Smooth: Blackhawks vs. Wild Preview

The Chicago Blackhawks continue a four-game homestand Wednesday night, welcoming the red-hot Minnesota Wild to the United Center.

The Wild looked like a mess early on, but they’ve been having a lot of success lately, riding a five-game winning streak and an 8-1-1 heater in their last 10, capped off with back-to-back shutouts against the Pittsburgh Penguins (5-0) and Winnipeg Jets (3-0) in their most recent wins. This current run has vaulted them to third in the Central Division and injected some serious energy into a season that looked unsteady early on.

Kirill Kaprizov is doing exactly what the Wild pay him to do: drive the offense like a one-man fast break, leading the team in both goals (13) and points (27) while dragging shifts into dangerous territory almost on command. Matt Boldy isn’t far behind (25 points), matching Kaprizov in goals and rounding out a one-two punch that finally looks as lethal as Minnesota hoped. Behind them, Marcus Johansson has quietly become the resident setup man, stacking assists at a steady clip (11), while Joel Eriksson Ek continues to be the Wild’s do-everything center — scoring enough (15 points), forechecking like a machine, and generally cleaning up whatever needs cleaning. Marco Rossi (13) and Vladimir Tarasenko (10) are the other two players who are above a 0.5 points-per-game rate, but both have missed five games with injury.

On the defensive side of things, Brock Faber (13 points) clearly leads the pack, but rookie Zeev Buium (11) isn’t too far behind. Jonas Brodin is still the steady shutdown defender he’s always been, and reliable veteran Jake Middleton rounds out a solid top-four.

In goal, Jesper Wallstedt has quietly put up a sparkling .935 save percentage, albeit in just eight starts, while Filip Gustavsson’s .902 in 15 games has been more workmanlike than flashy. But together they’ve delivered where it matters, combining for 13.78 goals saved above expected in November and giving the Wild far more stability than they had early on. Gustavsson seems to be the one in net for this game, based on Tuesday’s practice news.

Sounds like Gustavsson tomorrow, but Hynes says it’s not finalized

— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) November 25, 2025

With no players who were injured expected to play Wednesday, Minnesota will likely run the same lines they did on Sunday against the Penguins:

Kaprizov-Yurov-Zuccarello
Johansson-Eriksson Ek-Boldy
Foligno-Sturm-Trenin
Ohgren-Jones-Pitlick

Middleton-Spurgeon
Brodin-Faber
Buium-Bogosian https://t.co/yTf7rrJxmy

— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) November 23, 2025

As for the Blackhawks, they’ve been heading in the opposite direction as the Wild lately: they’re currently on a three-game losing streak. Two of those losses were at least somewhat competitive — a 3–2 defeat to the Seattle Kraken and a tight 1–0 loss to the Colorado Avalanche — but the third was a frustrating 9–3 drubbing by the Buffalo Sabres. The recent losses have dropped the Blackhawks just outside the playoffs picture by points-percentage (.545). The good news is that a few of the teams ahead of them have struggled a bit in the last 10 games: the Vegas Golden Knights are 3-3-1 and the Utah Mammoth are 3-4-3, while the Winnipeg Jets have lost six including their last two as No. 1 starter Connor Hellebuyck may be out for the rest of the calendar year following a knee procedure.

When the Blackhawks took the ice for morning skate, they didn’t run lines, but here’s what they were at Tuesday’s practice:

#Blackhawks practice lineup:
Greene-Bedard-Burakovsky
Moore-Nazar-Bertuzzi
Teravainen-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Dach-Donato-Lafferty

Kaiser-Levshunov
Vlasic-Crevier
Grzelcyk-Murphy
Rinzel

Knight
Sôderblom

Extra: Slaggert

— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) November 25, 2025

Despite Andre Burakovsky being listed in the lineup above, he will be a game-time decision:

André Burakovsky is a game-time decision vs. the Wild tonight

— Kalen Lumpkins (@kalenalumpkins) November 26, 2025