Chicago Blackhawks complete a major lineup change once again ahead of matchup vs LA Kings Saturday
The Chicago Blackhawks continue their road trip as they face the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday afternoon.
Luke Richardson has had trouble trying to spark offense recently. It's been generated from lines that you wouldn't expect, which is a common storyline for many teams in 2024.
Mainly, the third and fourth lines of the Blackhawks have been the main drivers of play, after the 1st two have cooled off recently.
Richardson has decided to ride the hot-hand, and promoted Ryan Donato, from 3RW, to 1RW in place of Teuvo Tervainen.
This is a massive change for the forward group, which has let the 2nd lines and fourth lines remain intact.
Turbo instead will be on the third line centered by Jason Dickinson, and LW3 is still held by Ilya Mikheyev.
Obviously, those two forward lines as we saw, haven't been producing at the clip needed to justify keeping them together.
One would argue that breaking up the combination of Foligno, Bedard and Teravainen was what let to the current cold streak of the Hawks.
But Richardson couldn't leave well enough alone, as the three together had a 57.1% expected goals percentage according to MoneyPuck.
But many coaches in the NHL for whatever reason decided to flip the switch on the blender and here we are.
Hopefully, Donato's presence on the ice can cool down the Los Angeles Kings in Crypto.com Arena, as they're one of the hottest teams in the Pacific currently.
Their points leader is Captain Anze Kopitar with 12 points(4 G, 8 A) followed by rookie Alex Laferriere with 9 points( 6 G, 3 A) in 11 games with the Kings.
The Kings under Jim Hiller are 2nd in the Pacific Division, with a 6-3-2 record, and look to clip the Hawks wings tomorrow in Los Angeles.
