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Thunderstruck: Blackhawks vs. Lightning Preview

After several days off, it’s back to game action for the Blackhawks.

Posted on by L_B_R
Credit: Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports

After a few days off, the Chicago Blackhawks are back at the United Center on Friday night, hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning for the first time this season.

The Lightning will be looking to course-correct against the Blackhawks, having dropped back-to-back games to divisional rivals and fallen to a wild card spot in the standings behind the Boston Bruins in terms of points. In their most recent loss, the Lightning failed to hold on to a two-goal lead midway through the game, and lost 3-2 in regulation to the Montreal Canadiens thanks to a goal against in the final three minutes. The race in the Eastern Conference, especially in the Atlantic, is quite close for the final few spots with Boston, Tampa Bay, Ottawa, and Montreal all currently being separated by only two points and more are within five. The upcoming stretch will be key for the Lightning to stay competitive in the race.

As usual, Nikita Kucherov leads the Lightning in production with 70 points (22 G, 48 A) in 44 games, which is also third in the NHL points race. They have three additional players who are all over a point-per-game and have surpassed the 20-goal mark — Brayden Point (1.22), Brandon Hagel (1.09), and Jake Guentzel (1.04). Two more players are at a half-point or better — Anthony Cirelli (0.84) and Nick Paul (0.68) — to round out their top six. Victor Hedman, with his 38 points (7 G, 31 A) in 44 games, and Darren Raddysh, with his 20 points (3 G, 17 A) in 33 games, are also quite formidable offensive forces on the back end. These players combined have the Lightning as the top scoring team in the league at 3.61 goals per game.

The Lightning lines are the same as they were against the Canadiens:

The only unknown ahead of the game is which Tampa goalie will be in net. Andrei Vasilevskiy is having another strong season, putting up the fifth-best save percentage in the league (.915). Jonas Johansson hasn’t been as successful with just a .899 save percentage, so it’s no wonder he’s only played in 11 games so far this season. But with the Lightning playing the first game of a back-to-back this weekend, so they’ll probably have to play Johansson one of those nights and it might be against the Blackhawks.

The Blackhawks are on a bit of a positive swing over the last couple of games: they beat the Las Vegas Golden Knights 5-3 on Saturday and followed that up with a close 4-3 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. A loss may not feel too positive and they were outshot 48-23, but considering the Blackhawks played a simple, effective way that kept the score close against a statistical juggernaut, it was a decently impressive performance. The last two games also continued the trend of the Blackhawks typically performing better against higher quality teams versus struggling again those in the standings basement like themselves. Hopefully the Blackhawks can keep that same trend going against the Lightning, who aren’t as close to the top of the standings as some others but who are still very formidable, especially offensively.

Players to watch for the Blackhawks include Seth Jones: he had a rough go of things for while after coming back from injury, but he’s been better as of late and is riding a four-game point streak with six points (1 G, 5 A) in those games. There has also been an increased amount of trade chatter surrounding the defensemen, though it feels unlikely he’s moved in-season, if at all. Other players considered on the trade block and more likely are Ryan Donato and Taylor Hall.

Lines for the Blackhawks are expected to be the same ones they ran against the Carolina Hurricanes and at practice Thursday. Pat Maroon (back) is still considered day-to-day so Philipp Kurashev will get another opportunity to play which is nice to see, considering he opened the scoring last game.

It was also confirmed at morning skate Friday that TJ Brodie would sit to make room for Ethan Del Mastro on the ice, officially reuniting him with Nolan Allan and re-creating the top pairing from the Rockford IceHogs for much of last season. Arvid Soderblom will be in net.

Despite his drop in production this season in Rockford, which is primarily due to a role shift, Del Mastro has been the most consistent defender for the IceHogs, so this reward is warranted.

In other news, Connor Murphy (groin) was on the ice ahead of the morning skate on Friday, indicating he may be game-ready in the near future. That likely also means that Del Mastro’s NHL call-up won’t be too long, perhaps even shorter than the nine games Kevin Korchinski skated in December. Still, good to see Murphy progressing.

Blackhawks — Statistic — Lightning
44.63% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 50.23% (14th)
44.19% (30th) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 55.92% (1st)
2.60 (31st) — Goals per game — 3.61 (1st)
3.43 (30th) — Goals against per game — 2.83 (11th)
44.8% (30th) — Faceoffs — 52.6% (4th)
23.9% (9th) — Power play — 26.7% (6th)
83% (11th) — Penalty kill — 81.1% (5th)
(All stats from this season)

How to watch

When: 7 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: CHSN
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720

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