Anaheim Ducks (34-22-10) at Chicago Blackhawks (42-18-5) 7:30PM Central/5:30 Pacific CSN-Chicago/KCOP
STARTING GOALIES:
Anaheim: Jonathan Bernier Chicago: Corey Crawford
STATS:
GOALS PER GAME: Anaheim 2.56 Chicago 3.00
GOALS AGAINST: Anaheim 2.52 Chicago 2.51
POWER PLAY Anaheim 19% Chicago 19.5%
PENALTY KILL Anaheim 84.8% Chicago 76.9%
SHOTS FOR/AGAINST Anaheim 29.7/29.4 Chicago 30.3/31.3
NOTES: The Hawks haven't faced the Ducks since November, a game Chicago won, and they are 7-2-1 versus Anaheim in the last 10 meetings. All that said, this is still a strong Ducks team.
The big news tonight is the return of Johnny Oduya alongside Niklas Hjalmarsson. One of the last memories Hawk fans have of Oduya was anchoring essentially a four-man defense rotation that beat the Ducks in the 2015 Western Conference finals—even after a physical barrage that Duck center Ryan Kesler predicted "no human could handle."
Those were the days.
I'll have a recap tomorrow.
JJ