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You can't blame Corey Crawford for this one.
Although the Hawks' soon-to-be $6 million a year netminder has struggled since his return form injury a eek or so ago, he was stellar in his hometown of Montreal last night, helping the Hawks get a road point, and a game to overtime, before a bonehead play by Patrick Kane led to the winning tally by Montreal's Andrei Markov.
Kane was a team low -2 for the game.
Overall the Hawks have struggled mightily of late (4-1-5 in their last 10), either in getting goals and winning close games. But they get the chance to begin to right the Good Ship Blackhawk tonight at 6 Central at the UC versus the Oilers.
Edmonton Oilers (15-27-5) at Chicago Blackhawks (29-8-10) SNET-W, CSN-CH
If there's any good news here, the Oilers are 4-4-2 in their last ten games. This is a game that, coming off a number of poor performances, the Hawks need to win and win convincingly.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
OILERS
Taylor Hall Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Sam Gagner Nail Yakupov Mark Arcobello Jordan Eberle David Perron Boyd Gordon Ales Hemsky Luke Gazdic Ryan Smyth Ryan Jones
Andrew Ference Justin Schultz Nick Schultz Anton Belov Jeff Petry Martin Marincin
Ilya Bryzgalov
BLACKHAWKS
Patrick Sharp Jonathan Toews Marian Hossa Bryan Bickell Marcus Kruger Patrick Kane Brandon Saad Michal Handzus Kris Versteeg Brandon Bollig Andrew Shaw Ben Smith
Duncan Keith Brent Seabrook Niklas Hjalmarsson Johnny Oduya Nick Leddy Mike Kostka
Antti Raanta
All for now,
JJ