Hawks coach King hopes to find spark by shuffling lines, 'D' pairings
Coach Derek King went back to the drawing board Tuesday and mixed things up, hoping to spark the Blackhawks with different line combinations and defense pairings for their game against Colorado.
"You've got to try stuff, right?" King said.
That stuff included splitting up Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat, as well as moving Jake McCabe to the top "D" pairing with Seth Jones. Kane started with Henrik Borgstrom and Brandon Hagel, while DeBrincat began with Jonathan Toews and Dominik Kubalilk.
The Hawks came into Tuesday losers of four straight and having scored just 2 goals against Nashville on Saturday and Calgary on Sunday.
DeBrincat, who scored twice in less than a minute in the third period of the Hawks' 4-3 overtime loss to the Avs, has 20 goals and is on pace for 50. The rest of his teammates lag far behind, however. Hagel is next with 8 and is followed by Kane (7), Kubalik (6) and Kirby Dach (5).
"He's just a natural," King said of DeBrincat. "He's like a (Bobby) Hull - a guy who just finds areas and shoots pucks and scores goals. He finds the net.
"We don't have that luxury where we have two or three guys like that. So the other guys need to do different things ... to score goals, which is driving the net, hanging around the net, (getting) greasy goals."
That's exactly what happened early in the second period as Jonathan Toews scored off a pass from MacKenzie Entwistle to trim the Avs' lead to 2-1. It was Toews' fourth goal of the season, all of them coming in the last eight games.
"Just trying to find consistency," Toews said. "(I'm) using energy smarter, being on the puck and letting plays develop. Definitely feeling better in that sense."
Not yet, kid:
Forward Lukas Reichel, chosen 17th overall by the Blackhawks in 2020, has 8 goals and 6 assists in 18 games for the Rockford IceHogs. The offensively challenged Hawks could use a pure goal scorer like Reichel, but interim coach Derek King said a call-up isn't imminent.
Reichel came out of concussion protocol on Dec. 14, but was placed in COVID protocol last week.
"We could use somebody like him, a fresh body," King said. "But no point in bringing him up now especially if he hasn't played or practiced in a while."
Slap shots:
Connor Murphy's 73 blocked shots were tied for eighth in the NHL through Tuesday's games. He blocked a season-high 7 shots at Nashville on Saturday. ... The Hawks blocked 21 shots against Colorado on Tuesday. Seth Jones and Jake McCabe led the way with 4 each. ... Calvin de Haan had 7 of the Hawks' 29 hits against Colorado. ... The Hawks recalled forward MacKenzie Entwistle to the active roster from the taxi squad and reassigned F Josiah Slavin to the Rockford IceHogs.