With only four games left this season, the Chicago Blackhawks are in Boston on Thursday night to take on the Bruins.
The Bruins will not be partaking in the playoffs for the first time since the 2015-16 season and only the third time since 2007 after being mathematically eliminated from playoff contention last weekend. This isn’t a surprise: Boston has been battling the Philadelphia Flyers for the last place in the Eastern Conference for the past few months, especially since trading away several veterans at the deadline, including Brad Marchand (to Florida), Charlie Coyle (to Colorado), and Brandon Carlo (to Toronto). It also did not help that the Bruins lost Charlie McAvoy to a shoulder injury during the 4 Nations Face-Off in February. The Bruins did win their latest game 7-2 against the New Jersey Devils, but that was an outlier, as they’ve gone 1-8-1 in the 10 games before that while being outscored 41-21 in that span. The team has been in a freefall and is now battling to get top-four odds in the draft lottery.
After the veteran trades, the Bruins don’t have much of a top-six left. There’s David Pastrnak, who is still one of the best players in the league and hit 100 points for the third season in a row. He also had scored or assisted on 13 Bruins goals in a row through the first period of Tuesday’s game. His two most common linemates since the trad deadline, Morgan Geekie (0.72 points-per-game) and Elias Lindholm (0.52), along with Pavel Zacha (0.57) are the only other forwards who have managed over half-a-point-per-game this season. It’s a sharp drop-off offensively from those four. On defense, Mason Lohrei (0.45) is the only healthy defenseman contributing much. The aforementioned McAvoy (shoulder) and Hampus Lindholm (lower body) are both out for the season.
The Bruins lines against the Blackhawks should be the same as they rolled at practice on Wednesday, except that Pavel Zacha will be on the second-line left wing position. Nikita Zadorov’s game status is up in the air. Jeremy Swayman is expected to be in net.
Bruins lines at Wednesday practice:
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin9) April 9, 2025
Geekie-Lindholm-Pastrnak
Brown-Mittelstadt-Lysell
Khusnutdinov-Minten-Lettieri
Koepke-Beecher-Lauko
Kastelic
Lohrei-Peeke
Callahan-Wotherspoon
Mitchell-Jokiharju
McAvoy
Swayman/Korpisalo
-no Zacha or Zadorov
Zacha was maintenance and Zadorov missed practice with a family matter, said Sacco. He exoects Zacha to be available while Zadorov is wait and see.
— steve conroy (@conroyherald) April 9, 2025
The Blackhawks are coming off a 5-0 defeat by the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday, one of those games that makes you just wish the season would end already. It was especially disappointing as the Blackhawks had mustered up a solid 3-1 victory over the same Penguins just two nights prior when they managed to hold on to a third-period lead. It was only the second time this season the Blackhawks were shutout, which is something, I guess.
The Blackhawks lines at Thursday’s morning skate were shaken up quite a bit from the Penguins loss. With Lukas Reichel apparently sitting this game, two of the spare parts lines have been jumbled and Pat Maroon is coming back in. Oliver Moore is being given a shot on the top line with Connor Bedard and Ilya Mikheyev. And, oddly, the worst 5-on-5 line on the team in recent games — Teuvo Teravainen, Frank Nazar, and Tyler Bertuzzi — is the only line that wasn’t touched.
Connor Murphy and Wyatt Kaiser are both out sick for the Blackhawks in Boston tonight. Lines:
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) April 10, 2025
Moore-Bedard-Mikheyev
Teravainen-Nazar-Bertuzzi
Kurashev-Donato-Foligno
Slaggert-Veleno-Maroon
Vlasic-Rinzel
Del Mastro-Levshunov
Korchinski-Crevier
Soderblom
The defense pairings are rearranged a bit as well, but mostly due to Connor Murphy and Wyatt Kaiser being sick. Alex Vlasic and Sam Rinzel remain the top pair, Artyom Levshunov and Kevin Korchinski are now with returning-to-the-lineup Ethan Del Mastro and Louis Crevier, respectively. Arvid Soderblom is expected to be in net.
Also an interesting note from the morning skate: Frank Nazar has graduated to the top power-play unit in place of Ryan Donato. Considering the power play hasn’t been as good as of late, a little mix-up is a good idea.
Frank Nazar is on the top power-play unit in the bumper position. Ryan Donato is now on the second unit. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/7ub7m8iX71
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) April 10, 2025
This will be the second time the Blackhawks have faced the Bruins this season, the last being a 4-2 loss back in early December. Alex Vlasic and Jason Dickinson were the two Blackhawks to find the back of the net and Connor Murphy picked up two assists in the loss.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Bruins
44.14% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 47.66% (27th)
43.01% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 50.29% (16th)
2.67 (29th) — Goals per game — 2.68 (28th)
3.59 (31st) — Goals against per game — 3.29 (15th)
44.9% (31st) — Faceoffs — 51.6 (6th)
24.0% (10th) — Power play — 15.3% (29th)
80.0% (13th) — Penalty kill — 76.9% (22nd)
(All stats from this season)
How to watch
When: 6 p.m. CT
Where: TD Garden, Boston
TV: CHSN
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720