Chicago Blackhawks: Third and Fourth Lines Continue To Make The Difference

The Chicago Blackhawks picked up three points over the weekend against the Nashville Predators, moving to 5-2-1 in the month of January.  The Hawks continue to slowly dig themselves out of an early season hole.  More importantly, they showed that they are more than capable of winning even without big goal production from their big guns.

Over the last three games, the only offense out of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa has been a pair of assists by Kane and a late Sunday goal by the captain.  Toews goal came after the outcome was decided in Chicago's 6-3 win over the Predators.

Sunday's win, and the Hawks' success lately in particular, has been the result of the play of the bottom two lines.  Those lines have six goals in the last three games.  Let's look at those two lines.

Third Line: Dave Bolland, Fernando Pisani, Bryan Bickell

Bolland has been the spark plug of this line, tallying four goals and a pair of assists in the last four games.  The last of those goals may be on top of the Blackhawks highlight reel so far this season as he showcased several moves on the Predators after taking an entry pass from Tomas Kopecky.

With Bolland and Pisani looking as healthy as they've been for awhile and Bickell continuing to look good, this line has helped pick up the slack left by a temporary scoring drought on the top lines.

Fourth Line: Jake Dowell, Viktor Stalberg, Jack Skille

Stalberg and Skille are two guys who seem to be able to get the puck as close to the goal without actually putting it in.  Skille had a goal against the Avalanche in the Hawks 4-0 win.  Stalberg, with assists from both of his linemates, scored in the second period of Saturday night's game in Nashville to give his team a 2-0 advantage.

The Blackhawks could only salvage a shootout loss in that game, but this line has made a lot of progress in the last few games.  This line is a threat to score since John Scott was taken off the line.  Dowell, Stalberg and Skille have infused the team with speed and energy for their eight to ten minutes of ice time a night.

The top two lines will definitely get back to the business of scoring.  The wins over the Senators and Islanders were largely thanks to big games from the top six forwards.  It is nice to see that the bottom two lines are able to pick up the offensive production and take some of the scoring load.