A well-rested Blackhawks team is on the road on Thursday, kicking off a weekend jaunt to the Pacific Northwest with a game against the Seattle Kraken.
Seattle’s recently turned things around slightly after a bit of a freefall in late October and early November that saw the team win just one time in an eight-game stretch. An 8-2 thumping of the Montreal Canadiens a few days before Halloween was the only saving grace in the slog, with the offense then drying up completely by scoring just one goal in the next three games combined. The Kraken do have victories in their last two outings, though: a 4-3 overtime win over the Golden Knights last Friday and a 5-2 win at home over the Blue Jackets on Tuesday, so the offense has returned a bit and that’s led to better results.
There’s not a ton of top-end talent here, either. Seattle’s offense is paced by Jared McCann, who has a team-high 19 points (8 G, 11 A) in 16 games, although a shot percentage of 20.5 this season over a career mark of 12.6 suggests some regression is coming his way. Along with McCann on the top line are the much older Jordan Eberle (6 G, 5 A) and much younger Matty Beniers (3 G, 6 A), who are decent enough players but don’t seem like the most threatening of top-line trios in the NHL. Depth scoring has been Seattle’s hallmark since its inception and there are nine players with at least seven points on this team. The Kraken seem to be a problem for the Blackhawks because Seattle tends to roll four decent lines, giving it a matchup advantage against a Chicago side that has no such forward depth. But those four decent lines get overmatched against higher-quality teams, which is why Seattle found itself outside of the playoff picture last season and isn’t trending towards the playoffs at the moment with 15 points in the standings that has the Kraken sixth in the Pacific and 11th in the West.
The defense was bolstered by the free-agent signing of Brandon Montour, who cashed in with a 7-year, $50 million contract ($7,142,857 AAV) after leading the Panthers to a Cup last summer. He’s skating 23:44 a night here and will be a problem when he’s on the ice, but the rest of Seattle’s blue-line corps isn’t going to strike fear in the heart of opposing forwards. In net, Joey Daccord has been pretty good with a 6-3-1 record, .916 save percentage and 2.71 goals-against average and he’s expected to start against the Blackhawks in this game per coach Dan Bylsma:
Bylsma “I’m not going to tell you who’s starting (in net), but Grubauer is backing up.” #SeaKraken
— Alison Lukan (@alisonl.bsky.social) November 14, 2024 at 1:00 PM
Here’s the expected Seattle lineup, per Circling Seattle Sports:
As for the Blackhawks, they’ve had several days off to rest following Sunday’s 2-1 at home win over the Wild, a victory that halted a brief two-game skid. That time off means Petr Mrazek will remain in the Blackhawks net and there’s a possibility another Chicago veteran may be back in the lineup:
Petr Mrazek starts for the Blackhawks against the Kraken tonight. Alec Martinez is a game-time decision. If he plays, TBD who will be scratched, Richardson said.
— Ben Pope (@benpopecst.bsky.social) November 14, 2024 at 1:56 PM
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The lines in front of the Chicago goal saw some re-working at practice earlier this week, with Connor Bedard bumped over to wing, Teuvo Teravainen on the opposite side and Philipp Kurashev at the pivot at the top of the lineup. Nick Foligno headed to the second line between Taylor Hall and Tyler Bertuzzi to complete the top six, but it’s that top trio that eyes will mostly be fixed upon as Bedard’s numbers continue to lag behind the expected output from the youngster. It’s too early in a number of ways to offer any legitimate concern but it’s also be quite nice of Bedard found himself in a scoring binge in the not-too-distant future.
And there’s nothing saying Bedard can’t snap out of that funk with a hat trick in this one.
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Kraken
43.71% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 51.32% (11th)
42.37% (31st) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 50.59% (16th)
2.17 (32nd) — Goals per game — 2.61 (29th)
3.52 (29th) — Goals against per game — 2.83 (8th)
46.3% (29th) — Faceoffs — 48.6% (24th)
16.60% (28th) — Power play — 20.7% (17th)
75.76% (27th) — Penalty kill — 78.8% (19th)
(All stats from last season)
How to Watch
When: 9 p.m. CT
Where: Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle
TV: CHSN (A new app launches Friday, but none of that helps this evening!)
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720