The Blackhawks welcome the improved Dallas Stars to the United Center tonight in a game that may have significant repercussions on playoff standing in April.
Dallas Stars (13-10-1) at Chicago Blackhawks (12-9-3)
7:30 PM Central
RADIO: WGN 720
TV: NBC Sports Chicago/Fox Sports SW
PROJECTED GOALIES:
DALLAS
Ben Bishop (11-7-0, 2.62 GAA, .912 save%)
CHICAGO
Corey Crawford (11-7-1, 2.21 GAA, .933 save%)
PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS:
DALLAS
Shore-Benn-Radulov
Janmark-Seguin-Spezza
Roussel-Faksa-Pitlick
Smith-Hanzal-Ritchie
Lindell-Klingberg
Hamhuis-Pateryn
Johns-Honka
CHICAGO
Saad-Toews-Panik
Schmaltz-Anisimov-Kane
Sharp-Hartman-DeBrincat
Bouma-Wingels-Hayden
Keith-Franson
Murphy-Seabrook
Forsling-Rutta
STATISTICAL COMPARISONS:
POWER PLAY:
Dallas 23.0% (6th)
Chicago 17.3% (23rd)
PENALTY KILL:
Dallas 83.5% (7th)
Chicago 83.9% (5th)
CORSI FOR % (5-on-5)
Dallas 51.2% (10th)
Chicago 51.9% (8th)
FACEOFFS:
Dallas 52.6% (4th)
Chicago 48.4% (25th)
SUMMARY:
A late November game that actually matters in the standings.
Whether the Hawks are 4th or 5th in the Central (one factor impacted by tonight’s outcome) is not that important. But it is also likely that Dallas will be a team the Hawks are battling in April for a wildcard post in the playoffs. And so, zero, one or two points matter greatly for both teams tonight.
Dallas is a bigger, heavier team who have been adjusting better to Coach Ken Hitchcock’s system of late. They have scoring talent on three lines and I would look for them to forecheck and counter-attack much like Hitchcock’s St. Louis teams—attacking in layers in the offensive zone. Which means Hawk defenders need to be very aware, positional and looking for their man at all times when coming back into their end.
The Hawks come off a 3-2 road loss to defending Western Conference champion Nashville, preceded by a couple of weeks of very strong play. Like the Stars, the Hawks’ scoring goes deep—their two goals against the Predators were scored by fourth liners. One thing was evident as Chicago controlled the action much of the Nashville game in the second game of a back-to-back: this is a deeper, younger, faster, more physical team than the one that got bounced in 4 games by the Preds in the first round of last year’s playoffs. It is also a mistake prone team, relying a great deal on young players in key roles. So you’ll have good nights and bad nights—but of late, the good has been consistently evident and that against a series of good teams.
We’ll recap in the AM.
Follow: @jaeckel