by the Blackhawks. They played well at 5-on-5, but went 0-for-6 on the power play. Every time they had a big scoring chance, Red Wings netminder Cam Talbot was there to make the big save. On the other end of the ice, Detroit was able to cash in on three Blackhawks mistakes and take a victory back home with them to the Motor City.

“We’re young, especially on D, so we’re going to have a rollercoaster,” head coach Jeff Blashill said. “There’s going to be some really good stuff, then some mistakes. As we continue, we need to start evening out that rollercoaster. We’ve ended the games better than we started, so we’ve got to do a better job of that.”

Top Six Shines Again

For the second straight game, the Blackhawks got a very good effort from the top six. There is no doubt that these will be the top two lines heading into the regular season. Hopefully, Blashill keeps them together for an extended period of time.

Blashill preached chemistry during his postgame, so there is no reason to tinker with these combinations for the first few games. We saw Frank Nazar build chemistry with Teuvo Teravainen and Tyler Bertuzzi at the end of the season, and it has carried over to this season. Connor Bedard and Ryan Donato have clicked in the past, and adding another savvy veteran with good speed and offensive instincts will only help.

The top six had another good game at 5-on-5. At nearly 18 combined minutes, they led in shot attempts (17-14), shots on goal (9-8), scoring chances (9-7), and high-danger scoring chances (3-1).

Defensive Battles Shaping Up

The roster that the Blackhawks will break camp with and take to Florida next week is not set, but it’s getting close. The top two pairings seem to be set with Alex Vlasic, Sam Rinzel, Wyatt Kaiser, and Artyom Levshunov. Connor Murphy will anchor the third pairing. That leaves the sixth and seventh spots.

Kevin Korchkinski was assigned to the Rockford IceHogs after Tuesday’s practice. That leaves Ethan Del Mastro, Nolan Allan, Louis Crevier, and Matt Grzelcyk to fight over those final two spots. Del Mastro struggled again on Tuesday. His puck management left much to be desired, and he had issues with getting into position and staying on his feet. He looked like a young defenseman trying to do too much to impress the coaching staff.

Grzelcyk was fine. His underlying numbers aren’t great, but, frankly, he was unnoticeable for much of the night. That is necessarily a bad thing when talking about a blueliner.

Nolan Allan and Louis Crevier have chances to solidify their spots over the weekend. Allan had an impactful performance against the Minnesota Wild, particularly with his physicality. Crevier is an ideal seventh defenseman because he can come in and out of the lineup as needed.

Nuggets & Tidbits

• Dach said after the game that he is playing with the most confidence he’s ever had in his young pro career. That’s showing on the ice. He had another impactful game with a goal, four shots on goal, five attempts, and five hits. He’s embracing the role of being an old-school power forward, but he also showed a lot of skill with the goal he scored.

• Jason Dickinson and the third line had an off night. He and Ilya Mikheyev are supposed to be the defensive wizards, but their trio with Oliver Moore struggled in their own zone. They gave up six scoring chances at 5-on-5, while producing only one. There was a coverage breakdown on Detroit’s second goal as Dickinson was caught drifting after losing a board battle. Hopefully, this will be cleared up before the games start counting.

• Bedard showed a bit more toughness tonight. He finished a big check on his first shift and then got right in the face of Jacob Bernard-Docker after he hit him after the whistle. I’ve also noticed that he’s looking to crank up the one-time more. Both of these are good signs heading into the regular season.

The blueliners were looking to shoot early and often tonight. Levshunov led the way with five shots on goal. Rinzel had four shots on goal with 11 attempts. Kaiser contributed four shot attempts, with one getting on net.