Preview & Game Thread: Blackhawks-Red Wings

  

The Blackhawks lick their wounds from last night’s disappointing OT loss to the Leafs, and take the short trip to Detroit to face the Red Wings.

 

Chicago Blackhawks (22-19-7) at Detroit Red Wings (19-20-8)

7:30PM Eastern/6:30 Central

RADIO: WGN 720

TV: NBC Sports Chicago

 

PROJECTED GOALIES:

Detroit:

Jimmy Howard (14-15-0, 2.74 GAA, .913 save%)

Chicago:

Anton Forsberg (3-7-0, 3.15 GAA, .907 save%)

 

PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS:

Detroit

Nyquist-Zetterberg-Mantha
Bertuzzi-Larkin-Athanasiou
Tatar-Nielsen-Glendening
Witkowski-Turgeon-Frk

Dekeyser-Jensen
Kronwall-Green
Ericsson-Ouellet

 

Chicago

DeBrincat-Toews-Duclair
Saad-Schmaltz-Kane
Sharp-Anisimov-Hartman
Jurco-Kampf-Hinostroza

Keith-Oesterle
Gustafsson-Seabrook
Kempny-Murphy

 

STATISTICAL COMPARISONS:

Power play:

Detroit 18.6% (20th)
Chicago 15.6% (27th)

Penalty kill:

Detroit 79.2% (21st)
Chicago 82.3% (10th)

Corsi For % (5-on-5):

Detroit 48.6% (20th)
Chicago 53.4% (2nd)

Faceoffs:

Detroit 47.9% (26th)
Chicago 49.0% (21st)

 

SUMMARY:

The Blackhawks look for revenge from an embarrassing 4-0 shutout loss before the bye week on 1/14. They are also on the bottom half of a back-to-back with no time to sit around and sulk, after last night’s disappointing overtime loss to the Leafs.  This is a very winnable game for the Blackhawks, but they need to continue converting on the power play. With each loss, the season slowly slips between their fingers.

The Wings are young and fast, but lack the top end scoring and sit in the middle of the pack to bottom third of the league in most statistical categories. Justin Abdelkader (groin) and Darren Helm (leg) will not play as they continue to heal from their injuries.

Wings rookie Dominic Turgeon, who made his NHL debut against the Blackhawks on 1/14, was sent back down to Grand Rapids before Tuesday’s game vs the Flyers but makes his return to the lineup tonight.  The Wings assigned David Booth to Grands Rapids yesterday afternoon to make room for Turgeon.

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.

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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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