3 Takeaways From The Chicago Blackhawks Victory Over The San Jose Sharks

In a battle of the two worst teams in the NHL standings, it was the Chicago Blackhawks who came out on top. The Hawks rallied back from an early two-goal deficit to defeat the San Jose Sharks 5-2 at the United Center.

The Hawks have won three of four games while the Sharks have lost four straight. That combination has San Jose at the top of the Tankathon.com/NHL standings after the Blackhawks had been in the lead for months.

The Blackhawks getting players back from IR combined with the Sharks trading away key players at the trade deadline now has the Sharks tentatively having the best odds in the NHL Draft Lottery.

So while the Hawks are the official winners of the Macklin Celebrini Bowl II, you could argue the Sharks came out the victors in the long run. For those wondering, Celebrini is the top prospect in this year's draft. He is a goal-scoring machine that if paired up with Connor Bedard could easily turn the Hawks' fortunes around quickly.

Hey, we have seen the Blackhawks win the NHL Draft Lottery with worse odds. Although it would be nice to have as many ping-pong balls as possible this time around since winning it two years in a row is a rarity.

Anyways, back to the victory and the three takeaways...

The new-look first line looked out of sorts in the first period but came through in the second.

The Hawks' new-look first line of Philipp Kurashev, Connor Bedard, and Tyler Johnson looked off in the first period. Whatever they talked about during the first intermission paid off as that line produced the team's first goal in the second period.

Head coach Luke Richardson shook up the lines after the Blackhawks got pummeled by the Los Angeles Kings 5-0 on Friday. The other reason he did it was Lukas Reichel was recalled from the Rockford IceHogs. We will get to Reichel shortly, but Richardson wanted Nick Foligno skating with Lukas, so he dropped Foligno down to the third line and promoted Johnson to the first.

As long as Kurashev and Bedard skate together, then Richardson can move whoever he wants into the other forward spot. Those two have great chemistry. Kurashev even pulled one of the most unselfish moves a teammate can pull when he passed up on scoring an empty netter. Instead, he sent a pass over to Bedard who scored his 21st goal as time nearly expired in the game.