Chicago Blackhawks stick fourth-line player with Connor Bedard in another set of new line combinations
Luke Richardson has been getting a lot of criticism, and today in practice, he ran new lines, and they're worse than the last batch.
The lines go as follows, according to Ben Pope:
Bedard-Dickinson-Anderson
Teravainen-Foligno-Kurashev
Hall-Donato-Mikheyev
Bertuzzi-Reichel-Smith
This is yet another shake-up after the Vancouver Canucks game where they lost. It looks like Richardson put all the names into a hat, closed his eyes, shook it up and then pulled the names out.
Connor Bedard moving to the wing could be a good thing, as he's struggling at the center position. But pairing him with Jason Dickinson and Joey Anderson is just ridiculous. Anderson hasn't proved anything at all on why he should be playing top line minutes with Bedard. This could be good for Dickinson, too, as maybe this can help him get back into the Dickinson we saw last year. However, Luke should've kept Bedard, Donato, and Kurashev together on the same line.
Bedard has been in a slump, and most are calling it a «sophomore slump.» He's in a goal drought and is only on pace for about 60 points this season, which would be eight points last year. Connor had a bad play against Vancouver when he whiffed on a dump in and it led to the game-winning goal for the Canucks. But, half of the slump is due to Richardson. He's played with every forward on the team so far in the first 18 games of the season. He isn't establishing any chemistry with anyone on this team. And now it's starting to stunt his growth, and being on a line across from Joey Anderson is not going to fix that.
The last line of Bertuzzi, Reichel, and Smith could be a good line. Reichel and Smith found some life and had some chemistry on the fourth line a couple weeks ago. The addition of Bertuzzi will add some grit to the line, as he's a big body and isn't afraid to lay a big hit and get in front of the net. The middle lines are okay, we'll see how that goes.
Richardson has to go, and this right here should be the nod for Davidson to cut the chain. However, it won't happen, because the leadership on-ice and off-ice is incompetent right now, and it's a shame.
