Ring the Alarm: Panik Out for Hawks Thursday

The Chicago Blackhawks are riding the momentum of a 12-game winning streak as they head to Tampa Bay to take on the Lightning Thursday night, but their lineup is going to have a weird look as they try to extend that run.

That’s because the Blackhawks will be without forward Richard Panik, who missed the team’s morning skate in Tampa on Thursday morning. Panik reportedly overslept, and as a result head coach Joel Quenneville has scratched him from the lineup.

With Panik out, and with Ryan Garbutt heading off to join the Anaheim Ducks following a trade the two teams made on Thursday, the Blackhawks will instead dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen for the game. This means that both Rob Scuderi and Michal Rozsival will dress for the Hawks, but more importantly it means that all of the forwards will get extra ice time on the first day of a back-to-back set of games in Florida.

Patrick Kane will certainly get more ice time in the game, but another player to keep an eye on is Teuvo Teravainen, who has been relegated to the team’s bottom six forward group in recent weeks. He should see more ice time as well as Quenneville mixes and matches lines, but his effective play of late could provide a nice boost if he gets the opportunity to do so.

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