Dealing with the injury to RW Marian Hossa and the suspension of C Andrew Shaw, the Chicago Blackhawks elected to hide their new-look lines on Thursday morning's skate around. According to the Chicago Tribune, the 'Hawks players enjoyed the deception:
"We were watching you guys up there," Patrick Kane said with a gring after the pre-Game 4 workout. "You seemed to be pretty baffled, trying to look at the lines. It was a little comic relief for the players to watch you guys up there trying to figure it out. It was good to get a good laugh out of it."
Kane, the Blackhawks' star winger and one of two Blackhawks members to play in all 82 games, thinks the team should not miss a beat despite changing their lines:
"The lines have changed a lot over the year, the past couple years, everyone has pretty much played with everyone in here," Kane said.
"You get used to a player's tendencies and it's not too much of a change to be honest with you. I'm sure everyone is going to play with everyone anyways with the way things have been going. It's a good thing. It's good to have chemistry with every player in here."
Chicago will get their chance to test the new lines Thursday night at 7 p.m. CDT when they take on the Coyotes.
For updates, stay tuned to SB Nation Chicago. For more in-depth coverage of this series, visit Blackhawks blog Second City Hockey and Coyotes blog Five For Howling. For more NHL Playoffs coverage, head over to SB Nation's NHL news hub.