The Chicago Blackhawks had their final practice on Wednesday (Feb. 25) before embarking on a four-game road trip with NHL action starting back up again after the Olympic break. The team will play the Nashville Predators on Thursday before back-to-back contests over the weekend (Colorado Avalanche and Utah Mammoth on Saturday and Sunday, respectively), and finally wrapping up their trip against the Winnipeg Jets next Tuesday (Mar. 3). These are all division rivals, making the matchups all that more important if the Blackhawks want to make any kind of final push for a playoff spot. No matter how far-fetched that might seem, hockey players are a stubborn and confident breed. This will likely be their mindset until they’re officially out of postseason contention.
With that in mind, let’s get to some of the latest news and rumors out of the “mini-training camp” the Blackhawks had over the past week.
Kaiser & Teravainen Updates
Wyatt Kaiser was spotted skating ahead of Blackhawks’ practice on Wednesday. The defenseman was placed on injured reserve Feb. 18 (retroactive to Feb. 4) after an awkward hit to his left knee in the last game before break. The injury didn’t look good when it happened, so it’s a positive sign to see Kaiser back on the ice so soon.
#Blackhawks defenseman Wyatt Kaiser is skating before the rest of the team today pic.twitter.com/tVkYh7sGPe
— Tab Bamford (@The1Tab) February 25, 2026
Head coach Jeff Blashill said after Monday’s practice that Kaiser would not travel with the team at the beginning of their road trip, but he could potentially join them at some point after that.
Related – Blackhawks Embrace Fresh Start as Practices Resume
Meanwhile, Teuvo Teravainen was back on Wednesday after returning from Italy, fresh off winning a bronze metal with Team Finland at the Olympic Games.
Teuvo Teräväinen, Olympic bronze medalist: “It’s heavy.” pic.twitter.com/l63EBcUdoy
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) February 21, 2026
It turns out Teravainen had just returned the night before practice (Tuesday), despite having defeated Team Slovakia 6-1 the previous Friday. Their flight landed in New York and they were detained there a few days due to a snowstorm. No rest for the jet-lagged though; Teravainen will be traveling with the team to Nashville and is expected to play Thursday night against the Predators.
Blackhawks’ Projected Lines & Pairings
Speaking of which, here are the lines and pairings deployed in practice, which is the projected lineup against the Predators.
Greene-Bedard-Burakovsky
Moore-Nazar-Bertuzzi
Donato-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Teravainen-Foligno-Slaggert
Vlasic-Crevier
Murphy-Rinzel
Grzelcyk-Levshunov
Extras: Dach, Lafferty, Korchinski
A few things to note here on the forward lines before we get to the defensive pairings in the next section. The top two lines are very similar to what they were before both Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar were out with their respective injuries in December and into January. When both returned, they were deployed on the same line, mostly due to Bedard not taking any faceoffs (precautionary measure due to his shoulder injury).
But now Bedard will be taking faceoffs, allowing the top two lines to have more balanced once again. Ryan Greene, Bedard and Andre Burakovsky found a lot of success together earlier in the season. But then they were split up and Burakovsky, especially, struggled leading up to the break. The hope is this line will get back on track playing together again.
I thought Teravainen would be slotted back onto the second line upon his return from the Olympics, but he’s slotted onto the fourth line instead. This could just be to get him acclimated again, and it’s easy enough to swap him and Oliver Moore depending on who has the hot hand. But the coaching staff has deployed Moore and Nazar together before to see if they can utilize their speed together. It looks like they might be giving that another shot to see if it proves fruitful.
The third line of Ryan Donato, Jason Dickinson and Ilya Mikheyev is the Blackhawks’ shutdown trio that’s been very successful together. No surprises here.
Related – Blackhawks Should Avoid Trading Ilya Mikheyev
Finally, Colton Dach finds himself on the outside looking in. His ice time has been less lately and he’s been scratched more. However, we must also remember that this lineup could look a little different after the trade deadline, with a few of the veteran forwards no longer with the team.
Defensive Implications
In the wake of Kaiser being put on IR, Sam Rinzel and Kevin Korchinski were called up from the Rockford IceHogs on Feb. 18. The two youngsters were originally deployed together, most likely just to get acclimated during practices.
But the coaching staff presumably wanted more of a veteran/youngster balance, prompting a change of the pairings in preparation for actual games. That, and wanting to get Artyom Levshunov back into the lineup after being scratched the last three games before the break. Hence, the below defensive pairings.
Vlasic-Crevier
Murphy-Rinzel
Grzelcyk-Levshunov
Extra: Korchinski
Alex Vlasic and Louis Crevier was the only pairing left unchanged. They have become a solid shutdown duo for the team. In the above scenario, Connor Murphy is playing on his off side, but this also allows both Rinzel and Levshunov to get back into the lineup.
Related – Blackhawks’ Vlasic & Crevier Building Strong Partnership as Top Shutdown Defensive Pairing
Let’s also remember that one, or even both, of Murphy and Matt Grzelcyk will likely be traded at the deadline. At that time, either Kaiser might return from injury or Korchinski would get a shot on the left side.
There are a lot of moving parts right now on the back end.
Blackhawks’ Power Play Units
The Blackhawks haven’t been very successful on the power play of late, but Coach Blashill doesn’t feel the need to make any drastic changes to the PP units. He indicated building chemistry is important, and that the units have no problem being dangerous if they could just have better luck entering the zone. They did practice a few different entries in practices, namely a no-drop entry and a two-drop entry (versus their usual one-drop entry to Bedard). Here’s a look at the projected power play units for the Blackhawks.
#Blackhawks power-play units:
PP1:
Bertuzzi
Bedard-Nazar-Teravainen
RinzelPP2:
Foligno
Moore-Greene-Burakovsky
Grzelcyk— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) February 25, 2026
While it appears Moore will get a shot on the second line during five-on-five play, he was just filling in on the power play earlier in the week. Now that Teravainen is back, the top PP unit is the same as it was before break. Moore is then on the second unit, with Dach being the odd man out.
The Blackhawks did have Levshunov quarterbacking the first unit and Korchinski the second unit earlier in the week, but it appears Rinzel and Grzelcyk are the top options for now.
Related – 3 Blackhawks Prospects Who Could Finish the Season in Chicago
The Blackhawks are anxious to get back to playing again after so much time off, but this isn’t an easy road trip. Colorado currently leads the entire league, while the Mammoth, Predators and Jets hover right around the Blackhawks in the Central Division (fourth, fifth, seventh and sixth, respectively). But Coach Blashill has mentioned a few times he wants the team to go on a streak, as many other teams have throughout the course of the season.
Can they get a streak started on this road trip?! Will we see some improvements with more balanced forward lines, and different defensive pairings? Will anyone be traded during the trip? All the more reason to tune in.
Blackhawks’ hockey is finally back!
