Just a week after it started, the Blackhawks preseason schedule comes to an end on Saturday night at the United Center with the St. Louis Blues in town for this final skate ahead of the regular season.
It hasn’t been a stellar preseason for Chicago, with the main highlight being Bowen Byram’s hat trick against the Wild on Monday night. A few other individuals have stood out at times — Kevin Korchinski and Nick Lardis seem to be the most frequent mentions there — but the collective performance has been underwhelming as the Hawks have largely been outshot and out-chanced during this initial trio of games. A final chance at creating a little more optimism ahead of Tuesday’s regular season opener arrives this evening at 1901 W. Madison, with the lines a little jumbled from prior outings:
Probable lines and pairs tonight, a bit screwy in rushes, but best guess:
— CHGO Blackhawks (@CHGO_Blackhawks) September 26, 2026
Bertuzzi-Frondell-Mangiapane
Donato-Moore-Greene
Teräväinen-Kantserov-Lardis
Smith-Toninato-Boucher
Vlasic-Byram
Del Mastro-Levshunov
Cole-Rinzel
Knight
Most movements are related to players’ union-imposed maximums on preseason appearances, which is why players like Korchinski and Wyatt Kaiser and Frank Nazar will not be on the ice this evening. Roman Kantserov gets a shot at center flanked by a pair of offensively competent wingers, which could make that group interesting to watch. Coach Jeff Blashill offered these thoughts behind the composition of that line as well as the one centered by Frondell:
Blashill said he wanted to see Frondell play with a North/South player similar to Ilya Mikheyev last year when the Bertuzzi-Frondell-Mikheyev line was effective, so he put Mangiapane with him
— Mario Tirabassi (@Mario_Tirabassi) September 26, 2026
Lardis gets a look on the wing with Kantserov, who is also getting a test run at center https://t.co/HA4X23wZd8
That group will be facing a St. Louis lineup that looks an awful lot like a full dress rehearsal of what will open the season for the Blues, including an old friend centering the fourth line:
#stlblues projected lineup vs. Chicago:
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) September 26, 2026
Holloway-Thomas-Snuggerud
Buchnevich-McTavish-McMichael
Neighbours-Dvorsky-Berggren
Toropchenko-Suter-Dean
Broberg-Mailloux
Lindstein-Parayko
Fowler-Carlo
Hofer
Romanov
The only asterisk there is in net, where Jordan Binnington is not in the lineup and will have a full compliment of water bottles available to chuck at anyone who points out how much he sucks, wherever he is.
Last dance before it really matters. Wouldn’t hurt to turn in the best performance of the preseason this evening to make us all feel good heading into what’s a rather daunting opening stretch of the season for Chicago.
Let’s go Hawks.
How to watch
When: 6 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: CHSN+, NHL Network
Webstream: ESPN+ (may want to double-check this as sometimes NHL Network broadcasts mean no ESPN+ options)
Radio: WGN 720