The Blackhawks continue their five-game stretch against Central Division teams as they host the Stars to finish the home-and-home. In between, Dallas had to play a game against the Golden Knights on Monday.
Chicago (9-9-5) has dropped three straight, although their defeat against Dallas (15-8-2) came in the shootout, and there’s been a lot of fallout from that. Chicago’s offense is doing… poorly in recent times, with just five goals in their last three games. The Stars just allowed only two goals to the Golden Knights, so this might not be the game where the Blackhawks redeem themselves.
The good news is, even if the Blackhawks’ forwards can’t get it going, their defense has come alive offensively. Olli Maatta was the lone goal scorer against the Stars, jumping in a 2-on-1 situation with Alex “I’m here for assists this season” DeBrincat. That joins the Blackhawks’ defensive corps with four goals in their last three games.
Corey Crawford will start in net after Robin Lehner had the previous start against Dallas.
Anton Khudobin will get his second straight start against the Blackhawks after Ben Bishop took the net against the Golden Knights. In the first game, he made 38 saves on 39 shots in the first outing, a .974 save percentage. Alexander Radulov played incredibly well against the Golden Knights, scoring two goals and getting an assist, and John Klingberg had three assists.
The Blackhawks outplayed the Stars last time these teams competed, and had 3.28 expected goals for at even strength to Dallas’s 2.79.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Stars
47.1% (27th) — Corsi For — 49.1 (20th)
49.0% (22nd) — Faceoffs — 52.5% (Fourth)
2.87 (18th) — Goals per game — 2.84 (20th)
2.87 (11th) — Goals against per game — 2.32 (2nd)
12.5% (28th) — Power play — 15.1% (25th)
80.8% (18th) — Penalty kill — 85.7% (4th)
Lineups
Blackhawks
Saad — Toews — Nylander
DeBrincat — Strome — Kane
Shaw — Kampf — Kubalik
Carpenter — Dach — Smith
Keith — Gustafsson
De Haan — Seabrook
Maatta — Murphy
Crawford
Lehner
Stars
Benn — Hintz — Seguin
Radulov — Dickinson — Perry
Janmark — Pavelski— Gurianov
Cogliano — Faksa— Comeau
Lindell — Klingberg
Oleksiak — Heiskanen
Sekera — Polak
Khudobin
Bishop
How to watch
When: 7 p.m.
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: NBC Sports
Live stream: NBC Sports app