Last night, in the Hawks' final preseason game of 2016, we saw the downside of preseason roster-making: a relative skeleton crew was pretty roundly outplayed in St. Louis by a more NHL-representative Blues team.
Meh.
Not much to report on in the game except I feel even more confident in my earlier assessment that the only rookie forwards who have worked their way on to the NHL roster with relative certainty are Tyler Motte and Ryan Hartman.
Motte has been stapled to Marcus Kruger's left hip for the last few games, and that is probably not a coincidence. Not only was the one of Motte, Kruger and Hartman clearly the Hawks' best last night, but Motte was probably the most consistently noticeable (for positive reasons anyway), industrious Hawk forward at both ends of the ice.
Other than that, it was a rogue's gallery with players like Dennis Rasmuseen and Alexandre "Wheel Of" Fortin (a registered trademark of puckinhostile.com) looking like Rocket Richard one minute and well, Richard Panik another.
Actually, kidding aside, Panik was one of the consistently better Hawk forward last night.
While Ville Pokka was getting his tires pumped by Eddie Olczyk, he got turnstiled more than once, proving yet again he mightn't equal his hype. Gustav Forsling struggled at times, especially under a tight St. Louis forecheck.
Michal Kempny was up and down, but continues to standout in my eye with how well he skates. He's rough still, but ready enough.
Michal Rozsival also, really struggled at times. I don't know if he has any upside potential as far as getting in better game shape or if he is just completely done. Hopefully, he is providing the language/acclimation benefit to Kempny that the Hawks envisioned when they resigned him. Because other than that, ugh.
Beyond all that, I could go into a laundry list of uninspiring, but not overly egregious performances last night. Corey Crawford saved the Hawks' bacon more than a few times, keeping an uneven matchup close.
So . . . on to the roster and lineup for Wednesday.
All this is projection—I have no specific information here.
My gut sense is Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Marian Hossa are all being given the veteran benefit of the doubt, and ample rest—and all will be ready to rock Wednesday.
And the lines/depth chart could look something like this:
Panik Toews Hossa
Panarin Anisimov Kane
Motte Kruger Hartman
Desjardins Rasmussen Tootoo
Mashinter
(Hinostroza)
Keith Seabrook
Campbell Hjalmarsson (suspended, adjust as necessary for Wed.)
Kempny van Riemsdyk
Rozsival
(Forsling)
Crawford
Darling
The Hawks have been hinting pretty strongly that Forsling may have played his way onto the NHL roster, and they would then carry eight blue liners. And if so, that would obviously force a decision between carrying Vince Hinostroza or Brandon Mashinter as a 14th forward.
That might seem like a no-brainer for fans who would launch Mashinter in a heartbeat; but the demand for that move has been there for two years and Joel Quenneville hasn't budged. So don't bet on it now.
My guess is, Forsling is on an SAS 767 back to Tre Kronor in fairly short order, with a return ticket for April.
In the top 6, you could also see some re-shuffling. But it's pretty clear who your left and right wings and centers are.
So that's my best shot at where things have sorted out. There could be some differences and surprises between now and Wednesday. It's been that kind of offseason.
All for now,
JJ
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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