Preview & Game Thread: Blackhawks-Flames

  

Chicago Blackhawks (24-20-7) at Calgary Flames (25-18-8)

10:00PM Eastern/9:00 Central

RADIO: WGN 720

TV: SN, NBCSCH

 

PROJECTED GOALIES:

Calgary:
Mike Smith (20-15-6 | 2.50 GAA | 0.922 SV% | 2 SO)

Chicago:
Jeff Glass (3-3-2 | 3.15 GAA | 0.910 SV% | 0 SO)

 

PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS:

Calgary

Gaudreau-Monahan-Ferland
Tkachuk-Backlund-Frolik
Mangiapane-Bennett-Brouwer
Lazar-Stajan-Hathaway

Giordano-Hamilton
Brodie-Hamonic
Bartkowski-Stone

Chicago

DeBrincat-Toews-Duclair
Anisimov-Schmaltz-Kane
Bouma-Wingels-Saad
Jurco-Kampf-Hinostroza

Keith-Oesterle
Gustafsson-Seabrook
Murphy-Rutta

STATISTICAL COMPARISONS:

Power play:
Calgary 17.3% (23rd)
Chicago 15.0% (29th)

Penalty kill:
Calgary 80.3% (17th)
Chicago 82.2% (9th)

Corsi For % (5-on-5):
Calgary 52.4% (5th)
Chicago 53.2% (3rd)

Faceoffs:
Calgary 50% (17th)
Chicago 48.9% (21st)

 

SUMMARY:

The Blackhawks come off of one of their most disappointing losses, to the Canucks. Jeff Glass gets the nod in net to face his hometown Flames.

The big news in Blackhawks land was that coach Joel Quenneville moved Artem Anisimov to left wing with Nick Schmaltz and Patrick Kane in effort to wake this slowly sinking team up. Lance Bouma skated with the third line at the morning skate and Jan Rutta skated with Connor Murphy. Both would be making returns to the lineup after two week layoffs for both players.

This leaves Patrick Sharp, Ryan Hartman, and Michal Kempny as the healthy scratches.

The Flames ride a six game winless streak and look to prey on the struggling Blackhawks to break that streak.

We’ll recap tonight or tomorrow AM.

Join the game thread below for real-time conversation on the action with JJ, Gatekeeper and the rest of the RinkRats.

About Jeff Osborn

Jeff has covered the Blackhawks since 2009 with his former website www.puckinhostile.com and podcast The Puckin Hostile Shoutcast until 2017, when he moved over to The Rink. After a short hiatus to cover the inaugural Seattle Kraken season, he came back to Blackhawks coverage and started "The Net Perspective" podcast to discuss goaltending and goaltender development.

     

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