An eight-day stretch with five games in it continues for the Blackhawks on Sunday afternoon at the United Center, with the Columbus Blue Jackets as the opponent for this weekend matinee.
Columbus’ offseason was marked by the tragic death of the Gaudreau brothers (it’s almost 2025, call a fucking Uber, people), with the older Johnny being the Blue Jackets leading scorer for the last two seasons after coming over from Calgary. The top line in Columbus now features the team’s top three scoring forwards: Sean Monahan (20 points in 22 games) flanked by Kirill Marchenko (23 in 22) and Yegor Chinakhov (14 in 21). Chinakhov did not play in Columbus’ last game (a 5-2 win over the Flames on Friday) and remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury, so it’s possible he could skate in this one.
That leaves the second-line center role to 2023 No. 3 overall pick Adam Fantilli, who hasn’t been producing a ton just yet at the NHL level. After having 27 points (12 G, 15 A) in 49 games last season — a pace of about 45 points in an 82-game season — he’s at roughly the same pace with 12 (5 G, 7 A) in 22 this season. Fantilli is one of the 11 players on Columbus to have a double-digit point total this season, led by blue-liner Zack Werenski’s 24 (8 G, 16 A) in 22 while averaging an insane 25:59 of ice time per night, powering an offense that’s ranked seventh in the NHL at 3.5 goals per game.
Despite all of that, though, Columbus sits in last place in the Metropolitan Division, 13th in the Western Conference and 24th in the NHL entering this game because it’s also ranked 29th in the league with an average of 3.55 goals against per game. Columbus is 5-1-1 in its last seven but mostly because its outscored its defensive issues: it beat Tampa 7-6, topped Carolina 5-4 in a shootout and scored a trio in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Canadiens. Neither starter Elvis Merzlikins (7-5-2 record, .893 save percentage, 3.07 goals-against average) nor backup Daniil Tarasov (3-4-1, .861, 4.04) have been stalwarts in goal, so opportunities should be plentiful, even for an offense that’s been as woeful as Chicago’s has been at times this season.
This weekend also brought a massive trade to the Blue Jackets, who sent 2022 No. 6 overall pick David Jiricek and a 2025 fifth-round pick to the Minnesota Wild for defenseman Daemon Hunt, a top-five protected first-round pick in 2025, a 2026 third-rounder, a 2026 fourth-rounder and a 2027 second-rounder. Got all that? Our friends over at The Cannon have a healthy summary of the trade from multiple angles, but it’s hard not to view it as some measure of disappointment overall for CBJ to have a top-10 pick traded away from the organization just a few years after the selection was made.
Anyway, here’s a rough idea of what Columbus will trot out at the UC on Sunday, with the possibility of Chinakhov slotting back in on the top line:
#CBJ warmup lines/D vs Flames: Voronkov-Monahan-Marchenko Johnson-Fantilli-Sillinger ZAR-Danforth-Olivier JvR-Kuraly-Labanc Werenski-Fabbro Provorov-Severson Christiansen-Harris Merzlikins Greaves Out: Chinakhov (upper body), Daniil Tarasov (sick), Jack Johnson (healthy scratch)
— Brian Hedger (@brianhedger.bsky.social) November 29, 2024 at 1:41 PM
Despite Chicago’s inability to hold a multi-goal lead again on Friday, the mood at Blackhawks’ practice on Saturday seemed overall improved from the last few weeks because the offense has shown signs of life lately. And by “offense” we mean “Connor Bedard” who scored a goal on Wednesday to end a massive scoring drought and then was generating plenty of opportunities in Friday’s defeat despite not scoring in that game. The latter wasn’t happening at all during Bedard’s slump and that spark from him was evident at practice on Saturday, according to coach Luke Richardson:
Richardson on Connor Bedard today: "[Based on] him shooting the puck, making plays and moving his feet, I think he's feeling much better about himself, and he looks much better out there. More comfortable and more happy."
— Ben Pope (@benpopecst.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 1:23 PM
That should help the offense find some opportunities for success against Columbus, while the Chicago net will again be manned by Petr Mrazek, who’s likely searching for some redemption after a subpar outing against the Minnesota Wild on Friday, including a mishandling of what proved to be the game-winning goal.
Mrazek will start for the Blackhawks against the Blue Jackets tomorrow, which sets up Maple Leaf killer Soderblom to start Monday in Toronto.
— Ben Pope (@benpopecst.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 11:46 AM
As for the rest of the lineup, it seems like it should be close to what skated in front of Mrazek against Minnesota on Friday, but the lack of a morning skate means some surprises could be in store for us:
Blackhawks lineup Hall-Bedard-Kurashev Bertuzzi-Donato-Teräväinen Foligno-Dickinson-Mikheyev Maroon-Reichel-Smith Vlasic-Murphy Kaiser-Martinez Brodie-Crevier Mrázek Söderblom
— Scott Powers (@scottpowers.bsky.social) November 29, 2024 at 12:42 PM
Chicago hasn’t been able to score and Columbus hasn’t been able to stop teams from scoring. Guess we’ll find out which trend holds, eh?
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Blue Jackets
43.73% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 51.40% (10th)
44.30% (30th) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 52.09% (10th)
2.48 (t-29th) — Goals per game — 3.5 (17th)
2.96 (t-12th) — Goals against per game — 3.55 (29th)
44.5% (30th) — Faceoffs — 49.3% (20th)
22.4% (13th) — Power play — 18.6% (t-20th)
79.1% (16th) — Penalty kill — 76.1% (25th)
How to Watch
When: 2 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: CHSN (How to Watch) Good luck finding it!
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720