Blackhawks Shaking Up Lineup
As we discussed previously, the healthy returns of Duncan Keith and Michal Rozsival would lead to inevitable roster changes for the Hawks. The first of which came on Friday morning when Rozsival was activated off LTIR.
At practice on Friday, the first full team practice with both Keith and Rozsival participating, the Hawks had a few tweaks to their lines.
- Marko Dano made the jump back to the top line with Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa, a spot in which he showed flashes during the preseason.
- Andrew Shaw, who started there against the Devils on Thursday night, moved down to a retooled third line with Marcus Kruger and Teuvo Teravainen.
- The fourth line included Brandon Mashinter, Tanner Kero and Ryan Garbutt. Garbutt has been dealing with health issues and was a scratch again on Thursday night.
- Andrew Desjardins appears to be on the outside looking in after a costly mistake led to the Devils’ second goal on Thursday night. He found himself stapled to the bench after the error and now may be headed to the press box with Viktor Tikhonov when the Hawks head to St. Louis.
- On the blue line, Keith skated with Niklas Hjalmarsson and Brent Seabrook skated with Trevor van Riemsdyk. Rozsival was with Trevor Daley, with Viktor Svedberg and David Rundblad out of the mix.
It won’t hurt to have Desjardins sit out a game or two. He’s been very ordinary.
So Havlat in placed on unconditional waivers by Blues. That sure worked out well…He must have really pissed off Hitch.
Lets Go Hawks!
Havlat requested his release for personal reasons.
Desjardins needs a wake-up call, absolutely. Zero points. Kruger hasn’t been offensive pinwheel either. That being said, Mashinter playing again is absurd. It only hurts the team. It will end up being three lines v. St. Louis once the game gets into the middle stages. If Morin will never be called up, why not release him and let him go to another organization? He’s gonna get his $800k regardless, and there are no cap implications.
Disappointing to see Kero moved down to the fourth line. I think he has more offensive upside than Kruger. TT with two guys who are not finishers seems to waste his skill set. Mashinter should be back in Rockford. The third d pairing makes me nervous. I guess I can ‘t blame Q for mixing things up because things have not been working offensively lately.
More moves coming – Quenneville says Keith will play vs. St. Louis, Rozsival too.
Hawks61 — Bingo re: TT & Mashinter.
nobody told me there would be days like these…. most peculiar…
Hof- you told me I was a butterfly on acid… what does that make Q??? lol
I don’t quite get the top 4. Left shots paired together and right shots paired together.
PS. I’m not chairperson of Tikhonov fan club, but how can Mashinter play again ahead of him? At least Tikhonov can skate and keep up w/ players and has some semblance of offensive skill set (he can’t finish). Amazing.
Have to hope/pray that Mashinter is up as a showcase to be dealt. Tikhonov hasn’t been bad and Desjardins is out because of a bonehead mistake. Mashinter has no value to me in the NHL
Q likes having one guy that will drop the gloves…..if needed.(preferably not Toews). Carcillo, Bollig, Mayers. Perhaps Mashinter is up if Garbutt can’t go?….I hope
And Svedberg was just sent down too. I think one more player must be sent down to cover the cap space needed to activate Keith.
Tab, I know what you meant by the title, but I think Q leaving the lineup alone would be more newsworthy, seeing how there’s a lineup shakeup every game. It will be nice to have Keith back in the lineup – jury still out on having Rozsival back. Hopefully both his feet are pointing forward now. On the other hand, with how slow he skates getting back on defense, maybe it would be better to have both feet pointing backwards. :)
Svedberg sent down, so Rundblad becomes spare defenseman.
Great depth now in Rockford : Gusty, Sved, Cumiskey, Schilling all now have NHL experience.
This weekend the Hawks will put their best 6 defensemen on the ice for really the first time this season. Should be a very competitive game in St. Louis tomorrow. Both teams very hungry. I expect Rundblad to play Sunday against Calgary as Rozy will likely be a bit soar from the St. Louis game.
Obviously on offense, somebody other than Kane, Panerin or Anisimov must chip in.
Let’s hope our guys can kick it into a higher gear starting tomorrow.
Craig, Rozy and “soar” should never be in the same sentence :)
Don’t understand the Mashinter deal, Tikhonov looked good defensively to me. In this day and age why would Q worry about someone who can drop the gloves when it hurts the team. Sad about Gustafson I thought he was really started to pick up the system (better than Daley).
Good catch Ebony. Meant to write sore. After his first game at that pace in St. Louis Saturday night, I would anticipate he rests Sunday unless he tells Q he wants to play back-to-back,
The one thing that I like about this coaching staff / GM is that they can evaluate the players / lines / productivity very well and very quick. They also hold players accountable, which a lot of teams don’t do(Edmonton).
Desjardins makes a crucial mistake and he is on the pines. Don’t think that players like Shaw and Krueger are not taking notice, because they are and they may be next in the press box. I expect much more production from a few of the “average” players in the next couple of games.
PS#2 . I have reviewed the replay of the Devils second goal. The video plainly depicts Mashinter giving the puck away and not keeping up skating-wise w/ the Devils on the way back toward the Hawks’ zone. Desjardins is trailing the play. Kruger is behind Desjardins. I’m not advocating Desjardins isn’t scratched for a game or two, he isn’t playing like last year (the same can be said for Shaw & Kruger who make more $ than him). If Desjardins is at fault re: the goal to some degree (I don’t see it), so be it. What about Mashinter? Once again, why not dress Tikhonov instead? It never, ever fails — when Q rolls three lines instead of four, it’s not going to bode well for the Hawks.
Is it true that Rockford is going to change their name from Ice Hogs to the Cadavers for the 2016-2017 season? Their projected line-up will feature Brian Bickell, Jeremy Morin, Ryan Garbutt, A Tikhonov, Mashinter, Trevor Daley, and David Runblad; all guys no other team would trade for a bag of pucks. We sure do have a stock pile of players in the organization that other teams would have little interest in acquiring. We are stuck with a bunch of guys that were castoffs from other teams. This is scary.
It goes with the territory of winning multiple Stanley Cups.
I like these lines, good idea and the right time to try things. That’s when you find things, when you need to do something you find something you wernt looking for.
That is one ugly lineup Booman.
Win 3 cups in 6 years and let the bitch brigade begin! Pens 2.0 or 4.o, trade 50, Hossa is slow, Wah Wah Wah.
Sorry, 3 in 5.