Matthew Highmore was asked this week to describe his chemistry with Ryan Carpenter and David Kampf.
His word? “Automatic.”
On the surface, Highmore, Carpenter and Kampf are an odd combination. None of the three were ever drafted. Highmore, 24, spent seven years in Canadian juniors and the AHL. Carpenter, 29, is an NHL journeyman, playing for the Sharks and Knights before the Hawks. Kampf, 25, an overage Czech import in 2017, is now quietly entering his fourth year in Chicago.
But the three have become practically inseparable linemates and good friends, providing firm stability to the Hawks’ fourth line even while the top three are regularly shuffled.
“We talk a lot about putting the next line in a better spot and doing the dirty work for the team, and those guys embody that,” coach Jeremy Colliton said. “The line that comes after them typically is put in a pretty good position. It’s an example to other lines of if you do these little things, it helps the team to have success.”
Highmore, Carpenter and Kampf’s gritty, defense-first mindsets and hard-working personalities have meshed together well ever since Colliton united them last February.
That trio spent the last seven games of the regular season together after sporadically teaming up earlier on. They finished with a strong 56.3% scoring chance ratio in 53 minutes together.
They remained together in the playoffs with more mixed results. Their 40.4% scoring chance ratio in 63 postseason minutes together looked ugly, but the Hawks’ advanced stats were poor across the board thanks to the Vegas series.
“Both those guys, they work so hard, they skate so well [and] they’re strong on the puck,” Carpenter said. “The more the we talk and communicate, you can start to play smarter — not just working hard, but working smarter. [We] try to get open for each other and talk so we can anticipate where we want to go with the puck and the decisions we want to make.”
From the opening drills of training camp Monday, Highmore, Carpenter and Kampf were reunited in the same group and on the same line.
They and the first line of Dylan Strome centering Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat have been the only constants throughout the week, while other forwards like Andrew Shaw, Lucas Wallmark, Pius Suter and Brandon Pirri jump around between the second, third and reserve lines.
“[We’re] very familiar,” Highmore said. “It’s been kind of automatic coming back and understanding the phrases, talking on and off the ice. We’re all good friends, too, which makes it a lot easier. It’s always fun to play with your buddy. It just comes natural. Obviously, we have some stuff to work on, but so far, so good.”
Highmore personally hopes to contribute more offensively in 2021, at least enough to equal the production of his linemates.
The 24-year-old Nova Scotian scored just six points in 36 regular-season games in 2019-20, whereas Carpenter scored 15 in 69 and Kampf scored 16 in 70.
“I really worked hard in the offseason protecting the puck down low,” he said. “In the bubble especially, our line had a lot of time down low, protecting it and keeping it away, and I want to build on that because I feel we can wear teams down and create from there. That was an emphasis for me to identify where a defensive player’s stick is and then take advantage of it.”
But the crux of the trio remains their defensive attentiveness, and as long as they stay together, that identity won’t change.
“The more we talk, we know it’s defense first for us,” Carpenter said. “It’s playing the right way, playing a team game first and we know the offense will come through hard work and doing the right things. All three of us are on the same page.”
