The Chicago Blackhawks look to end a three-game losing streak as they host the Boston Bruins at the United Center on Wednesday night.
The Bruins are on a two-game win streak, having soundly defeated the Montreal Canadiens 6-3 on Sunday and then eking by with a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday. The score against the Red Wings was pretty indicative of how close the play was between the Bruins and Red Wings, and they traded goals in the first and third periods before Pavel Zacha scored about two minutes into overtime for the Bruins. Nikita Zadorov and Justin Brazeau added the other Boston goals, and Joonas Korpisalo made 25 saves for Boston (13-11-3).
The two wins gave the team a 5-4-1 record in their last 10, a so-so record for a team that’s having a lackluster season. Interestingly, their record hasn’t really improved since they fired Jim Montgomery a couple weeks ago as head coach just a year removed from him winning the Jack Adams Award as NHL Coach of the Year.
Despite the Bruins having a down season, they are still very much in the playoff race, sitting fourth in the Atlantic Division by points percentage (.537). It was their struggles with offense that reportedly got Montgomery fired: the Bruins were 16th in the league at scoring goals during 5-on-5 play (2.47 per 60) and 12th in the league across all situations (3.09 per 60) before he was let go. But the team has actually been worst in the seven games since: their goals rates were 29th (2.02) and 22nd (2.71), respectively, in that span. Granted, seven games is a small sample, but the Bruins’ issues were probably beyond the coach.
David Pastrnak has 24 points (9 G, 15 A) in 27 games, which is still great but it’s the first time in eight years he’s produced at under point-per-game pace. Brad Marchand is also down to 0.67 points-per-game from the 0.82 rate he has last season. No other player on the team is producing at half a point rate when they had eight over 0.50 PPG last season and two more just below that. Boston has also been without Hampus Lindholm the entire season, and he’s considered still weeks away.
While offense is obviously an issue for the Bruins compared to last season, the biggest problem for this team has been in net, where Jeremy Swayman seemingly turned into a pumpkin with a .892 save-percentage despite the team being top-five in quality suppression (2.25, fifth). He has been trending up somewhat in his last few starts, enough to earn goalie of the week nod from the NHL. Korpisalo has been better overall this season with a .909 save-percentage, but he’s played in eight fewer games.
Because the Bruins played last night in Boston, they did not hold a morning skate on Wednesday, so we don’t know the exact lines, but they’ll likely be similar to those rolled against the Red Wings. Swayman will be in net as Korpisalo played Tuesday.
The Blackhawks are on a three game-skid, including back-to-back losses to the Columbus Blue Jackets 6-3 on Sunday and Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1 on Monday. The Columbus game was uninspiring, but the Blackhawks actually played quite well in Toronto, as they essentially controlled the game from the mid-point onward by a large degree. Ironic that what was arguably Chicago’s best game of the season amounted to a lop-sided loss due to a hot goalie, but that’s hockey sometimes. Perhaps the Blackhawks can at least build on the momentum from the play on the ice — if not the results on the scoreboard — to take into Wednesday night.
Speaking of results, though, the Blackhawks are pretty stagnant from last year: as was pointed out in the comments of the Toronto recap, their record is currently 8-15-2 and they were at 8-16-1 at this point last season.
Lukas Reichel was the lone goal scorer for the Blackhawks against the Maple Leafs while Connor Bedard had a goal and assist against the Blue Jackets, so at least production is still coming from the young forwards on the team.
As for he Blackhawks lines, it looks like they’re stay the same from Monday. The only change is in net, where Petr Mrazek will take back over.
Honestly, the best thing about the lines not changing is Nolan Allan still in the lineup. He had a major mistake that led to the first goal against, but those are mistakes young players have to learn from and can only do so by playing more.
One thing to look out for tonight against Boston are special teams: the Blackhawks have been better both on the power play and penalty kill than the Bruins. With the teams’ 5-on-5 offensive results pretty even, and the Blackhawks scoring more on their power play as of late, that could give Chicago opening to secure a win.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Bruins
44.52% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 49.19% (21st)
45.23% (30th) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 51.10% (15th)
2.44 (31st) — Goals per game — 2.48 (30th)
3.08 (t-19th) — Goals against per game — 3.04 (17th)
44.2% (30th) — Faceoffs — 51.6% (t-10th)
22.1% (10th) — Power play — 12.4% (31st)
80.3% (t-14th) — Penalty kill — 79.2% (19th)
How to Watch
When: 6:30 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV:Â TNT, CHSN (How to Watch)
Webstream:Â Max
Radio:Â WGN 720
FYI from the Blackhawks on the BOS-CHI broadcast tonight, folks: it will be broadcast locally in Chicago on TNT and Max and ALSO is being broadcast on CHSN.
— Tracey Myers (@traceymyers.bsky.social) December 4, 2024 at 3:44 PM