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Hang Up Your Stockin’: Blackhawks at Canadiens Preview

Another game in Canada with the Hawks still in need of a slump-busting performance.

Posted on by Dave Melton
Credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images

The Blackhawks’ Canadian tour continues on Thursday night with another Original Six matchup, as the Montreal Canadiens are this evening’s opponent.

Montreal’s had a roller-coaster ride of a season, with a blistering 9-3-0 start followed by a 1-4-3 stretch that brought it back to Earth a bit, followed by victories in five of seven and then, leading into this game, losses in four of six. The Canadiens most recent game was a 4-1 loss to the Flyers on Tuesday night, so heavy legs shouldn’t be an issue for the blue, blanc et rouge.

The offense has been fairly productive this season, with four of its forwards already over the 20-point mark, led by captain Nick Suzuki’s 37 (9 G, 28 A) in 33 games. Behind him are Cole Caufield and his team-high 17 goals (along with 16 assists), Ivan Demidov (7 G, 18 A) and Juraj Slafkovsky (9 G, 11 A). But any discussion of the Montreal offense must include blue-liner Lane Hutson, who’s emerging as one of the game’s top offensive threats from the blue line and has 28 points (5 G, 23 A) in 33 games after winning the Calder last season with an absurd 60 assists as part of his 66 points in 82 games. It’ll be up to the Hawks forward to keep him in check, as Hutson rarely stays still at the blue line and any open space available to him will quickly be turned into a quality scoring chance.

Injuries have affected Montreal a bit, with 2020 first-rounder Kaiden Guhle out since mid-October following surgery and Kirby Dach on injured reserve since mid-November, which means we will not have another Dach brothers on-ice reunion in this game. That did happen when these two teams met back on Oct. 11 for the third game of the season for each side, a 3-2 win for Montreal thanks to a goal from Guhle with just 15 seconds left in the game. There were some spicy moments during that game, including a fight-filled second period that featured 40 penalty minutes. We’ll find out soon enough if any of the animosity from that night still exists a few months later.

No word on any Montreal lines from the morning skate, so brush up on your French with the lineup below from Tuesday’s game against the Flyers. The only change to report so far is in net, where Jakub Dobes is expected to start. Goaltending has been an issue for the Habs all season, with Sam Montembeault posting the worst numbers (5-6-1 record, .857 save percentage, 3.65 goals-against average) and Dobes closer to average than good (11-5-2, .892, 3.03).

As for the Hawks, Tuesday’s loss saw another third-period lead evaporate, sending the team to their third loss in a row and 11th in the last 14 games. The Blackhawks will be getting one of their high draft picks back for this game, but it’s not the injured Connor Bedard: it’s defenseman Artyom Levshunov, who was scratched on Tuesday night after showing up late for Monday’s practice. His return coincided with some shifting of personnel on power-play units during the morning skate:

Spencer Knight was in the starter’s net, so expected him to get the nod there. No word on any sort of lines from the morning skate, so it’ll remain a mystery where Levshunov is re-inserted into the lineup that took the ice against the Leafs on Tuesday.

Good night to break out of this slump, isn’t it?

Let’s go Hawks.

Tale of the Tape

Blackhawks — Statistic — Canadiens
46.81% (28th) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 48.08% (20th)
44.38% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 48.72% (19th)
2.82 (t-24th) — Goals per game — 3.15 (12th)
3.0 (t-14th) — Goals against per game — 3.48 (t-31st)
46.5% (29th) — Faceoffs — 49.3% (t-20th)
21.3% (10th) — Power play — 26.1% (4th)
83.9% (4th) — Penalty kill — 76.9% (25th)
(All stats from this season)

How to watch

When: 6 p.m. CT
Where: Bell Centre, Montreal
TV: CHSN
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720

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