The Chicago Blackhawks are shaking up their lines and pairings ahead of Saturday's home opener against the Vegas Golden Knights.
The change comes after the Blackhawks were routed by the Colorado Avalanche 4-0 on Thursday to wrap up a five-game road trip.
"Long road trip and we played some good hockey but it's still early in the season," Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson said. "We want to make sure, if someone's running a little bit better right now, then — especially with the home team change — we're going to try and take advantage of that and get the guys playing together that are running hot."
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Here's a look at the lineup they rolled out for morning skate:
- 1st line: Taylor Hall - Connor Bedard - Taylor Raddysh
- 2nd line: Tyler Johnson - Lukas Reichel - Andreas Athanasiou
- 3rd line: Nick Foligno - Jason Dickinson - Corey Perry
- 4th line: Boris Katchouk - Ryan Donato - Reese Johnson
- 1st pairing: Kevin Korchinski - Seth Jones
- 2nd pairing: Alex Vlasic - Connor Murphy
- 3rd pairing: Jarred Tinordi - Wyatt Kaiser
- Extras: MacKenzie Entwistle and Nikita Zaitsev
Bedard and Hall remain together, but Raddysh is now the right winger on that first line instead of Donato, who is now centering the fourth line.
Chicago Blackhawks
"He’s got scoring ability," Richardson said of Raddysh. "He had some good opportunities last game and obviously he hit the empty-netter the other night. It’s showing the work he’s putting in right now away from the puck that’s getting him those opportunities.
"Hopefully that works out tonight because there’s a lot of scoring ability there and a lot of playmaking ability as well."
Athanasiou has been promoted to the second line with Tyler Johnson and Reichel, who he played a lot with last season. Athanasiou was playing in more of a fourth-line role on the road trip and wasn't getting much ice time.
Cole Guttman, who has been a healthy scratch the last two games, was assigned to the Rockford IceHogs of the American Hockey League on Saturday morning. The only extra NHL forward is Entwistle.
Tinordi will draw back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch in Toronto and Colorado. Zaitsev will sit.
More notably, Korchinski and Vlasic have swapped places on the back end. Korchinski is now on the top pairing with Jones and Vlasic is paired with Murphy. The Blackhawks probably wanted to see a different look, even though Vlasic has been solid with Jones.
On the power play, not much has changed. The only little tweak is that Bedard is now starting on the right faceoff circle instead of the left.
"It gives other teams another look, right?" Richardson said. "It's not the same old thing. They know that once they get moving and they get some O-zone time on the power play that there'll be some movement, especially if there's like a forced issue where we're recovering pucks. On their one-timer sides, they're just as comfortable.
"It's nice to have two striking points for both of those guys and to work on it to make sure they're ready for it, because we never know how it's going to settle out on a line rush or recovering loose pucks — sometimes they have to go to a different area and you fill spots, so they get on the opposite sides. It's good to practice sometimes."
Arvid Söderblom is scheduled to start in goal on Saturday against Vegas. The Blackhawks continue to alternate between him and Petr Mrazek, and rightfully so. They've both been great so far this season.