A familiar foe is the opponent with the venue shifting to the west coast as the Chicago Blackhawks are on the road to face the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday evening.
Much of what was written in this space before the two teams met on Friday night remains the same: Los Angeles is a pretty good hockey team, while Chicago very much is not. The Kings are among the best possession teams in the league in terms of both quantity (54.60 percent share of shot attempts, 4th in the league) and quality (55.03 percent share of expected goals, third) while the Blackhawks are not (44.53 shot attempt share and 43.16 expected goal share, both 31st in the league). LA still has the best penalty kill in the league (86.4 percent) and remains one of the stingiest defensive teams in the league (2.58 goals against per game, third best in the league). Chicago is, again, neither (No. 22 in penalty kill at 77.7 percent, 29th in the league at 3.54 goals against per game). It’s wildly lopsided on paper, which is why the comprehensive beatdown doled out by LA last Friday night at the United Center was not a surprise to anyone who’s watched this Chicago side consistently.
After walloping the Hawks, the Kings continued their recent trend of alternating results by losing 4-1 in Texas to the Dallas Stars. They’ve been off since that Saturday defeat, though, so this will be a well-rested bunch. The only potential development with LA is that Viktor Arvidsson could be returning from the injury that’s had him sidelined for about one month:
As for the Blackhawks, there is some lineup news which should lead to much rejoicing in this corner of the interwebz:
Kaiser, who was recalled from Rockford on Monday, appears to be slotting in alongside Nikita Zaitsev on the third D pairing, sending Jarred Tinordi to the land of popcorn and hot dogs (aka the press box). This would seem to be the ideal approach for as long as Kaiser is here, because Tinordi’s NHL future may not exist beyond next month while Kaiser’s NHL future could stretch for another decade.
It’s still a steep mountain to climb just for the Blackhawks to remain in this game against a clearly superior Los Angeles side. But with Kaiser in the lineup along with Bedard and Kurashev and Reichel and Slaggert and Vlasic and Korchinski, at least there’s a decent number of potential (or already proven) long-term pieces to keep an eye on for 60 minutes this evening.
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Kings
44.53% (31st) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 54.60% (4th)
43.16% (31st) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 55.03% (3rd)
2.19 (t-31st) — Goals per game — 3.01 (19th)
3.54 (29th) — Goals against per game — 2.58 (3rd)
46.9% (29th) — Faceoffs — 50.3% (14th)
15.9% (28th) — Power play — 21.7% (t-13th)
77.7% (22nd) — Penalty kill — 86.4% (1st)
How to Watch
When: 9 p.m. CT
Where: Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles
TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Webstream: NBC Sports App
Radio: WGN 720