After seeing a chance to grab a stranglehold on the Stanley Cup Final slip through their fingertips on Saturday night in a 4-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Chicago Blackhawks could make some lineup changes going into Game 3 on Monday at the United Center.
In his press availability at the arena Sunday afternoon, head coach Joel Quenneville said that defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk and forward Bryan Bickell could both make their way into the lineup for the contest.
“(He) could play. I think he’s healthy,” Quenneville said of Bickell, who has missed the first two games of the series after playing in the first 17 games of the postseason.
Reports have circulated that Bickell has been dealing with a concussion or some other type of upper body injury, but the Blackhawks have dismissed those reports.
As for van Riemsdyk, Quenneville offered a simple “could play” when asked about the defenseman, who hasn’t played in an NHL game since November.
He suffered a broken kneecap that forced him to miss a significant amount of time, then injured his wrist during a rehab stint with the Rockford IceHogs.
With those two players potentially slotting back in, the question then becomes which players will come out of the lineup. On the defensive side, the choice is obvious as either David Rundblad or Kyle Cumiskey would come out for van Riemsdyk, but the question among the forwards doesn’t have a clear-cut solution.
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Kris Versteeg could come out of the lineup after playing in the first two games, but Quenneville could potentially sit a player like Andrew Desjardins as well.
