Fresh off a strong win on Thursday night, the Blackhawks return home to face the top team in the league on Friday night at the United Center: the Colorado Avalanche.
Colorado is the No. 1 team in the league standings, the best at scoring goals (3.69 per game) and preventing them (2.48 per game), with their superiority further confirmed by the best expected goal share in the league (56.21 percent). The Avs’ only real opponent this season has been boredom. On Jan. 10, they had 73 points in 44 games (33-4-7), 12 points clear of the next closest teams: the Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars. With Dallas catching fire and Colorado cooling off, that’s now a two-point gap with the Avs at 98 in 67 games and the Stars at 96 in 68. Colorado had a spurt of success on this side of the Olympic break with victories in five straight but has since lost four of five, including a shootout loss to those Sars two nights prior. One more meeting between those two teams awaits in early April, with the fate of the Central Division likely resting upon it.
Injuries have popped up a bit, too, with Ross Colton, Gabriel Landeskog and Artturi Lehkonen all on the shelf at the moment, although those guys are closer to depth pieces than main attractions. The top scoring trio of Nathan MacKinnon (a ridiculous 111 points in 66 games), Martin Necas (81 in 64) and Cale Makar (a nice 69 in 67) are all still here. They also have Nazem Kadri again after adding him at the trade deadline.
Below is Colorado’s lineup from that aforementioned loss to Dallas. A point of any kind during this game would make the Avs the first team to clinch a spot in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
As for the Hawks, things are looking up after one of the team’s better all-around performances of the season in Minnesota on Thursday night, which resulted in a 2-1 Chicago victory over the Wild. The only roster update to share is that Dominic Toninato was called up from Rockford on Friday morning, which suggests that Sacha Boisvert’s visa issues persist and we’ll still be left waiting for his NHL debut.
The expectation is for Arvid Soderblom to take over in net after Spencer Knight picked up the win against Minnesota. That and Toninato’s insertion into the lineup — perhaps to replace a D and go back to the typical 12-forward/6-defenseman setup — would appear to be the only differences. What took the ice against the Wild on Thursday is below:
A similar performance, if not an even better one, will be necessary against a team that is loaded with talent, had the last night off, and has had some grumbling from its best player recently.
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Avalanche
46.30% (29th) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 56.48% (2nd)
43.91% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 56.21% (1st)
2.6 (t-29th) — Goals per game — 3.69 (1st)
3.13 (22nd) — Goals against per game — 2.48 (1st)
46.6% (31st) — Faceoffs — 51.3% (8th)
18.9% (21st) — Power play — 16.1% (t-29th)
84.7% (1st) — Penalty kill — 82.6% (6th)
(All stats from this season)
How to watch
When: 7:30 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: CHSN
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720