Connor Bedard's New Linemate tonight against the Dallas Stars

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Joshua Deeds
October 26, 2024 (11:24 PM)

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Do the Chicago Blackhawks look a bit different to you tonight? Well they should, Luke Richardson shook things up tonight against the Dallas Stars.

The biggest surprise of all of this, is Lukas Reichel has been slotted in on the LW1 position, where Nick Foligno has been since the start of the NHL season.

It is a good sign that Reichel has earned the trust of his coach Luke Richardson, as tonight he'll be competing against one of the top teams in the league, with Connor Bedard.

We all know how successful Philipp Kurashev was on the same line with Connor Bedard last season, so this could be a game-changer for Reichel and the Blackhawks.

Reichel has turned heads with his play lately, scoring three points in four games, on the fourth line with Pat Maroon, and Craig Smith.

So now, he gets a look on the Blackhawk's top line, arguably where he be most beneficial in a role where his skills can be of more use, creating plays and of course, playing with Bedard.

Nick Foligno has been shifted downward into LW3, with Jason Dickinson, and Ilya Mikheyev as his linemates. This is surprising because, honestly Tyler Bertuzzi hasn't been that great with the Hawks lately.

Lukas Reichel's hard work has paid off too, as he has earned a spot on the Blackhawks 2nd power-play unit tonight as well.

It's now up to the former 1st round pick to convince Luke Richardson to keep him in these spots in the lineup.

Richardson said they're going to look to get Reichel some more run on the power play when they can. We'll see how the lines look at practice today to have a better idea of where he might slot into the rotation at even strength (Taylor Hall was absent yesterday).

His responsibilities have increased significantly.

Can he answer the call?