New experiment for Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews got fans talking!

The Chicago Blackhawks held their first preseason game on Tuesday against the visiting St. Louis Blues and right away, fans noticed that new head coach Luke Richardson was moving things around.
Including his veteran players.

As insider Mark Lazerus of The Athletic pointed out during the first period of the contest, captain Jonathan Toews was handed a new role on the power-play during the Hawks’ first preseason. Lazerus explained how it was interesting to see Toews playing Patrick Kane’s “distributor role on the half-wall” on the second power-play unit.

As Lazerus clarifies: Toews has spent most of his career patrolling the net on the power play.

Fans liked the tweet and were vocal during the power-play attempts of the Hawks during the first period. However, it was the Blues who scored first, taking a 1-0 lead over Chicago thanks to their own strategy on the power-play. As Colin Blackwell sat in the penalty box for hooking against Tyler Tucker, Ryan O’Reilly scored for the Blues.

The new experiment kept going for the Blackhawks and we can expect coach Richardson to approve the power-play ahead of the season. This is the time to try on new things even if your veteran players aren’t used to it.

It might take a while for the Blackhawks to break out of their old habits, but Richardson is leading the experiment on the first day of preseason. This could be promising in the end.

What fans were very happy about is that, as Lazerus pointed out after the Hawks' 4-1 loss at the hands of the Blues, is that Toews appears to be back to his old self. He had a 100 percent Corsi in the first period at 5-on-5.