Back home and following pair of days off, the Blackhawks host the Minnesota Wild on St. Patrick’s Day for a national broadcast on TNT, the first of consecutive meetings between the two divisional foes.
The Wild are largely in cruise control for the rest of the regular season, as they’re pretty solidly locked into the No. 3 spot in the Central Division, almost guaranteed to be facing the Dallas Stars in the first round of the playoffs. Minnesota is six points behind Dallas’ 94 and the Stars have a game in hand, so making up that ground over the final 16 games of the season probably won’t be happening. It entered the Olympic break on a five-game winning streak but may have downshifted since returning with just four wins in 10 games and losses in the last three ahead of this evening’s outing in Chicago. Those losses drew the ire of GM Bill Guerin in some public comments earlier this week, so the Wild could have a little more fire when they hit the UC ice on Tuesday.
Staying healthy remains the primary objective for Minnesota as the regular season closes but that hasn’t gone so well with Bobby Brink injured last week and Marcus Foligno injured two weeks prior. Brink was listed more as day-to-day while Foligno remains week-to-week, and neither seems destined for a return this evening after Minnesota called up forward Hunter Haight from the Iowa Wild on Tuesday morning. Other news from the morning skate has Joel Eriksson Ek sidelined with a lower-body injury, replaced in the lineup by Robby Fabbri. Filip Gustavsson is the anticipated starter, and he’s been solid all season with numbers to back it up: 24-11-6 record, .911 save percentage, 2.50 goals-against average.
There’s still plenty of firepower in front of Gustavsson, too. Kirill Kaprizov remains the main attraction at forward with 79 points (38 G, 41 A) in 68 games, while youngster Matt Boldy is cementing his top-six status with 75 (38 G, 37 A) in 64. The blue line is anchored by the electrifying Quinn Hughes, who has 44 points (4 G, 40 A) in 36 games since coming over from Vancouver late last year. Additional depth scoring from veterans like Mats Zuccarello (41 in 48), Marcus Johansson (40 in 61) and Vladimir Tarasenko (38 in 61) has been solid enough during the regular season but questions are always going to remain regarding this team until it advances beyond the first round of the postseason, something it hasn’t done since the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs despite eight opportunities to do so.
No lines to report from Minnesota’s morning skate and the lineup below from Sunday’s game against the Maple Leafs will require some work with Eriksson Ek not playing this evening.
A familiar face will be on the the Minnesota side of the bench this evening, as former Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno suits up for the Wild in his sixth game since leaving Chicago just before the trade deadline a few weeks ago. He has an assist in the five games he’s played, averaging 11:03 of ice time per night.
As for the Hawks, Monday’s news saw 2024 first-rounder Sacha Boisvert join the team by signing his entry-level contract, although visa issues mean his debut won’t be in this game. Tuesday’s morning skate was an optional one for the Hawks, so the best guess of a lineup is from Monday’s practice, which saw some movement among the D corps:
Blackhawks lines in practice, D pairs switched up:
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 16, 2026
Greene-Bedard-Burakovsky
Bertuzzi-Nazar-Teravainen
Mangiapane-Donato-Mikheyev
Lardis-Lafferty-Slaggert
Vlasic-Levshunov
Kaiser-Rinzel
Del Mastro-Crevier
Grzelcyk
The sight of Lardis on the fourth line remains a disappointing one, with Blashill offering this explanation on Monday:
Blashill on Nick Lardis playing on the fourth line:
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 16, 2026
“This is a hard league to only have six spots to make, so he’s got to show us the depth of his game, that he can add offense without having to be on the ice with the very best players on the team.”
“It’s hard to learn how to…
The Hawks have won just three of 10 and didn’t seem to put up much of a fight during a snoozy 4-0 loss in Vegas on Saturday night. They should probably have some extra jump in their game, too.
And, for the love of all things holy, please don’t ruin the Dropkick Murphys for us this evening.
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Wild
46.24% (29th) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 48.5% (24th)
44.05% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 48.90% (N/A)
2.61 (30th) — Goals per game — 3.26 (12th)
3.15 (23rd) — Goals against per game — 2.81 (t-5th)
46.7% (30th) — Faceoffs — 46.6% (31st)
19.4% (21st) — Power play — 24.8% (5th)
84.9% (1st) — Penalty kill — 79.0% (t-16th)
(All stats from this season)
How to watch
When: 6:30 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: TNT
Webstream: HBO Max
Radio: WGN 720