Fresh off their second win in a row, the Blackhawks are back in action on Sunday night, hosting the Vegas Golden Knights at the United Center.
These two teams met in Vegas one month ago, with the Hawks unable to hold on to a late lead before ultimately losing 4-3 in the shootout. That win was part of a hot stretch for VGK, which won six of seven in late November and early December. But it’s been all downhill since, with the Knights losing seven of their last eight games, including a 4-3 loss to the Blues on Friday night in St. Louis. Injuries haven’t helped matters in Vegas, with top blue-liner Shea Theodore heading to injured reserve before Christmas and his typical D partner — Brayden McNabb — joining him there at the end of 2025. Combine their absences with consistently subpar goaltending and it adds up to a team that’s allowed over four goals per game in that stretch of eight. It’s not like the offense has gone quiet, either. VGK is averaging 3.25 goals per game over that same timeframe, but this team’s collective inability to keep the puck out of the net is a significant reason why it’s suddenly looking up at the Oilers in the Pacific standings.
There could be some relief coming for VGK, with goaltender Adin Hill spotted at the team’s practice on Saturday in Chicago, another sign he’s closer to his first game action since October. Until that happens, though, this team will likely need to outscore its opponents to pick up wins. The roster is certainly capable of that, boasting names like Eichel and Marner and Stone and Hertl and Barbashev, who are all over 30 points this season. But scoring three goals a night hasn’t been enough for this team recently.
Here was the VGK lineup from Friday’s game:
VGK lines per Scripps Sports pregame show
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) January 2, 2026
Barbashev-Eichel-Bowman
Howden-Marner-Stone
Smith-Hertl-Dorofeyev
Saad-Sissons-Kolesar
Hanifin-Whitecloud
Lauzon-Korczak
Megna-Hutton
Hart
As for the Hawks, they have a chance to silence a building narrative around the team this season, which is that they struggle mightily when faced with a back-to-back games on the calendar. Several of the team’s biggest debacles this season have come in prior instances, and there are multiple others awaiting over the second half of the season. A strong outing in this game against a team in the midst of a healthy slump would do wonders towards putting that narrative to bed.
The lineup for this game will probably be the same as it was on Saturday night in Washington, save for a change in net, with Spencer Knight earning himself a night off with a stellar performance against the Capitals.
Blackhawks in warmups: Bertuzzi-Greene-Burakovsky Donato-Dickinson-Mikheyev Teräväinen-Moore-Lardis Dach-Foligno-Slaggert Vlasic-Crevier Kaiser-Levshunov Grzelcyk-Muprhy Knight Söderblom
— Mark Lazerus (@marklazerus.bsky.social) January 3, 2026 at 5:36 PM
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Golden Knights
47.31% (26th) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 50.83% (12th)
44.92% (30th) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 52.20% (6th)
2.76 (t-24th) — Goals per game — 3.1 (15th)
3.15 (t-18th) — Goals against per game — 3.03 (14th)
46.4% (t-30th) — Faceoffs — 51.9% (8th)
21.6% (11th) — Power play — 24.6% (7th)
83.7% (t-3rd) — Penalty kill — 81.1% (t-13th)
(All stats from this season)
How to watch
When: 6 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: CHSN
Webstream: ESPN+/Hulu
Radio: WGN 720