Blackhawks go for two in row over the Stars

Chicago Blackhawks (14-18-7, 35 pts) vs Dallas Stars
7:30 pm CT – United Center
TV: CHSN (Ball/Pang)
Radio: WGN 720 AM (Wiedeman/Konroyd)

The Chicago Blackhawks have a challenging task to start the new year with the Dallas Stars in town. These two teams met five days ago in Texas, with the Blackhawks pulling off an upset, winning 4-3 in a shootout. Jason Dickinson sandwiched in a goal between two Tyler Bertuzzi tallies in regulation, before Nick Lardis won the game in the shootout.

Since that game in Dallas, the Blackhawks have lost back-to-back games on home ice to the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders. The Stars are in the midst of a three-game losing streak. They lost to the Buffalo Sabres last night, who extended their winning streak to 10 games. They will be out for revenge tonight after losing on home ice coming out of the holiday break.

The Stars have earned points in nine of their last 11 games against the Blackhawks (8-2-1), and have seven wins in their previous nine trips to the United Center. Tonight’s starting goaltender, Jake Oettinger, is 10-2-3 all-time against the Blackhawks, with a 2.33 goals-against average (GAA) and .917 save percentage (SV%).

Looking for the Kids to Repeat

Tuesday’s shootout loss to the Islanders featured the best NHL games from a trio of kids. Oliver Moore, Nick Lardis, and Artyom Levshunov all had fantastic outings to help the Blackhawks earn a point. Part of being an NHL player is learning to have those kinds of nights consistently, so it will be interesting to see how this threesome builds on their performances tonight.

“Oliver Moore was fantastic last game,” captain Nick Foligno said. “He’s starting to find his role and how he’s going to impact games. You get encouraged by that. Now you have to find the consistency and do it again tonight.”

Moore had the primary assist on both Blackhawks’ goals against the Islanders, including on Lardis’ power-play that tied the game. The development of these three youngsters is a key part of the season, so let’s see them work on consistency.

Jason Dickinson Accounted For

Another big storyline to come out of Tuesday’s game was the health of Dickinson. He never returned to the bench after the first intermission. However, he was on the ice for today’s morning skate, and head coach Jeff Blashill anticipates he will play tonight.

This is good news for the Blackhawks, who are already without their two top centers in Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar. Not having Dickinson on the lineup would make them even weaker down the middle against the very talented Stars.

Connor Bedard Snub

Canada announced their roster for the upcoming Winter Olympics yesterday, and Blackhawks star Connor Bedard was left off of it. This did not sit well with Blashill, who praised his young star’s two-way game.

“I don’t think the rest of the League knows how good a two-way winning hockey player Connor has become,” he said. “That’s the one thing, and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s based on previous years, but I don’t think they have a full understanding of how good a winning hockey player he is, as we sit here today. I’ve read some things about defensive metrics and things like that. The metric that I trust is your impact on winning. The reason why I know he’s a big-time winning hockey player is that when he was in our lineup, we were one point out of the wildcard, and since then, we’re 1-6-1. That’s the impact he’s had. You don’t have that impact if you’re just a point getter. You only have that impact if you’re a true two-way kind of winning player, and that’s what he’s become.”

The microphone has been dropped!

Season Series

12/27 @ DAL, W 4-3 (SO)
1/1 vs DAL
3/8 @ DAL

Blackhawks Team Leaders

G-Connor Bedard/Tyler Bertuzzi (19)
A-Bedard (25)
P-Bedard (44)
PPG-Tyler Bertuzzi (8)
GWG-Bedard (3)
SOG-Bedard (103)
PIM-Colton Dach (45)

Stars Team Leaders

G-Jason Robertson (23)
A-Mikko Rantanen (39)
P-Rantanen (54)
PPG-Wyatt Johnston (14)
GWG-Sam Steel (4)
SOG-Robertson (156)
PIM-Rantanen (71)

Blackhawks Team Stats

GF/G-2.74 (26th)
GA/G-3.18 (21st)
PP%-20.0 (12th)
PK%-83.6 (5th)
SOG/G-25.1 (30th)
SA/G-30.1 (29th)
FO%-46.4 (31st)
PIM/G-10:55 (29th)

Blackhawks Probable Lines

Forwards
Tyler Bertuzzi-Ryan Greene-Andre Burakovsky
Teuvo Teravainen-Oliver Moore-Nick Lardis
Ryan Donato-Jason Dickinson-Ilya Mikheyev
Nick Foligno-Colton Dach-Landon Slaggert

Defensemen
Alex Vlasic-Louis Crevier
Wyatt Kaiser-Artyom Levshunov
Matt Grzelcyk-Connor Murphy

Scratched
D-Ethan Del Mastro, F-Sam Lafferty, F-Dominic Toninato

Injured

F-Connor Bedard (upper body), F-Frank Nazar (upper body),

Stars Probable Lines

Forwards
Sam Steel-Wyatt Johnston-Mikko Rantanen
Jason Robertson-Roope Hintz-Mavrik Bourque
Justin Hryckowian-Matt Duchene-Jamie Benn
Oscar Back-Radek Faska-Colin Blackwell

Defensemen
Esa Lindell-Miro Heiskanen
Thomas Harley-Nils Lundqvist
Ilya Lyubushkin-Alex Petrovic

Scratched
F-Adam Erne, F-Nathan Bastian, F-Kyle Capobianco

Injured
D-Lian Bichsel (lower body), D-Luke Krys (Achilles), F-Kyle McDonald (knee), F-Tyler Seguin (knee)

Goaltending Matchup

Spencer Knight (10-11-6, 2.62 GAA, .910 SV%, 2 SO) vs Jake Oettinger (16-6-3, 2.51 GAA, .910 SV%, 2 SO)