Blackhawks to Start Lankinen, Shuffle Lines, vs. Toronto

Originally posted on On Tap Sports Net | By Jonnie Nonnie | Last updated 12/10/21

Fresh off a milestone-infused win, the Chicago Blackhawks plan to mix things up for their next game. On Saturday night in Toronto, Kevin Lankinen will be the starting goalie. Interim head coach Derek King intends to shake up the Hawks’ lines as well.

Despite Marc-Andre Fleury coming off his 500th career win Thursday in Montreal, King will turn to Lankinen in net. The second-year goaltender has a 2-4-2 record, .890 save percentage, and 3.14 goals-against average in nine games (eight starts) this season.

Additionally, King plans to tweak his forward groupings against the Maple Leafs. This comes after the Blackhawks employed a perplexing lineup against the Canadiens on Thursday night.

Blackhawks lines in warmups vs. Canadiens:

DeBrincat-Borgstrom-Kane
Hagel-Toews-RJohnson
Kubalik-Dach-Kurashev
Carpenter-Slavin-Hardman

de Haan-SJones
McCabe-Murphy
Stillman-Gustafsson

Fleury
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) December 9, 2021

It’s part of an experimentation process, as King elaborated on following Thursday’s win.

“We’ll keep playing with it until we get that little chemistry where it looks like it works,” he said regarding the Hawks’ plans for the next game.

Notably, Dylan Strome was a healthy scratch despite recording a point in the Blackhawks’ previous two games. Instead, recent AHL call-ups Philipp Kurashev and Mike Hardman drew into the lineup vs. the Habs. Neither cracked the score sheet, but Kurashev recorded two shots and Hardman had six hits. However, Hardman only played 8:40, the lowest mark among Hawks skaters.

Whether King will reinsert Strome or elect to alternate within the same personnel that played vs. Montreal remains to be seen. Regardless, the Blackhawks will have a different look when they take the ice Saturday night in Toronto.

This article first appeared on On Tap Sports Net and was syndicated with permission.

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