About twenty minutes before puck-drop Sunday evening, the Blackhawks released their lineups for the night’s matchup with the Blues. I was more interested than I typically might be in regards to the defense pairings for the Hawks purely because the absence of Niklas Hjalmarsson meant they’d be shook up.
To start the game, coaches Joel Quenneville and Mike Kitchen had Trevor van Riemsdyk paired with Duncan Keith. This stuck out. Realistically, Hjalmarsson’s absence meant either the Hawks would reunite Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook as a top-pairing, or they would move either TVR or Michal Kempny up the lineup to provide more defensive balance.