The Blackhawks’ home-heavy February schedule continues on Friday night with the New York Rangers in town for an Original Six game at 1901 W. Madison.
These two teams met at Madison Square Garden one month ago, with the Rangers notching a 4-1 win over the Hawks in the final full game Connor Bedard has played this season, as he was injured against the New Jersey Devils one night later and has remained sidelined since with a fractured jaw. Chicago wasn’t exactly flourishing before that, but it’s 3-9 without the young phenom in the lineup, which includes the current five-game losing skid. Offense continues to be mostly a rumor at this point, with the Blackhawks scoring just three goals in those five games and a trio of shutouts mixed in to those results. It’s bleak, folks.
It’s substantially less bleak for the Blueshirts, as the Rangers currently sit atop the Metropolitan Division with 67 points in 51 games, good for the seventh-best point total in the NHL. New York did drop four straight games after beating the Hawks on Jan. 4, but has resurfaced with six wins in its last 10 and a current three-game winning streak. New York beat the Avalanche 2-1 on Monday and followed that up with a 3-1 win over the Lightning on Wednesday night, so the Rangers aren’t just piling up points against bottom-feeders like the Blackhawks. Not much has changed since the Rangers last faced the Hawks, save for the termination of Nick Bonino’s contract, who wasn’t producing much anyway.
The NY defense has been particularly stingy of late, allowing just four goals in the last three victories. All three of those wins were credited to Jonathan Quick, who’s stopped 50 of 52 shots (.961 save percentage) in his last couple of games, improving his season marks of a .919 save percentage and 2.27 goals-against average. Those numbers continue to outshine starter Igor Shesterkin (.899, 2.86), who’s been the backup to Quick for the last three Rangers games. Coach Peter Laviolette said that no goalie controversy exists, but that often sounds a lot like something a coach with a goalie controversy on his hands would say. There’s still a few months for Shesterkin to find his form before the postseason, of course, but doing that sooner would be the better option to ensure that controversy doesn’t morph into a crisis. And Shesterkin is the one receiving the cushy start against the Hawks this evening:
As for the rest of the Rangers lineup, there’s plenty of firepower to overwhelm the Blackhawks with names like Artemi Panarin (67 points in 51 games), Vincent Trocheck (47 in 51), Mika Zibanejad (47 in 50) and Chris Kreider (46 in 51). Adam Fox paces the blue line with 37 in 41, while old friend Erik Gustafsson is playing for yet another team and has 23 in 50. Jacob Trouba is also here until his next suspension because of course he is. New York’s lineup will likely look similar to what it did on Wednesday night, save for the goalie switch:
As for the Hawks, Petr Mrazek gets the nod in net while the mostly punchless forward lineup receives a small change in that Rem Pitlick will skate instead of Zach Sanford, the kind of change that should elicit a shrug of the shoulders and not much else. There could also be a change on the blue line:
If there’s one glimmer of hope to offer, it’s that the Blackhawks home record this season isn’t too bad at 10-12-1, especially when it’s compared to their road record of 4-23-1.
So there’s that.
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Rangers
44.12% (31st) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 50.24% (17th)
42.42% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 50.11% (15th)
2.06 (32nd) — Goals per game — 3.24 (12th)
3.49 (28th) — Goals against per game — 2.78 (9th)
45.4% (32nd) — Faceoffs — 54.1% (t-4th)
12.3% (32nd) — Power play — 26.6% (t-4th)
76.7% (26th) — Penalty kill — 83.2% (t-5th)
How to watch
When: 7:30 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720