The Chicago Blackhawks host the Seattle Kraken for the the third and final time this season on Tuesday night at the United Center.
The Kraken head into this matchup on the fringe of the NHL Western Conference wild card race: they’re still mathematically in the hunt, but they face a tough uphill battle to re-enter playoff contention, sitting eight points back from the second and final wild card slot. That type of jump isn’t impossible, but it’s pretty unlikely, especially since the Kraken are just 4-5-1 in their last 10. They managed to pick up a point against the league-leading Winnipeg Jets on Sunday, but the way in which the game went down was quite sour: the Kraken had an early 2-0 lead against the Jets before allowing three unanswered goals in the 3-2 defeat. A lot of the Kraken games this season have featured solid play, but they’ve lack the ability to close out games.
A big part of Seattle’s issues this season has been its offense, which has been middling at best (2.97 goals per game, currently 15th in the league). The roster doesn’t have a single player at or near a point-per-game, though they have a respectable group of forwards who would be second-liners on any other team. Case in point: Chandler Stephenson leads the team with 47 points (11 G, 36 A) in 67 games while Jared McCann (0.66 PPG), Shane Wright (0.58), Jaden Schwartz (0.57), and Matty Beniers (0.55) round out the top-six among players who have hit the 60-game mark for Seattle. Jordan Eberle (0.70) and Kaapo Kakko (0.66) have been good when in the lineup, but they’ve only been with the team for 28 and 35 games, respectively. On defense, Vince Dunn (0.65) and Brandon Montour (0.55) have been a force, but that’s about it.
The bigger issue for the Kraken has been how porous they’ve been on defense: they allow 3.21 goals against per game, just 24th in the league. Combining that lack of defense with their inability to score and it’s not surprising that the recent expansion team is floundering in mediocrity this season.
The Kraken did not hold a morning skate in Chicago on Tuesday, so their exact lineup is unknown. Below is what they rolled out in their loss to the Jets. One additional player to keep an eye on here: Jani Nyman, a 20-year-old prospect who was recently called up from the AHL where he had 41 points (26 G, 15 A) in 55 games this season and made an instant impact with two goals in his three NHL games.
After a nice little five game-stretch where the Blackhawks picked up points in every match, they’ve since dropped three straight in regulation while being outscored 13-4. In their latest loss, a 6-2 defeat against the Vancouver Canucks, the Blackhawks outshot their opponent 19-15 but their defensive breakdowns and lack of offensive help from the forward group doomed them. The bright side of the game was contributions from young blue-liners: Alex Vlasic and Wyatt Kaiser both scored, while Artyom Levshunov picked up his first NHL point.
Considering the Blackhawks current losing streak, it’s not surprising their lines will be shuffled for Tuesday:
Blackhawks lines in practice today:
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 17, 2025
Donato-Nazar-Bedard
Teravainen-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Slaggert-Foligno-Dach
Maroon-Reichel-Bertuzzi
Vlasic-Levshunov
Del Mastro-Murphy
Kaiser-Martinez
Ryan Donato has been promoted to the top line with Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar, and it looks like the latter will be the center of the line. This feels a bit like a desperation “load ’em up” kind of line that disregards ideal positions for the players, but they could definitely work, especially since Nazar and Donato have been the best two forwards for the Blackhawks as of late.
Jason Dickinson is back between Teuvo Teravainen and Ilya Mikheyev to reunite one of the better checking lines in the NHL from earlier in the season. Dickinson has not looked great since coming back from injury, so maybe this will jump start him. Colton Dach was also demoted to the third line and Pat Maroon is expected to come in for Joe Veleno on the fourth, which means Nick Foligno and Lukas Reichel are being forced to play center again because the team has too few of them. Not ideal centers, but the Blackhawks don’t have many good options in general.
The defense is getting a little shake-up as well: Ethan Del Mastro is coming in for Louis Crevier, but he’ll play with Connor Murphy instead of Crevier’s partner in the last game, Alec Martinez. Martinez will be with Wyatt Kaiser instead. Aryom Levshunov will stay paired with Alex Vlasic.
Lastly, it’s Spencer Knight’s turn as starter, so he’ll be the goalie in net against the Kraken. Knight has faced Seattle twice already this season, splitting the games in spite of posting an impressive .936 save percentage.
Spencer Knight will start in goal tonight vs. Seattle. #Blackhawks
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) March 18, 2025
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Kraken
43.95% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 48.12% (25th)
42.97% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 46.11% (29th)
2.70 (26th) — Goals per game — 2.97 (15th)
3.51 (30th) — Goals against per game — 3.21 (24th)
44.9% (31st) — Faceoffs — 48.8% (24th)
24.4% (8th) — Power play — 18.8% (24th)
81.1% (12th) — Penalty kill — 77.3% (19th)
(All stats from this season)
How to watch
When: 7:30 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: CHSN+
Webstream: ESPN+, Hulu
Radio: WGN 720