On a couple of different occasions this year, longtime partners Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook have been split up by Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville.
The breakup was more to spread the wealth than it was for anything that was happening on the ice. With the impressive addition of Johnny Oduya at the trade deadline, the original plan from the coach was to pair the new guy with Seabrook. It looked great on paper until they were on the ice for all three first period goals by the Toronto Maple Leafs last Wednesday.
The partnership lasted all of 20 minutes, and it doesn't mean they won't be paired together again. But what it did do was force the coaching staff to reconfigure on the fly, and what's happened since then is three straight victories, allowing only three goals against in the last eight periods.
Which brings us back to the happy reunion of Keith and Seabrook.
There's a comfort level that exists between Keith and Seabrook. They are best friends off the ice, roommates on the road and one of the most formidable shutdown duos in the entire NHL on the ice.
They've basically been paired together since then-coach Trent Yawney put them together as rookies almost seven years ago. There's a comfort level and predictability you attain when playing with a partner for that long. A lot of their communication on the ice goes unsaid, they just know where the other guy will be at any time.
It's been been fun to watch these two defensemen grow the last seven years, and with the long-term contracts they both signed last year, Blackhawk fans will have the pleasure of watching these two for a long time to come.