Two games in five nights between Central Division foes will close out the season series between these franchises, starting with Thursday’s game at the United Center between the Blackhawks and the Colorado Avalanche.
Colorado enters this game seemingly assured of another postseason berth, barring some sort of monumental collapse over the final few months of the season. It has a 36-19-5 record, good for 77 points and third place in the Central Division, with the two teams eyeing wild card spots currently at just 68 points. The Avalanche are much closer to moving up the conference standings than down, with only the Dallas Stars (79 points in 61 games) and Winnipeg Jets (79 in 57) ahead of them. After a shakier start to the season, Colorado vaulted up the standings with a red-hot January, when the Avs won 9 of 12. There was a four-game skid to start February, although that’s been erased with a 4-2-1 stretch in the last seven, including Tuesday’s 5-1 thumping of the aforementioned Stars that helped close the gap in the divisional standings.
The names atop the statistical leaders for Colorado are no surprise. Nathan MacKinnon is second in the league with a blistering 98 points (35 G, 63 A) in 60 games, followed by Mikko Rantanen’s 76 (31 G, 45 A) in 60. Third on the team and pacing the blue line is Cale Makar, who’s every bit as terrifying as MacKinnon is with the puck on his stick, the kind of players who make opposing fans want to hide behind the couch when they have possession for fear of what miserable fate is about to befall their hockey team. Valeri Nichushkin is fourth on the team with 42 (22 G, 20 A) in 40 games, although he will not play in this game as he nears return since entering the NHLPA’s Player Assistance Program last month. Artturi Lehkonen has a solid 19 points in the 25 he’s played during an injury-hampered season.
Behind those Top Guys, though, Colorado’s depth isn’t as robust as in prior seasons. Captain Gabe Landeskog remains out for the season. J.T. Compher is in Detroit, Evan Rodrigues is in Florida and Nazem Kadri’s been gone since the Avs won the Cup. The players further down the lineup aren’t producing too much, with players like Ross Colton (30 points in 58 games), Logan O’Connor (25 in 54) and even Ryan Johansen (22 in 60) not being as formidable as other former Colorado forwards. Perhaps that’s why the Avs took a swing and signed Zach Parise late last month, hoping to glean whatever they can from the now 39-year-old forward. So far, that’s just been a goal and a pair of assists in 11 games. Colorado’s blue line remains talented with the aforementioned Makar alongside Devon Toews, Sam Girard and … sigh … Bowen “Should’ve Been Drafted by the Blackhawks” Byram, but that scoring depth could be a downfall come April.
In net, it’s Alexandar Goergiev’s job, and his numbers (31-14-3 record, .900 save percentage, 2.88 goals-against average) are below last season’s sparking 40-16-6, .918 and 2.53, respectively, which garnered Vezina Trophy votes. What those numbers look like when the postseason arrives is the more important item here, though.
Colorado’s lines will probably be similar to what was on the ice against Dallas on Tuesday night:
Despite all of the advantages Colorado enjoys on paper, it lost 3-2 to these Blackhawks on Dec. 19 in one of the rare pleasant evenings on the ice for Chicago this season. The Blackhawks were comically besieged by injuries at that time, and it took a 37-save effort from Petr Mrazek to tally that win. But there were also moments where the Blackhawks owned the play in that game, looking like the better of the two sides for the second period. Games like that have been virtually nonexistent since the calendar flipped, as the Blackhawks are 4-16-3 in 2024 and a pair of overtime defeats in their last two games account for two of the five points Chicago has tallied in the last 13 games (1-10-3). Nothing on paper suggests the Blackhawks will offer much resistance for the Avalanche in this game but the same could’ve been said prior to that aforementioned win over Colorado just before Christmas.
Here’s the lineup that will attempt to repeat that performance:
And, apparently, this is a pretty good day in Blackhawks’ history:
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Avalanche
44.02% (31st) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 51.83% (9th)
42.51% (31st) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 51.06% (13th)
2.07 (32nd) — Goals per game — 3.65 (2nd)
3.51 (t-27th) — Goals against per game — 3.13 (t-17th)
45.8% (31st) — Faceoffs — 47.9% (24th)
13.3% (31st) — Power play — 23.7% (7th)
77.7% (22nd) — Penalty kill — 81.0% (7th)
How to watch
When: 8 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago, IL
TV: ESPN
Webstream: ESPN+/Hulu
Radio: WGN 720