The Hawks take on the Golden Knights tonight at 7pm CST and all eyes will be on numbers #11 and #17.
Those are the newest Blackhawks Perlini (11) and Strome (17).
There will be a feeling out process and it will take them some time to get accustomed to a new system.
I know it's a different coach now with Colliton but remember Connor Murphy's comments when he first came to Chicago from the same Arizona Coyotes that it was a very different style and that it was taking him time to adjust.
The message will be clear though for the new blood up front, go out there, have fun and play your game. It's really all you can do when you have limited practice time and jump into game action with a new team.
There were no line rushes at practice today but there was a look at new PP units that included:
PP1: DeBrincat-Toews-Saad-Kane-Gustafsson PP2: Anisimov-Strome-Kane-Forsling-Seabrook
It is nice to see Brandon Saad get rewarded for his strong play (3 goals and 2 assists in his last 5 games) with some PP time. He will have to make the best out of it.
This is a powerplay that is now 31st in the league so, I mean, it can't get any worse. There's a hope from the Blackhawks when they brought in Strome and Perlini that they could help this woeful man "advantage". Here are their stats the last couple of years with limited PP time: Brendan Perlini 2017-18: 131:10 PP TOI, 5 goals, 6 assists 2018-19: 47:07 PP TOI, 2 goals, 2 assists
Dylan Strome 2017-18: 31:49 PP TOI, 1 goal, 0 assists 2018-19: 48:38 PP TOI, 3 goals, 1 assist
Another wise, but difficult decision for Colliton, was to take Duncan Keith off of the powerplay. I love Keith but at this point in his career, he needs to be off the PP and stick to playing his best hockey 5-on-5 and on the PK.
In the last two years, Keith has 11 points (2 goals, 9 assists) in a whopping 268 minutes with the man advantage. To make things worse, think about who he's been playing with – guys like Toews, Kane, Saad, DeBrincat, etc.
It appears with both Perlini and Strome sliding into the lineup tonight to make their debuts, Martinsen and Kunitz will be the odd men out. It looks like Colliton is agreeing with the majority of fans/media and has identified Chris Kunitz as a bubble player on this team.
As mentioned above, the lineup wasn't exactly posted but here's what I would do if I were Colliton. This is based on last game as well as insert the new blood:
Saad-Toews-Hayden DeBrincat-Strome-Kane Perlini-Anisimov-Kahun Fortin-Kampf-Kruger
I won't post the defence pairings because Henri Jokiharju is sick and looks like he is questionable for tonight's game.
However, a great sign is that Connor Murphy is practicing with the team again. Stan Bowman has said that they are going to see how the defence works out with Murphy coming back into the lineup, but I'm hearing he's got that trigger finger ready to go with another move here soon.
The most likely candidates would be Rutta or Manning.
Colliton really likes Forsling as you can tell by his ice time climbing up to 21-22 mins/game in the last 2 games. He's also been out late in games and has now worked himself into the PP2 unit. Could Colliton make this guy into a legitimate top 4 defender?
The Golden Knights have dealt with some injuries this year and haven't gotten off to the start they've wanted but still sit 3rd in the Pacific Division.
Erik Haula and Paul Stastny still remain out.
Let's look at the fight cards for tonight's game:
-- Chicago Blackhawks: 9-10-5 (23 points / 6th in Central) 2.71 GF/G = 27th 3.29 GA/G = 24th 12.7% PP = LAST 75.0 PK% = 28th 50.1 FO% = 16th
-- Vegas Golden Knights: 12-12-1 (25 points / 3rd in Pacific) 2.72 GF/G = 26th 2.76 GA = 7th 17.8% PP = 22nd 82.4 PK% = 6th 47.6 FO% = 27th JL's player to watch: Marc-Andre Fleury. This guy has shown no signs of slowing down and will be in the pipes to go up against and 27th ranked offence and an absolutely horrendous powerplay that the Blackhawks possess. Oh… and he's coming off back-to-back shutouts and has won his last 4 games.
See ya out there,
JL