On Saturday, the Chicago Blackhawks will look to secure their first win of the season after a loss to the Utah Hockey Club in their season opener. Continuing their stint on the road, the team will collide with the Winnipeg Jets, who are coming off a dominant 6-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in their season opener on Wednesday.
Ahead of the game, the Blackhawks have two players listed on the injury report, but both absences were expected. Rookie defenseman Artyom Levshunov is sidelined with a foot injury and will be out for another week, while netminder Laurent Brossoit is dealing with a knee injury.
With puck drop scheduled for 5 p.m. PT (8 p.m. ET), let's take a look at the Blackhawk's projected lines based on the latest reports regarding coach Luke Richardson's practice lines.
Forwards
L1: Nick Foligno - Connor Bedard - Teuvo Teravainen
L2: Taylor Hall - Philipp Kurashev - Tyler Bertuzzi
L3: Ilya Mikheyev - Jason Dickinson - Joey Anderson
L4: Pat Maroon - Ryan Donato - Andreas Athanasiou
Defense
L1: Alec Martinez - Seth Jones
L2: Alex Vlasic - TJ Brodie
L3: Nolan Allan - Connor Murphy
Goalies
Arvid Soderblom
Petr Mrazek
1st Powerplay Unit
Tyler Bertuzzi - Nick Foligno - Teuvo Teravainen
Connor Bedard - Seth Jones
2nd Powerplay Unit
Pat Maroon - Philipp Kurashev - Taylor Hall
Alec Martinez - Alex Vlasic
1st Penalty Kill Unit
Jason Dickinson - Nick Foligno
Alex Vlasic - Seth Jones
2nd Penalty Kill Unit
Teuvo Teravainen - Ilya Mikheyev
Alec Martinez - Connor Murphy
Chicago Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson explains reasoning behind the lines for Friday's game
Heading into Friday's game, coach Luke Richardson has made some changes to the Chicago Blackhawks lines, most notably adding Nick Foligno into the left wing spot on the first line and Andreas Athanasiou into the right wing spot on the fourth line.
In addition, after Petr Mrazek started the season, Arvid Soderblom will be serving as the team's starting goalie for Friday's game.
While speaking with media members, coach Luke Richardson spoke about his decision to move Ilya Mikheyev to the third line given the chemistry he, Jason Dickinson and Joey Anderson have built.
"We tried to spread out on the road, ... putting a guy like Mikheyev - good skater, good two-way forward - with Connor. The first half of the game just wasn't going, so we made changes. He seemed to look really good with Dickinson and Anderson."
"I'd like to get other guys in and AA (Andreas Athanasiou) has had a pretty good camp and l'd like to get him in. The next two teams are going to be pretty fast, so to get his speed injected in there will help. That's the name of the game right now: we've got to play clean hockey or sometimes changes will have to be made."
With a change in lines, it will be interesting to see if the Chicago Blackhawks can pick up their first win of the season.