With losses in six of their last seven games, the Chicago Blackhawks are on home ice once again Tuesday night, hosting the Seattle Kraken at the United Center.
Seattle enters this game in a better situation, having won three of its last five — although the Kraken’s most recent game was a 5-1 loss at home to the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night. With an 8-9-5 record (21 points), Seattle is tied for fourth place in the Pacific Division with the Calgary Flames as it looks to catch back up from losing its first four games of the season.
Injuries have been the biggest issue for the Kraken so far this season, and that game against Vancouver did not help. Both Oliver Bjorkstrand — the team’s leading scorer with 19 points (7 G, 12 A) in 22 games) — and Philipp Grubauer — the No. 1 goalie — exited that game early with an injury. Both players were ultimately OK, although top-six forward Andre Burakovsky is not: he’s still on injured reserve. Add in multiple injury absences for Brandon Tanev in the first few months of the season and it all adds up to a frustrating first quarter of the season for the Kraken, as our friends over at Davy Jones’ Locker Room summarized earlier this week.
There’s still plenty of offensive firepower here, though. Vince Dunn is tied with Bjorkstrand for the team lead with 19 points (3 G, 16 A) from the blue line, with Jaden Schwartz (15 points in 22 games) and Eeli Tolvanen (also 15 in 22) rounding out the top four in scoring. Matthew Beniers, Seattle’s No. 2 overall pick in 2021, is experiencing a bit of a sophomore slump with just 10 points (3 G, 7 A) in 22 games, but last season’s Calder Trophy winner seems capable of a breakout game at just about any time.
The Kraken remain a decent puck-possession team in terms of both quantity and quality: they’re 13th in the league with a 50.7 percent shot attempt share, 12th in shot share (50.7 percent as well) and 11th in expected goal share (51.4 percent). The biggest issue for Seattle this season could be in net, where neither the aforementioned Grubauer (5-6 record, .885 save percentage, 3.36 goals-against average) nor backup Joey Daccord (3-3, .895, 2.99) are posting numbers that will inspire sonnets.
No line rushes to report for Seattle from the morning skate but here are a few roster updates:
As for the Blackhawks, the biggest news of the day had nothing to do with the present status of the team, which isn’t all that great right now considering the results and some off-ice noise hovering around the organ-i-zation. Injuries and absences were part of a small shuffle in the top six, with Nick Foligno returning to the top line alongside Connor Bedard and Philipp Kurashev while Lukas Reichel joins center Cole Guttman and Taylor Raddysh on the second line:
That lineup could be subject to change, though, based on how things unfold throughout the day:
Wouldn’t be a bad time for a decisive victory to lift some spirits around the team right now.
Let’s go Hawks.
How to watch
When: 7:30 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720