Coach Q managed to shake things up in practice without even being there Monday morning.  While Quennville was away attending Brendan Burke’s wake, the Hawks had a different look.

Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp were skating together much as they had in Kane’s rookie of the year season.  The group did play together against the Blues but it looks like this could be a setup that stays put until the Olympic break.

The second line was the one that surprised me.  Dave Bolland was centering Marian Hossa—which is more expected than anything—but Tomas Kopecky was the second winger.  Interesting, I thought, considering Kopecky was a healthy scratch not so long ago but who knows, maybe Q just wanted the two to get some time together in preparation for the Slovokian Olympic team.

The third line was John Madden, Dustin Byfuglien and Troy Brouwer.  That’s a matchup that could do some serious physical damage against a smaller skill line.

The fourth line consisted of Colin Fraser, Kris Versteeg and Andrew Ladd.  I had thought that, while Versteeg’s production might be down a bit in the past two weeks, he’s still a guy I’d like to see getting 12 to 15 minutes of ice time.  In fact, it’s this line that makes it seem like these lines might just be for today and when Q comes back tomorrow, things will look a little more normal.

It might be too early to call what the lines will look like before Tuesday night thought.  I didn’t see Ben Eager at the practice this morning so his return could change things.  Niklas Hjalmarsson also took the day off but I think you can expect him back for Tuesday night.