The Blackhawks and Wild renew acquaintances on Thursday night in the Twin Cities, just about 48 hours after the Wild beat the Hawks 4-3 in overtime on Tuesday night at the United Center, which has been the outcome of every meeting between these two Central Division foes this season.
There’s nothing new to report on either team, so no need for a lengthy preamble here. The win on Tuesday means that it’s now a 19-game unbeaten streak for Minnesota (18-0-1) against Chicago, a streak that’s just as annoying as it is surprising. Maybe the Wild can hang a banner if they get to 20 in this game after they’re bounced from the first round of the playoffs for the 396th time.
Below is the lineup from Tuesday’s game, with reported changes being Jesper Wallstedt in net and Bobby Brink returning to the lineup, perhaps at the expense of Robby Fabbri on the fourth line. Some shuffling on the blue is reportedly happening as well, with Hughes skating alongside Spurgeon and Brodin teaming up with Faber.
Wild lines per x.com/joesmithnhl Kaprizov – Yurov – Boldy Zuccarello – Hartman – Tarasenko Johansson – McCarron – N Foligno Trenin – Sturm – Fabbri Hughes-Faber Brodin-Spurgeon Middleton-Bogosian Gustavsson
— lineslineslines.bsky.social (@lineslineslines.bsky.social) March 17, 2026 at 6:24 PM
As for the Hawks, Scott Powers of The Athletic reported this afternoon that the Blackhawks are still waiting on Sacha Boisvert’s work visa to arrive, so don’t expect him to make his debut in this game. That likely means a similar lineup from Tuesday’s game:
Blackhawks lineup in warmups Greene-Bedard-Burakovsky Bertuzzi-Nazar-Teräväinen Magiapane-Donato-Mikheyev Lardis-Lafferty-Slaggert Vlasic-Levshunov Kaiser-Rinzel Del Mastro-Crevier Knight Söderblom
— Scott Powers (@scottpowers.bsky.social) March 17, 2026 at 6:06 PM
Just beat these assholes already, would ya?
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Wild
46.23% (29th) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 47.95% (24th)
43.81% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 50.68% (15th)
2.61 (29th) — Goals per game — 3.28 (10th)
3.16 (t-22nd) — Goals against per game — 2.81 (t-5th)
46.6% (31st) — Faceoffs — 46.7% (30th)
19.2% (21st) — Power play — 25.1% (t-3rd)
84.5% (1st) — Penalty kill — 79.2% (16th)
(All stats from this season)
How to watch
When: 6:30 p.m. CT
Where: Grand Casino Arena, St. Paul
TV: N/A
Webstream: ESPN+ only!
Radio: WGN 720