If the Blackhawks are no longer committed to keeping Lukas Reichel at center, he might as well play on the wing next to Connor Bedard.
That logic seemed to dawn on Hawks coach Luke Richardson on Sunday, and he promptly moved Reichel onto the first line with Bedard and Philipp Kurashev for the first time this season.
It wasn’t enough to help the Hawks avoid a 3-2 loss to the Sabres — their fourth straight defeat, all of which have been by one goal when excluding empty-netters. But it looked like potentially a winning idea long-term.
“We just thought we’d try the young guys together and see if there was a little bit of chemistry there,” Richardson said. “Kurashev was a real driving force on that line tonight. [He has] been pretty responsible and bringing speed to our game consistently since he’s been back. It was a good sign to see that tonight. We’ll see where it goes.”
Richardson’s praise of Kurashev is entirely justified. With every successive game, it looks clearer and clearer that he has taken a major step forward in his fourth NHL season. He factored into both Hawks goals Sunday and now boasts 10 points in 10 games.
But it’s specifically Bedard and Reichel — and their play together — that matters the most long-term. And although they weren’t quite as dominant as Kurashev, they still played well — certainly well enough to justify an extended look together.
Before Sunday, Bedard and Reichel had spent less than nine minutes of five-on-five ice time together all season, having accumulated that gradually from just one or two shifts per game. Scoring chances had slightly favored the Hawks’ opponents, 6-5, during that time.
It was a different story Sunday. The two first-year forwards logged 12:04 of five-on-five ice time together, during which scoring chances favored the Hawks 11-6.
Richardson’s previous trepidations about putting them together — and especially putting Reichel into the spot previously held by responsible veteran Nick Foligno, who moved down to the third line — likely stemmed from their defensive inexperience and resulting shakiness.
It didn’t take long Sunday for them to validate those concerns, but it also didn’t take long for them to match Hawks fans’ high expectations for their offensive potential.
On their second shift of the first period, the Hawks committed several turnovers during a chaotic defensive shift in which the Sabres kept them scrambling. They eventually cleared the puck, but only Kurashev was able to change — leaving Bedard and Reichel stuck on with Taylor Raddysh — and Sabres star Rasmus Dahlin cruised down the slot to score the game’s opening goal moments later.
“We’ve just sometimes got to be careful on the way back,” Reichel said. “We all want the puck in the ‘O’-zone, we all want to make plays, but we can’t turn the puck over. We’ve got to be more sharp in the ‘D’-zone. But offensively, it was good.”
Indeed, they soon after enjoyed several attacking shifts that demonstrated how their processing speed and playmaking abilities complement each other so nicely.
Cycling around the offensive zone with clever overlaps and pinpoint passes, Reichel and Kurashev’s dual presences help create some valuable space for Bedard, preventing opposing defenses from focusing solely on him. The Hawks’ defensemen were also able to take advantage of that extra space to jump down for weak-side shots on several occasions.
That chemistry translated into a goal late in the second period when Reichel poked the puck away from Sabres forward Casey Middelstadt in the Hawks’ defensive zone, springing Bedard on a one-man rush that led to a Kurashev rebound goal.
Sabres defenseman Erik Johnson’s game-winning snipe with 9:24 left in regulation, however, ultimately denied the Hawks any reward in the standings for a relatively strong team performance in which they outshot the Sabres 26-20.