Blackhawks’ youth line going through learning process together
MONTREAL — With their stalls positioned next to each other in the back corner of the Montreal Canadiens’ visiting dressing room, the Blackhawks’ Oliver Moore, Nick Lardis and Ryan Greene summoned over CHSN TV analyst Darren Pang on Thursday.
What they wanted to know was whether Pang thought they were the youngest current line in the NHL. If anyone would know, Pang, also a national analyst, probably would.
Pang wasn’t positive, but he definitely thought they had to be close with Lardis and Moore both being 20 years old, and Greene, 22. Officially, they are tied for the youngest line. The San Jose Sharks’ line of Collin Graf, 23, Macklin Celebrini, 19, and Igor Chernyshov, 20, averages out the same.
“They’re as young probably as any line I’ve had in the NHL,” Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill said before Thursday’s 4-1 loss to the Canadiens. “I’ve had a line in college or junior maybe. So, yeah, they are a young line.”
Blashill chose to put the trio together when Lardis arrived to the NHL last week because he thought they could complement each other well. Greene and Moore had chemistry together with the Rockford IceHogs in the AHL earlier in the season. Greene, a center, has earned more and more of Blashill’s trust throughout the season due to his two-way play, vision and composure. Plus, all three of general manager Kyle Davidson’s draft picks possess speed.
“I feel like we’re obviously young, but we play with a lot of energy, like we’re fast players,” Greene said. “So I think it’s been great, you know. It’s an opportunity that, obviously, (we’re) all like thankful we’re getting and trying to make the best of it, make it work together.”
Together, there is a unique comfort level, too. As welcoming as veterans can be, the dynamic is usually different when younger players are playing with older ones. For Moore, Lardis and Greene, they communicate more freely with each other.
“We know each other so well,” Moore said. “It’s definitely a lot of comfortability.”
In the line’s three games together, they’ve had their ups and downs. In their first game together, they came out flying against the Detroit Red Wings and set the pace. They haven’t consistently found that level since, but they’ve had their share of shifts where they’ve been dangerous. Greene and Lardis had a two-on-one opportunity on Thursday, and Greene drew a penalty during it. Overall, though, Thursday was a tough game. With the line on the ice in five-on-five play, the Canadiens had a 12-6 advantage in shot attempts, 6-0 in shots on goal and 5-3 in scoring chances. The line had a 36.93 expected goals percentage, according to Natural Stat Trick.
“They struggled tonight, to be dead honest with you,” Blashill said. “It is a lot to ask of three guys of that age with that inexperience to step into the NHL and try to get it done. You don’t have anybody that can help carry you around a little bit. They’ve had moments of good, and tonight was not good enough. It’s a process for them. That’s part of what we’re doing here: putting these guys in spots where they’ve got to grow. We’ll see what we do — might mix the lines up a little bit come Saturday, but we’ll see how that goes.”
Like Tuesday against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Blackhawks held Thursday’s game close enough to win. They just have such a small margin for error right now with their offense being minimal without Connor Bedard.
Thursday’s game began to turn against the Blackhawks after two penalties in the final minutes of the second period. Dominic Toninato took the first one. The Canadiens scored on their power play, but it was overturned when challenged for offside. A minute after the Blackhawks killed that penalty, Frank Nazar took another one. The Canadiens began that power play strongly, but couldn’t get a goal before the period ended. But 20 seconds into the third period, they scored and went ahead. They carried the play most of the period from there and added two more goals to secure the win.
“I thought we came out, we played pretty strong, relatively even through the first two periods,” Blackhawks defenseman Matt Grzelcyk said. “We took probably too many penalties at the end of the second. They just completely outplayed us in the third. I think they had a level of desperation that we couldn’t match. That’s unacceptable on our end.”
The Blackhawks had their share of scoring chances at five-on-five. It wasn’t completely lopsided in that respect. Notably, Tyler Bertuzzi had a few chances that just missed. The Blackhawks know they need more offense if they’re going to win, though. They’ve scored a total of three goals in the three games without Bedard. The Canadiens had a 35-15 advantage in shots on goal.
“We passed up shots in scoring areas, so that would be step one,” Blashill said. “You can’t pass up a shot in a scoring area. We literally passed it out of a scoring area into a non-scoring area. That’s nonsensical. We’re going to have to simplify that piece of it and make sure we have much more of a shooting mentality and create the chaos off the shots.”
The one goal the Blackhawks did score Thursday was a much-needed one for Nazar. Grzelcyk found him at the back post, and Nazar knocked it into the net in the first period. It was his first goal in 22 games.
Nazar didn’t have much interest in discussing the goal coming in a loss, but Blashill did. Blashill thought it was coming.
“I think he’s been playing good enough to deserve that,” Blashill said. “We just talked about it today, him and I, that, ‘If you just keep it up, you’re going to get rewarded.’ It was good for him to get rewarded. It’s unfortunate it wasn’t in a win, but we’re going to need him these next few games here to get hot and really feel it offensively, and that’s a confidence thing. So certainly scoring helps that.”
Nazar finished the game with nine shot attempts.
Quick hits
• Louis Crevier, who is from Quebec, was the go-to Blackhawks player for the Montreal media before Thursday’s game. He was swarmed by a group in the Blackhawks’ dressing room after their morning skate.
• Thursday’s game included three overturned goals due to challenges. The Blackhawks correctly challenged two for offside, and the Canadiens challenged another for goaltender interference.
• Blackhawks defenseman Artyom Levshunov returned Thursday after being a healthy scratch in the last game and played a team-high 21:58.
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