Monday saw one final practice for the Hawks before they hopped on planes and headed west for Tuesday’s season opener against the Vegas Golden Knights.
What does everybody want?
Lines!
Blackhawks' lines in practice are somewhat new:
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) September 28, 2026
Moore-Kantserov-Kane
Donato-Nazar-Lardis
Bertuzzi-Frondell-Mangiapane
Smith-Greene-Greenway
(Teravainen)
Vlasic-Byram
Kaiser-Levshunov
Cole-Rinzel
(Korchinski-Del Mastro)
Knight
Soderblom
A definite shift from the preseason lineups, with a trio of youngsters occupying the pivot on the top three lines and the wing combinations adjusted as well. The blue line wasn’t adjusted much, though, which means that Kevin Korchinski and Ethan Del Mastro are likely going to be healthy scratches in the first game of the season. That is a little bit surprising because Korchinski seemed to be one of the Hawks better D-men during the preseason, although there will likely be several lineup shuffles over the first month of the season because of how little time coaches had to tinker with lineups in the preseason.
Coach Jeff Blashill said the changes among forward combinations stemmed from overall underwhelming results during the preseason.
Blashill on the lineup changes: "I just felt ultimately we hadn't gotten enough out of the three lines with the combinations we had used. Got to see Roman at center; feel confident that he can play center in NHL. Two, I think Frankie can carry his own line." https://t.co/VxRbJWNyYV
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) September 28, 2026
The power-play units were largely unchanged from what was on display in the preseason:
#Blackhawks power-play units:
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) September 28, 2026
PP1:
Bertuzzi
Kane-Kantserov-Frondell
Byram
PP2:
Donato
Moore-Nazar-Lardis
Rinzel
The initial group above has the 23 players in it which comprise Chicago’s opening night roster, as the final two players removed from that group were placed on waivers on Sunday and cleared on Monday, allowing them to be sent to the AHL.
Landon Slaggert and Dominic Toninato have been assigned to Rockford after clearing waivers, according to the AHL transactions.
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) September 28, 2026
First regular-season game in five months is now about 29 hours away. Ready or not, here comes hockey!