The Blackhawks move across the state of Florida tonight to face the Panthers, hoping to maintain a recent trend of improvement—especially on the power play.
Chicago Blackhawks (10-8-3) at Florida Panthers (8-11-2)
7:00 PM Eastern/6:00 PM Central
RADIO: WGN 720
TV: NBC Sports Chicago/FS Florida
PROJECTED GOALIES:
Chicago:
Corey Crawford (9-7-1, 2.23 GAA, .932 save%)
Florida:
Roberto Luongo (5-4-1, 2.59 GAA, .931 save%)
PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS:
Chicago
Saad-Toews-Panik
Schmaltz-Anisimov-Kane
Sharp-Hartman-DeBrincat
Bouma-Wingels-Hayden
Keith-Franson
Murphy-Seabrook
Forsling-Rutta
Florida
Huberdeau-Barkov-Dadonov
Haapala-Trocheck-Bjugstad
McGinn-McCann-Sceviour
Haley-Balisy-Brickley
Yandle-Ekblad
Matheson-Pysyk
McCoshen-Weegar
STATISTICAL COMPARISONS:
Power play:
Chicago 16.5% (23rd)
Florida 16.0% (25th)
Penalty kill:
Chicago 84.8% (5th)
Florida 73.2% (31st)
Corsi For % (5-on-5)
Chicago 51.0% (10th)
Florida 49.1% (20th)
Faceoffs:
Chicago 48.2% (25th)
Florida 51.7% (8th)
SUMMARY:
Lookie there—a team that’s worse on the power play than Chicago.
Unfortunately, although the Hawks have been playing better of late, they are far from assuming anything going into a game with a team like Florida, who have struggled this year. On paper these look like a relatively easy two points to grab. Not only are the Panthers not great with a man advantage, they are the league’s worst penalty killing team, an opportunity for Chicago to take advantage of as their own slightly improved power play slowly creeps up the league rankings.
Still. Nothing is guaranteed with the Hawks thus far this season—they will likely need a focused, horn-to-horn effort to capture a point or two.
We’ll have a recap either late tonight or in the morning. Finally, while you’re here, and if you haven’t already, check out the latest Knowledge Bomb from Bob Rose, Jr. on the two-touch shot.
Follow: @jaeckel