The Blackhawks head to the tail-end of a weekend back-to-back against divisional opponents on Saturday night when they head down to Texas to face the Dallas Stars.
The puck will drop on this one about 24 hours after the start of Friday’s home game against the Nashville Predators, which resulted in a disappointing 3-2 loss at home for the Blackhawks, a defeat which came after Chicago owned a 2-0 lead in the middle of the game. A solid outing from Lukas Reichel was more important than that result — or any this season, really — but the quality of opponent takes a significant step forward now.
Dallas is undefeated at home this season and is coming off of a 5-2 win at Boston on Thursday night. The early success has been driven by some newer names, particularly 21-year-old center Logan Stankoven, who’s at a point-per-game (1 G, 7 A) through eight games after a solid NHL debut with 24 games last season. Mason Marchment is also at 8 points (2 G, 6 A) in 8 games, providing additional punch in the Stars’ top six. The other scoring leaders are more expected names: Matt Duchene (4 G, 5 A), Roope Hintz (4 G, 4 A), Tyler Seguin (4 G, 3 A) and Jason Robertson (4 G, 2 A). Add in developing young forward Wyatt Johnston, who had 65 points (32 G, 33 A) in 82 games last season, and it’s easy to see why Dallas was in the top 10 of just about every statistical category worth mentioning, both traditional and possession-based, and seems well on their way to repeating that this time around.
The blue line boasts similar quality, led by one of the most exciting D-men in the game in Miro Heiskanen, who’s in the fourth year of an 8-year deal worth $8.45 million annually that seems more and more like an underpay based on how good he continues to be. Matt Dumba is on the top pairing with him after signing as a free agent in the summer while youngster Thomas Harley continues to see increased ice time as his NHL experience evolves. Behind that strong D corps is clear No. 1 goalie Jake Oettinger, who’s been especially stingy this season with a 4-1 record, .941 save percentage and 1.81 goals-against average. Oettinger silenced some of his postseason doubters (/raises hand) with an excellent 2024 playoff performance (10-9 record, .913 SV%, 2.24 GAA) after some substandard numbers in 2023 (10-9, .895, 3.06). Oettinger will get the nod in net for this game:
That switch between Bourque and Back is the only expected change for Dallas from its lineup in the aforementioned victory over Boston:
Dallas hasn’t veered too much from the team that lost in six to the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Championship last season, the Stars’ second-straight postseason exit one round shy of the Cup final. Advancing beyond that hurdle seems to be the baseline for an acceptable result this season for the Stars, although climbing that mountain remains as treacherous of a journey as it was the last two times Dallas failed to complete it.
As for the Blackhawks, such postseason aspirations remain part of future discussions. The present is more concerned with developing the young talent here and in Rockford, with Friday’s game offering glimpses of the player Chicago that it was getting when it drafted Reichel in the first round back in 2020:
Reichel made plays like that much of the night and was rewarded with some shifts alongside Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen later in the game. Whether that strong outing earned Reichel a lineup promotion won’t be known until coach Luke Richardson meets with the media later on Saturday afternoon. Talent hasn’t been the major concern with Reichel: consistency has been. And regardless of where he suits up against Dallas, a similar level of effort would do wonders for all parties involved.
There’s also some question regarding the Blackhawks goalie following some updates from Friday evening:
Either way, the Blackhawks are facing one of the conference’s consistently quality teams of the last few years in their barn while they’ve had a day off and Chicago arrives late after a deflating loss. Most signs point to a comfortable Dallas win but that none of that prevents the Blackhawks from making the Stars’ lives difficult for an evening.
Let’s go Hawks.
[UPDATE] Mrazek’s starting:
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Stars
43.71% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 53.15% (5th)
42.37% (31st) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 55.16% (3rd)
2.17 (32nd) — Goals per game — 3.59 (3rd)
3.52 (29th) — Goals against per game — 2.83 (9th)
46.3% (29th) — Faceoffs — 54.0% (2nd)
16.60% (28th) — Power play — 24.2% (6th)
75.76% (27th) — Penalty kill — 82.0% (8th)
(All stats from last season)
How to Watch
When: 7 p.m. CT
Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas
TV: CHSN (How to Watch) And if this stuff isn’t sorted out by November we may start posting a lengthy list of places to pirate streams of the game for free. Only, like, sorta kidding.
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720