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Chicago Blackhawks at Minnesota Wild 7PM Central CSN Chicago/FS-N
THE BUZZ
Is it fair to say that if the Blackhawks struggle versus the Wild, they’re struggling overall?
If there are issues plaguing the Hawks of late, they are these: first, giving up soft-ish goals early on in games. It definitely seems Corey Crawford is struggling every game to get into a rhythm. It doesn’t help that he is also facing a lot of odd-man breaks and unusually prime chances due to uncharacteristic defensive breakdowns. The other issue is the Hawks seem to be falling too easily into a perimeter-only game offensively. Too many shots going right at an unscreened goalie form distance—not enough newt presence.
Ryan Suter and Jonas Brodin, playing nearly 30 minutes tonight, will likely try to take away the center of the ice vertically, forcing the Hawks outside.
THE NUMBERS
Power Play Chicago, 16th, 18.7% Minnesota, 25th, 14.8%
Penalty Kill Chicago, 1st, 90.1% Minnesota, 8th, 84.8%
5-on-5 GF/GA Chicago, 5th, 1.25 Minnesota, 21st, 0.95
PROJECTED LINEUPS
Chicago
Saad Toews Hossa Bickell Richards Kane Sharp Teravainen Shaw Nordstrom Kruger Smith
Keith Seabrook Oduya Hjalmarsson Rozsival Rundblad
Crawford
Minnesota
Zucker Koivu Pominville Vanek Haula Schroeder Niederreiter Coyle Fontaine Carter Brodziak Cooke
Suter Spurgeon Brodin Folin Falk Blum
Backstrom
I’ll have a recap tomorrow. Finally, please join me in condolences to the Parise family and Minnesota hockey fans on the passing of former North Star great, JP Parise.
JJ