Game 52 Preview And Open Thread: Blackhawks @ Sharks

Puck Drop: Feb. 2, 4:00 PM CST

Chicago Blackhawks
Record: 23-24-4
Points: 50
Place: 5th in Central, 14th in Western Conference
Power Play Percentage/Rank: 16%, 25th in NHL
Penalty Kill Percentage/Rank: 81.3%, 19th in NHL
Blackhawks Team Statistics

@

San Jose Sharks
Record: 28-16-7
Points: 63
Place: 2nd in Pacific, 4th in Western Conference
Power Play Percentage/Rank: 18.2%, 13th in NHL
Penalty Kill Percentage/Rank: 86.6%, 2nd in NHL
Sharks Team Statistics

The Hawks will play their 2nd game of a seven game road trip today in San Jose, and the bottom line is that they need to win, no questions asked. If they want to make any kind of a run at the playoff race, then they have to end this three game losing streak now, and get back in the win column.

Nikolai Khabibulin is going to be in net, which I completely disagree with, because he played like crap in the loss to Colorado (by the way, Yanic Perreault's two meaningless goals give him the SCH Hawks Player Of The Game award because no one else did anything), and Patrick Lalime has been playing much better lately. I'm really getting tired of Denis Savard's antics.