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Chicago Blackhawks at Dallas Stars
7:00PM Central
WGN/Fox Sports West+


THE BUZZ

Aside from the L.A. Kings, the Dallas Stars seem to the the dragon the Blackhawks need to slay in in order to gain some psychological advantage going into the Western Conference playoffs. The Stars manhandled the Hawks in a 4-0 shutout loss on December 22.

But that was a Hawk team not firing on all cylinders. Chicago is 2-0 since the break and is finally getting production on at least 3 lines. The good news is, Marian Hossa and Jonathan Toews look rested and ready for the stretch run. To wit, Colorado coach Patrick Roy sent his first pairing out against the Kane line on Tuesday night, but Arizona coach Dave Tippett sent his top pair out Thursday against the Toews line. That suggests balanced scoring and mismatch problems for most teams.

The Stars will come at the Hawks with speed and offensive firepower. Should be a great game with playoff intensity.


PROJECTED LINEUPS

Chicago

Shaw Toews Hossa
Panarin Anisimov Kane
Desjardins Danault Teravainen
Mashinter Rasmussen Panik

Keith Hjalmarsson
Gustafsson Seabrook
van Riemsdyk Rozsival

Crawford


Dallas

Benn Seguin Nicushkin
Sharp Janmark Eaves
Rousel Eakin Hemsky
Moen Fiddler Faksa

Goligoski Klingberg
Oduya Demers
Nemeth Benn

Niemi


RUMOR UPDATE

Tampa scout, and virtual season ticket holder at Rockford this season, Tony Hrkac, was back in attendance at the Ice Hogs/Griffins (Detroit) game last night. Calgary Scout Todd Woodcroft was also there. I was told the other day that there could be a third team in involved in a possibly large deal with Tampa (also possibly including Jonathan Drouin).

I'll have a recap and update tomorrow.



JJ

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