The Blackhawks won their first two games against the Red Wings by a combined score of 10-3 and will look for similar results starting on Monday night at the Little Caesars Arena.
Those games proved to be a launching pad for Kevin Lankinen, who had allowed five goals to the Panthers in his first start before picking up both wins against Detroit. He’s now at a 6-2-3 record in his first season.
The Red Wings got off to a good start to the season, winning two of their first four games. Then the Blackhawks sent them into a spiral, as Detroit lost eight straight including those first two against Chicago. But Detroit is back to exactly where they were before the first set against Chicago, having won two of their last four games once again.
At least the Red Wings aren’t making international headlines, nor are they worse than expected. After finishing last in the 2019-20 season, Detroit likely wasn’t expecting to do much better. It doesn’t help that one of their best young forwards, Tyler Bertuzzi, has been on injured reserve since Feb. 3. Detroit is also missing forward Darren Helm, who has been out since Feb. 11.
Lankinen should start one of the games against Detroit and was in the starter’s crease during Monday’s morning skate, although that’s no guarantee he’ll be the starter. After his second consecutive quality start, Malcolm Subban could also draw back in for one of the games in this set.
The Blackhawks could see a few players return after coming off of the COVID-19 Protocol list. Adam Boqvist has been skating for the last few days, so he could add more offense from the Blackhawks’ blue line in Detroit. It would be an apt restarting point for his season, as the last game he played was against the Red Wings. Ryan Carpenter could draw back in on the fourth line for Chicago as well, having come off the COVID-19 protocol on Saturday. However, it appears none of those changes will happen just yet:
Boqvist, Bowey, Kalynuk, Pirri, Carpenter, Highmore and Delia are practicing more after everyone else left.
So I’d guess they’re the scratches tonight.
That could mean Wallmark is in tonight (replacing Highmore) and Johnson stays in.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) February 15, 2021
Both of these teams could have better possession stats, with each in the bottom 10 in most stats, although the Red Wings clear that bar in high-danger chances. This is a game the Blackhawks have a chance to control play, and they did so in the second game of their last set, with a 63.03 percent expected goal share. These are games the Blackhawks can win.
LGH.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Red Wings
46.37% (30th) — Corsi For — 47.14% (27th)
45.54% (28th) — Expected goals for — 47.51 (23rd)
2.94 (17th) — Goals per game — 2.06 (30th)
2.94 (18th) — Goals against per game — 3.19 (22nd)
48,2% (25th) — Faceoffs — 52.1% (8th)
34.7% (2nd) — Power play — 7.8% (30th)
80.4% (15th) — Penalty kill — 71.7% (27th)
Blackhawks
DeBrincat — Suter — Kane
Janmark — Strome — Kubalik
Kurashev — Soderberg — Hagel
Wallmark — Kampf — Johnson
Keith — Mitchell
de Haan — Carlsson
Zadorov — Beaudin
Lankinen/Subban
Red Wings
Zadina — Larkin — Brome
Mantha — Fabbri — Ryan
Flippula — Namestnikov — Gagner
Glendening — Nielsen — Erne
Nemeth — Hronek
Staal — Stecher
Djoos — Merrill
Greiss
Bernier
How to watch
When: 6:30 p.m.
Where: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit
TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Live stream: NBC Sports app, NHL.TV, ESPN+