More new faces will be in the Chicago lineup on Saturday night.
Some news and notes ahead of the game Saturday night between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Nashville Predators.
Newly acquired defensemen Nikita Zaitsev and forward Anders Bjork will be making their Blackhawks debuts.
Petr Mrazek starts. Nikita Zaitsev and Andreas Englund are in on the back end. Anders Bjork, a Packers fan from Wisconsin (insert dramatic musical sting here), is in the lineup, too. Ian Mitchell is the lone healthy scratch.
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) March 4, 2023
Just for reference, these were the lines and pairings at Friday’s practice, but it sounds like there will be some minor changes now that Bjork and Zaitsev are confirmed for the game. As noted above, Zaitsev will draw into the lineup in place of Ian Mitchell, though it’s unknown if his partner will be Andreas Englund or if the two newcomers will be split.
Behold arguably the worst roster ever assembled in the cap-era NHL. Blackhawks practice lines:
Reichel-Kurashev-Athanasiou
TJohnson-Guttman-Raddysh
Entwistle-Dickinson-RJohnson
Katchouk-Khaira-AndersonCJones-SJones
Tinordi-Murphy
Englund-Mitchell
ZaitsevMrazek
Stalock— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 3, 2023
As for forwards, coach Luke Richardson stated post-practice that he wanted to utilize Bjork’s speed alongside Jason Dickson, so that’s at least one tweak from the lines above. Bjork will also likely be used on the penalty kill.
#Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson on new #24 Anders Bjork and what he brings to the team pic.twitter.com/qA0tw3fnB7
— CHGO Blackhawks (@CHGO_Blackhawks) March 4, 2023
Of note, speed was the skill that Bjork emphasized in his own interview:
Bjork: “I’m super excited about this opportunity… Every player wants that once their career hasn’t gone the way that they’d like.”
Says he brings “speed, first and foremost,” which is fitting because he inherited Lafferty’s number. Richardson mentioned that coincidence, too.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 4, 2023
Richardson also spoke on how the focus for the rest of the season is building momentum with the current roster:
Richardson on the Blackhawks’ new players:
“I’m anxious to see [how they play]. This is where we’re going — as close as we can get to our lineup for the rest of the season — so we have to start building for these last 20-plus games here and create some momentum somehow.”
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 4, 2023
With all the new players on the Blackhawks, it’s probably going to be confusing for a little while, so here’s a handy guide to those players’ numbers:
New guy numbers:
Anderson #15
Zaitsev #22
Bjork #24
Englund #28
Wagner TBD— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 4, 2023
Also, to put into perspective how much the Blackhawks are in transition as an organization, below are the longest-tenured Blackhawks, among the players who are currently healthy:
With Jonathan Toews not playing, here are your longest tenured #Blackhawks by games played:
Connor Murphy, 354 games
Philipp Kurashev, 181
Seth Jones, 129
Mackenzie Entwistle, 106
Caleb Jones, 103
Reese Johnson, 88
Taylor Raddysh, 82
Ian Mitchell, 71— John Dietz (@JDietzSports) March 3, 2023
On Friday, Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson spoke to the media to discuss the trade-deadline moves and his thoughts on the future of the organization. Here are a few of his comments from that media session:
Davidson: “Moving players out, especially the ones we did – the people they are and the players they are – it’s not a fun thing. It’s not easy. Once you get past [it] and you look back and have the assets you do, you know it’s what needs to be done, but not easy at all.”
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 3, 2023
“… once I talked to Patrick, it was heavy. You’re sitting in the eye of the hurricane, but you know what’s going on is some serious stuff and you feel it for sure.”
–Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson on feeling the gravity of trading Patrick Kane pic.twitter.com/V3lRUEiIqZ
— Phillip Thompson (@_phil_thompson) March 3, 2023
Davidson on 2nd & 4th for Kane:
“It wasn’t the type of return that we would have gotten if there was no NMC…or if there were more teams involved
But that’s not the situation we were in. So given the circumstances, I’m actually pretty happy with how we did.”
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 3, 2023
Davidson said calls were coming for Max Domi “pretty consistently,” but they didn’t decide to move forward with trading him until a 2nd-round pick was put on the table.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 3, 2023
Davidson on the next step: “We’ve got to do our job at the draft table. We’ve invested in the draft process.”
And getting picks spread out through 2026 was part of the plan. Here’s why: pic.twitter.com/WKsdlATBIV
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 3, 2023
For a more behind-the-scenes look, check out the the Blackhawks’ Every Shift Episode 3: Coming to Terms:
Every Shift Episode 3: Coming to Terms is out now ⬇️
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) March 4, 2023
As for the Predators, their lines and pairings will somewhat be similar to their Thursday night game against the Florida Panthers. Of note, this will be the second game with Nashville for defenseman Tyson Barrie, who was acquired from the Edmonton Oilers on Feb. 28.
It’s unknown if Kevin Lankinen or Juuse Saros will be in net, but it’s likely Saros since Lankinen played two nights ago.
#Preds lines vs. FLA:
Leonard – Glass – Duchene
Sherwood – Novak – Tomasino
Trenin – Sissons – Smith
Sanford – Jankowski – EvangelistaJosi – Carrier
McDonagh – Barrie
Lauzon – FabbroLankinen
— Emma Lingan (@emma_lingan) March 2, 2023
One likely change in terms of forwards is that Rasmus Asplund — acquired from the Buffalo Sabres — will make his debut for Nashville in place of AHL’er Zach Sanford.
Zach Sanford has been reassigned to AHL.
Seems likely we see Rasmus Asplund debut for the Preds tonight.
— Alex Daugherty (@AlexDaugherty1) March 4, 2023
On the backend, the Predators will be without defenseman Alexandre Carrier, who suffered an upper-body injury in the game against the Oilers and is expected to miss some time.
Alexandre Carrier: Out 4-6 weeks https://t.co/uXNjzv53rh
— RotoWire (@RotoWireNHL) March 4, 2023
There was also a possibility that Filip Forsberg, who has been out day-to-day with an upper-body injury since Feb. 12, might be nearing a return, but Nashville general manager David Polie apparently suggested that return was unlikely for Saturday.
Poile suggested yesterday they still need some time.
— Alex Daugherty (@AlexDaugherty1) March 4, 2023