The Blackhawks take the ice again tonight in Canada—just much farther West and North of where they did last night.
Scott Darling gets the net tonight in Edmonton, after Corey Crawford delivered another solid performance last night in a 5-2 win at MTS Centre in Winnipeg.
The Blackhawks played one of their better games of the year last night against a team that's given them a lot of problems.
If you look at the possession numbers, The Hawks' best players—as my friend Al Cimaglia likes to opine—weren't their best players.
But if you actually watched the game, they were. Duncan Keith and Niklas Hjalmarsson were about even in Corsi—and +4 and +5 respectively in +/-. And Keith had the game winning goal.
The AK-72 line lit it up (also underwater in Corsi)—with a goal a piece.
Marian Hossa added a 150-foot laser empty netter.
Michal Kempny (somewhat) and Brent Seabrook (especially) had poor possession numbers—yet Seabrook saved at least one goal with smart plays around the net and Kempny had a very solid night.
What I really liked about the Hawks' game last night was their transition and ability to penetrate and maintain possession in the offensive zone. I don't know if the newly-cobbled "third" line of Hossa, Marcus Kruger and Dennis Rasmussen will remain together for the rest of the season, much less the playoffs. But that line is showing the potential to be what Kruger's line was in 2015—an offensive zone possession machine. When the Blackhawks can do that with some regularity on 1-2 lines, they become a much better team.
This recent uptick in the Hawks' play also takes some pressure off of Stan Bowman—improving his bargaining position in trade talks—which are ongoing.
Turning back to the game at hand, the Oilers pose a different threat than the Jets—The Oil is a very young, fast team that plays on a notoriously fast ice sheet. They are a likely playoff team at this point. Edmonton is pretty good on both special teams, but also kind of banged up at present with a large handful of players on the injured list, including Darnell Nurse.
Gametime: 9PM Central/8 Mountain TV: WGN/CBC/Rogers Sportsnet
GOALIES: Scott Darling/Chicago Cam Talbot/Edmonton
I'll have a recap tomorrow and may have some rumor updates before then.
JJ