Young forwards key to Blackhawks season

CHICAGO - There are a lot of nice pieces, which starts NHL MVP Patrick Kane, the star center Jonathan Toews Jersey and Calder Trophy winner Artemi Panarin.

How do they fit together is a big question Chicago coach Joel Quenneville.


Blackhawks traded Andrew Shaw and Teuvo Teräväinen and lost Andrew Ladd in free agency during the summer, leaving three large holes. Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann also leave free will, and Marian Hossa, Chicago's most consistent long forward, is coming off a down year.

The result is an unstable situation in the Blackhawks' four lines that Quenneville might be for some time to find out.

2016-17 season preview: Chicago Blackhawks

It was another full of changes perennial contender for the Chicago Blackhawks Jersey, an organization offseason for which the salary cap gymnastics have become a rite of summer. The Blackhawks continue to set the bar very high in terms of the way to stay in the mix, despite dealing with moving parts every year.

GM Stan Bowman is one of the best at his job, finding ways to plug holes and keep his team in the elite. In the spring of 2015, Artemi Panarin plucked out of the KHL as a free agent, a free addition of assets, and watched as the Russian striker won the Calder Trophy last season as NHL rookie of the year. It's that kind of movement that has kept Chicago ahead of the curve.

Still, the offices of salary cap last offseason Andrew Shaw and Teuvo Teräväinen will prove that the formula of this year. Chicago begins the season with more question marks up front what we have seen, perhaps all the way Hawks coach Joel Quenneville.

I made the first-round playoff exit last spring after a monster series with the St. Louis Blues sign of a new era, more deadly to the Blackhawks?

Or was the right time to reset and stronger around the nucleus of talent led by Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Corey Crawford time - a quintet that had turned against any group in the NHL?

In another vein, I would say that the hawks are deeper on defense now than they have been in a long time.

This season will actually tell the tale. Moreover, as Bowman has shown time and again, the team that starts the season is not necessarily the same club that going into the playoffs. He is as aggressive as any GM in the NHL when it comes to make changes before the trade deadline.

Wings' youngsters shine in win over Blackhawks

Detroit - the youth movement The Red Wings were in the forefront against the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday in a 6-3 exhibition.

The problem is, it was not true Blackhawks they faced. They were much like the Rockford Ice Hogs, AHL affiliate of Chicago.

In a preseason where the hockey World Cup took stars and regulars out lists of NHL contenders perennial Stanley Cup as the Blackhawks are judicious in their use of their "big pieces", it is more hard to say how good players like Martin Frk, Anthony Mantha, Ryan Sproul and other play - even if they had the good Sunday air.

Frk, who must clear waivers to return to Grand Rapids, had a goal and an assist. Andreas Athanasiou had a goal and an assist.

Using his new body mass, seven to eight meals per day-all-been, Mantha scored one of the slot, looking not unlike Tomas Holmstrom.

Sproul, a defender with at least part of the offensive capabilities Wings looking to launch their ex quick strike attack, had two assists.

Dylan Larkin also scored for the fashion Wings Henrik Zetterberg-like, banking a shot on the back of a goalkeeper and in.

Just 59 seconds in the case of the Red Wings got a highly qualified Luke Glendening goal on a blind flow Steve Ott, who deftly Glendening exclude his left skate to his stick and fired in.

Danny DeKeyser had a goal point, assisted by Brendan Smith and Tyler Bertuzzi.

With a significant portion of the solid fan base of the team in their corner, judging by social media and fan reaction to Joe Louis Arena, it can feel like a heady time for young players.

But they are more aware of their situation by trying to break into the NHL.

Coach Jeff Blashill Wings said it is what it is.

"Obviously, I have spoken of this preseason batch queues that you face are very different that we will face in a little over a week," said Blashill, reiterating a point he had done after the morning training 11 hours earlier.

"I thought there were things we did good. There were some outbreaks we've done a very good job with it," he said.

"I thought at times we were a little erratic ... Obviously, you give up two breakaways flat on: It's not good enough."

Both Alexandre Fortin and Brandon Mashinter scored on long breakaways ice near the center against Petr Mrázek - which was almost not tested in its first game of the World Cup of Hockey, except when his teammates leave Blackhawks skate 100 feet by them -Same right to their enclosure.

Frk was pleased with his performance, but there is a big chance that the 22-year-old Czech - 23 Wednesday - is auditioning for another NHL team.

"I am happy because I can play in preseason games and I get a chance to be in that locker room and, you know, fans and enjoy playing in front of a big crowd," said Frk after.

"I am a goal and an assist, so for me it was good. But for the team, it was perfect. You want to keep winning. "

Frk said he has worked hard over the summer.

"Fortunately, I do well. I do not know. You have to ask the coaches how I do."