And so it arrives: the final game of the 2024-25 Chicago Blackhawks hockey season, with the last puck drop set for 6 p.m. north of the border on Tuesday night against the Ottawa Senators.
Here’s where we’d typically do a lengthy preamble on the opponent for the evening but there’s no point in doing so because this game doesn’t mean a damn thing for either team. We’ve known for a while the Blackhawks were virtually locked in to the No. 31 spot in the standings, but that’s been officially confirmed in the last few weeks. Ottawa is postseason-bound but, with two games remaining, they’re also locked into the No. 1 wild card spot in the East and will face the Toronto Maple Leafs in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. With that spot guaranteed, Ottawa is resting many of its key players, leading to a lineup for this game which feels more like a B-side version of a “remember some guys” discussion.
It appears that #BlackhawksLegends Adam Gaudette, Matthew Highmore, and Dennis Gilbert will all be in the lineup for Ottawa tonight.
— Greg Boysen (@gregboysen.bsky.social) April 15, 2025 at 11:06 AM
And Anton Forsberg, too!
— Greg Boysen (@gregboysen.bsky.social) April 15, 2025 at 11:16 AM
How Ottawa will line up is anyone’s guess, given that No. 1 defenseman Jake Sanderson isn’t playing and Brady Tkachuk still sidelined by an injury that Ottawa hopes will be healed when the postseason arrives next week.
Giroux, Jensen, Sanderson and Hodgson won't play. Forsberg will start #Sens
— Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) April 15, 2025
Leading scorer Tim Stutzle (75 points in 80 games) is expected to play, as is runner-up Drake Batherson (64 in 80), so there will be some offensive punch in the Senators lineup. But it wouldn’t be surprised to see most of Ottawa’s players taking a more conservative approach to this game, given the lack of stakes involved before next week.
As for the Blackhawks, they’ve been playing mostly for pride lately, although the roster still has a healthy dose of kids who are new enough to the NHL that they likely won’t be as quick to check on flights to the nearest beach during intermissions in this evening’s season finale. Monday’s game against the Canadiens brought its own adrenaline, given how raucous the building in Montreal was for Ivan Demidov’s debut with a postseason berth available to be clinched. Chicago spoiled that party with a shootout win, but no such stakes exist in this game, so it’s possible this season ends with a relative whimper compared to the entertaining events from that Canadiens game.
No morning skate updates to share, but the expectation here is that Spencer Knight gets the nod in goal after Arvid Soderblom backstopped Monday’s victory. Other lineup changes may be possible on the blue line, specifically the reinsertion of Kevin Korchinski into the lineup.
Here was that Chicago lineup from Monday, as a reminder:
Blackhawks lineup in warmups Donato-Bedard-Mikheyev Teräväinen-Nazar-Bertuzzi Moore-Greene-Foligno Slaggert-Veleno-Reichel Vlasic-Rinzel Murphy-Creiver Kaiser-Levshunov Söderblom Knight
— Scott Powers (@scottpowers.bsky.social) April 14, 2025 at 5:37 PM
No more Blackhawks hockey until October after this one. Might as well enjoy it, eh?
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Senators
44.17% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 49.93% (16th)
43.19% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 49.21% (21st)
2.72 (27th) — Goals per game — 2.9 (15th)
3.57 (31st) — Goals against per game — 2.79 (t-9th)
44.8% (31st) — Faceoffs — 53.0% (4th)
24.7% (9th) — Power play — 23.0% (14th)
79.9% (13th) — Penalty kill — 78.0% (t-16th)
(All stats from this season)
How to watch
When: 6 p.m. CT
Where: Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa
TV: CHSN
Webstream: ESPN+, Hulu
Radio: WGN 720