The Chicago Blackhawks had their last practice on Wednesday before playing again on Thursday.
The Chicago Blackhawks have been back at practice for the better part of a week now, minus the injured guys and Teuvo Teravainen (Olympics).
It has sort of been like a mini-training camp. With the long layoff without games, Jeff Blashill wanted to make sure that the team was ready to resume with high-end conditioning. 25 games are remaining in the season.
For the first time since winning the Bronze Medal with Team Finland, Teravainen returned. He is coming off one of the best wins of his career. With a Bronze Medal and a Stanley Cup ring, Teravainen has a lot to be proud of.
Unlike Team Canada and Team USA, which flew back into Florida, Team Finland went to New York, which was getting hit by a massive blizzard. Teravainen didn't get back to Chicago until Tuesday night as a result of being stuck on the East Coast.
As he returned to practice, he skated on a line with Nick Foligno and Landon Slaggert. That gives each of the top-three lines a playmaker who can drive play.
Greene-Bedard-Burakovsky
Moore-Nazar-Bertuzzi
Donato-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Teravainen-Foligno-Slaggert
Vlasic-Crevier
Murphy-Rinzel
Grzelcyk-Levshunov
Knight
Soderblom
The extras in practice were Kevin Korchinski, Colton Dach, and Sam Lafferty. Based on this, it seems Levshunov's program, which had him sitting out before the break, will now allow him to play in their next game.
Sam Rinzel, who was called up to play in Levhunov's spot, seems to be back in the mix as an everyday player. In his short time back in the NHL before the Olympics, Rinzel looked like a player improved by his AHL stint.
Wyatt Kaiser will make things interesting when he returns to the lineup. He skated on his own before practice began on Wednesday, and is expected to join the team partway into their four-game road trip.
Kaiser is a regular now with how well he's played this year, but there will be plenty of room for others to prove their worth with the trade deadline approaching.
Frank Nazar and Connor Bedard have been moved to different lines. Bedard is now set to take face-offs again, so Jeff Blashill can separate them to create more depth by getting them back to being a "two-headed monster".
If these two are playing well, the rest of the forwards will sort themselves out. Like on defense, the trade deadline is sure to create more opportunities down the stretch.
The Blackhawks will hit the road on Wednesday ahead of their match against the Nashville Predators on Thursday. A four-game road trip out of the break isn't necessarily ideal, but they were home-heavy in January. This is a chance to bond and be ready for big games down the stretch.
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