To blend or not to blend: Jeff Blashill's philosophy on line blending.

In recent seasons, a point of contention among many Blackhawks fans, myself included, has been the constant line juggling. If we stretch our memories back to the Luke Richardson days, one might recall that he was particularly guilty of this. It felt like almost every game, he would get out the blender and completely alter his line combinations, sometimes in a bizarre fashion. His lines sometimes resembled the hockey equivalent of Frankenstein's monster, with Jason Dickonson centering Connor Bedard as a right winger on the top line, for example.

And while Richardson and his in-season replacement, Anders Sorenson, got skewered a lot of nights for too quickly abandoning their line combinations, Blashill is getting a reputation amongst Blackhawks fans for a different transgression. He seems completely, sychophantically, religiously committed to his lines.

Look, it's good to have confidence in your decision-making. It's good to stick to your guns if you feel that things haven't clicked yet, but will soon. But this is something different. Andre Burakovsky has barely scored a point in 2026, playing almost all of his time with Bedard. In case you didn't know, it is hard not to accidentally pick up points playing alongside Bedard. There are two notable examples in Philip Kurashev and Ryan Donato, who recently had career seasons in large part because they were stapled to Bedard.

So, it is admittedly really troubling that Burakovsky seems unable to produce next to a superstar like Bedard, and keeping him there against everyone's will is getting to be silly. But rather than beat a dead horse with the Burakovsky conversation, let's take a look at the overall philosophy of either sticking to your lines religiously or switching them up frequently.

To blend

On the one hand, line blending, particularly early in the season, can be advantageous for a coach to get good looks at which players on his/her team work well in which positions. Sometimes, someone unexpectedly finds chemistry playing in a particular role, or as a wing to a particular center, and the coach would not have known that had he not tried out different line combinations.

Take, for example, Donato last season. He did not start the season playing with Bedard, but after some blending and experimentation, Richardson and, particularly, Sorenson found that Donato was having great success in the top six, and he especially complemented Bedard's high-skill style with a grittier north-south style. Donato was rewarded for his hard work and 30-goal season with a nice $16 million contract in the offseason. None of that would have happened had the coaches insisted that Donato is a bottom-six forward who ought to stick in the bottom-six.

While there are advantages to line-blending, doing it too often can also have clear detriments. NHL players, as skilled and talented as they are, are certainly also creatures of habit. You can go on YouTube and find plenty of "hockey superstition videos" where players discuss how they follow a strict pregame routine and eat the exact same meal each game day for an idea.

So, constantly blending the lines can result in players feeling disoriented and lacking the necessary time to develop chemistry with a linemate. One of the reasons Richardson lost his job is that, early last season, he seemed completely unable to decide who he wanted playing with Bedard. One game, it was Tuevo, then Bertuzzi, then Donato, then Mikheyev, then Foligno, then Donato again, then Dickinson, then Taylor Hall. All of that resulted in Bedard getting off to a slower start and ultimately having a year of lower production. So clearly, constant line blending has its detriments.

Not to blend

This season has been much different. Blashill blended his lines frequently through the first month of the season, but since then, he has really settled into some consistency. Bertuzzi and Nazar play together, usually with either Teravainen or Mikheyev, and Bedard, Ryan Greene, and Burakovsky have been together for a few months now.

One of the clear benefits of not blending your lines is that you get extended looks at how players perform in certain roles. Ryan Green, for example, has wildly overperformed my expectations playing in the top six, and you have to imagine that his play this year has changed the way the Blackhawks figure him into the long-term plans. Giving players consistency allows them to become more confident playing together and gives them time to really develop chemistry. Nazar and Bertuzzi have gotten better and better playing together recently, and much of that has to do with the time they've had to learn how to play together effectively.

All of that is good, but where the problem lies is with a player like Burakovsky, who has proven during his extended look on line one that he doesn't deserve to be there. At least not now. And with young guys like Frondell and Boisvert coming up, it makes sense to shake things up now so the organization can see them playing in different spots down the stretch. No offense to Burakovsky, but he simply isn't as vital long-term as is the development of Nick Lardis or Frondell.

So the fact that Blashill has seemed unwilling to deviate from his decision to keep Burakovsky stapled to Bedard is becoming more and more infuriating by the day. Blashill's postgame after the loss to Nashville on Sunday was evidence of his unwavering commitment to keeping Burakovsky on the top six. When asked about Burakovsky's game (a game in which he had four offensive zone turnovers and a key defensive breakdown which led to Filip Forsberg's OT winner), Blashill said, "His effort has been great, and he's playing with confidence." If only those things were translating to any tangible reason to keep him on the top line, Blashill may have been justified in his sentiment. Just as too frequently blending your lines is problematic, not holding players accountable is equally so.

Thankfully, based on new information, it would seem that Burakovsky is going to be playing on the third line today, so perhaps this article's existence convinced Blashill to make a chnage! (....no? yeah I don't have clout like that). In this final stretch of the season, let's hope that Blashill deviates a bit from his philosophy of minimal line blending and gives fans and the front office a taste of the future by playing the kids up in the lineup. Now is the time to play the kids and see what we've got.