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Coming off another solid performance Monday night in Edmonton, the Hawks rolled into Calgary yesterday at 3-1 on the Circus Road Trip and playing some very good hockey overall.
NOTES
Marian Hossa (family issues) skated yesterday in Calgary and appears ready to rejoin the lineup tonight.
Duncan Keith is quietly having an outstanding season: +9, tied for third among league defensemen in points. leading the league's blueliners in assists.
Antti Raanta gets the start in net tonight for the Hawks, making his regular season NHL debut. The Hawks are likely going to be watching closely as Nikolai Khabibulin is—at best—a questionmark for the rest of the season on a team that is serious about contending for another Stanley Cup.
A source with first-hand knowledge of UC ice conditions contacted me this morning and reminded me that Monday night in Edmonton, the puck was bouncing and rolling quite a bit on the best ice surface in the world. Maybe the ice in the UC is not all that bad after all?
TONIGHT
Chicago Blackhawks (17-4-4) at Calgary Flames (8-11-4) 9PM Central TSN, WGN
THE BUZZ
Over the last 10 games, the Hawks are 8-2-0, Calgary is 3-5-2. The Hawks are 10th on the power play, Calgary is 23rd. The Hawks are 29th on the penalty kill, Calgary 26th. The Flames handed the Hawks one of their four losses, at the UC, when the teams met earlier this year.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
Chicago
Sharp-Toews-Hossa Saad-Pirri-Kane Versteeg-Handzus-Shaw Bollig-Kruger-Smith
Keith-Seabrook Oduya-Hjalmarsson Leddy-Brookbank
Raanta
Calgary
Camalleri-Stajan-Stempniak Baertschi-Monahan-Hudler Bouma-Colborne-Jones Jones-Backlund-McGrattan
Russell-Brodie Smid-Butler Wideman-Smith
Berra
All for now,
JJ