For the final time this calendar year, the Blackhawks will skate on United Center ice when they host the Dallas Stars for the fourth and final time this season on Sunday night.
Let’s start with the Blackhawks for a change, since the Stars are more of a known commodity than most Chicago opponents and there is some news involving the home side this afternoon. That news is the return of Wyatt Kaiser from the Rockford IceHogs, with Kevin Korchinski heading the other way up I-90.
Blackhawks send Kevin Korchinski back to Rockford, recall Wyatt Kaiser.
— Mark Lazerus (@marklazerus.bsky.social) December 29, 2024 at 10:00 AM
Having Kaiser back in Chicago is a good thing: he’s shown flashes of being an NHL-level defenseman and is only 22 years old, so more reps are a good thing for him. The bad thing is that it comes at Korchinski’s expense. With Alec Martinez on the practice ice for Sunday’s morning skate, it does seem that he’s nearing a return, which would give Chicago eight active defensemen: Kaiser, Murphy, Jones, Brodie, Vlasic, Allan, Crevier and the aforementioned Martinez. From this vantage point, it’s real, real difficult to argue against Korchinski not being among the best six of that group, plus he is absolutely expected to be part of the long-term picture here, so it’s extremely annoying to see him headed back to the AHL when it seemed like all reviews of his play were largely positive and there’s no better place for him to continue developing than at the NHL level in Chicago. A counter argument could be that having Korchinski play 20-plus minutes a night in Rockford would be better than the 16:46 he was averaging in nine games with the Hawks, but that’s something which could be remedied by simply playing Korch more.
Anyway, Kaiser won’t suit up just yet after playing a pair of games already this weekend and Martinez isn’t quite ready to return, so Louis Crevier is in the lineup for this game.
Crevier in tonight and Soderblom will start in net for the Blackhawks. Kaiser is here, but he's coming off a back to back in Rockford, so he won't play tonight.
— Tracey Myers (@traceymyers.bsky.social) December 29, 2024 at 10:42 AM
Here are the expected forward lines and D pairings:
Blackhawks’ defense pairs tonight:
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) December 29, 2024
Brodie-Jones
Vlasic-Crevier
Allan-Murphy https://t.co/OsoUgYhS0E
The last time these two teams met, it was a thorough 6-2 beatdown of the Stars at 1901 W. Madison on Thanksgiving Eve, with Taylor Hall providing a hat trick to pace the Chicago offense. Dallas has been closer to average then good in the 13 games since, with a 7-5-1 record in that span that has sent the Stars sliding a bit down the Central Division standings into fourth place with 41 points on the season. Injuries have piled up a bit lately, with Tyler Seguin undergoing a hip surgery that probably ends his season, Matthew Dumba heading to IR before Christmas and Mason Marchment now being sidelined after taking a puck to the face in Dallas’ last game on Thursday: a 3-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild.
There’s not a ton offensive thrust here and those injuries don’t help. The Stars leading scorer is Matt Duchene 30 points (17 G, 13 A) in 34 games and the now-injured Marchment was second with 27 (12 G, 15 A) in 33. Four other active Dallas players are over the 20-point mark with the fifth being the sidelined Seguin. What Dallas does have is an excellent blue line featuring Miro Heiskanen, who remains one of the game’s best. Behind them, the goalie tandem of strong starter Jake Oettinger and competent backup Casey DeSmith have all combined for a defense that’s fourth in the league at just 2.59 goals against per game. The Stars also boast the No. 4 penalty kill in the league at 85.1 percent. But all of that comes with a reminder that same defense gave up six goals to a Blackhawks side that couldn’t score on anyone, resulting in the coach getting fired not long after that offensive outburst. So there’s really no telling what could happen in this game.
Let’s go Hawks.
Blackhawks — Statistic — Stars
45.16% (31st) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 52.71% (7th)
45.24% (30th) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 52.64% (7th)
2.56 (29th) — Goals per game — 3.12 (12th)
3.28 (25th) — Goals against per game — 2.59 (4th)
43.7% (31st) — Faceoffs — 51.4% (12th)
22.2% (t-13th) — Power play — 15.5% (27th)
85.4% (3rd) — Penalty kill — 85.1% (4th)
(All stats from this season)
How to watch
When: 7:30 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: ESPN (Another CHSN-less night!!)
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720