The Blackhawks continue trekking near the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday night when they face the New York Islanders.
New York’s other team spent most of November sliding down the standings, losing eight of 10 between Nov. 9 and Nov. 29, which is why it currently sits sixth in the division (29 points), 10th in the conference and 22nd in the league. There’s been a brief recovery in the last week with the Islanders winning back-to-back games over the prior weekend before falling 3-1 to the Kings on Tuesday.
The Islanders are tied for 14th in the league with an average of 2.97 goals against per game and during 5-on-5 play this season, NY has actually outscored its opponents 53-47. That’s the good news. The band news is the special teams have been especially miserable, with a 31st-ranked power play at 13.3 percent and the league’s worst penalty kill at 65.6 percent. But at least the Islanders make up for that by having been on the PK just 64 times this season, which is the second lowest mark in the NHL (VGK is the lowest at 58). Still, everything goes wrong for the Islanders when they get away from 5-on-5 so they’ll probably want to keep it there as much as possible in this game.
Injuries have probably been one of the biggest issues this season, with Mathew Barzal out since Nov. 1 after leading the team in scoring last season with a point-per-game (23 G, 57 A) in the 80 he played. Old friend Anthony Duclair and blue-liner Adam Pelech remain out while goaltender Semyon Varlamov is a more recent addition to the injury list and not just because his numbers are bad (3-4-3 record, .889 save percentage, 2.89 goals-against average). Ilya Sorokin will start this game, and he’s been better (8-8-4, .912, 2.58). Based on the morning skate, it appears NY’s issue injuries are a little deeper as Anders Lee, who has a team-high 13 goals and 24 points in 30 games this season, was absent from line rushes because of an illness that will leave him as a game-time decision:
#Isles lines at morning skate: (No Lee) Tsyplakov-Horvat-Pageau Rotation-Nelson-Palmieri Engvall-Cizikas-Holmstrom Martin-MacLean-Wahlstrom Cholowski-Dobson Romanov-Pulock George-Mayfield Pelech-Hutton Sorokin Hogberg
— Stefen Rosner (@stefenrosner.bsky.social) December 12, 2024 at 9:29 AM
Overall, it seems like another New York team without the greatest atmosphere around it at the moment, which presents the visiting Blackhawks with a solid opportunity to pick up their first pair of consecutive victories since Nov. 2 and 3. Sunday’s win over the Rangers halted a five-game skid while Chicago displayed an up-tempo, downright entertaining style of hockey under interim coach Anders Sorensesn, who was in just his second game behind the bench. More of the same would be quite welcome around these parts, as it seems to be the best recipe for long-term success, considering the skill sets of the prospects working their way up the organization.
Lines at practice on Wednesday were similar to what beat the Rangers over the weekend:
Blackhawks lines in practice: Kurashev-Bedard-Mikheyev Hall-Donato-Bertuzzi Foligno-Dickinson-Teravainen Maroon-Reichel-Smith Anderson Vlasic-Kaiser Allan-Murphy Korchinski-Brodie Crevier
— Ben Pope (@benpopecst.bsky.social) December 11, 2024 at 12:12 PM
Seeing the blue line with four players under the age of 25 feels in line with that the organizational goals should be here, and it also allows any wins to mean a bit more because they’ll probably be the result of ongoing development of those youngsters who’ll be serving as the likely foundation of whatever this next era of Blackhawks hockey is going to bring us.
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Islanders
44.71% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 47.49% (25th)
44.84% (29th) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 49.96% (18th)
2.39 (30th) — Goals per game — 2.53 (t-28th)
3.11 (20th) — Goals against per game — 2.97 (t-14th)
44.1% (30th) — Faceoffs — 54.8% (1st)
23.3% (11th) — Power play — 13.3% (31st)
82.5% (t-6th) — Penalty kill — 65.6% (32nd)
(All stats from this season)
How to Watch
When: 6:30 p.m. CT
Where: UBS Arena, Elmont
TV: CHSN (How to Watch) Crazy that we still have to provide a how-to-watch guide in mid-December, right?
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720