Follow JJ on Twitter @jaeckel!
Chicago Blackhawks at Minnesota Wild Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN 9PM Eastern/8 Central
THE BUZZ
This is a must-win for the Wild, not so much for the Hawks.
Still, the Hawks virtually guarantee a short series and some valuable rest before an eventual WCF showdown if they win tonight. So the stakes are different, but still high for both clubs.
Further, dropping two straight in Minnesota could change the tenor of the series, as it did in the Wild’s first round win over Colorado.
Xcel is notoriously tough on visiting teams, including the Hawks, who will need to weather an early storm and play their game. What is becoming more and more evident is that neither St. Louis, the Hawks’ first round opponent, nor Minnesota, has had an answer yet for the Hawks’ stretch pass/transition game. The Hawks will need to be patient and calm in their own end under what is likely to be an intense Minnesota forecheck.
Hawk W/C Andrew Shaw is out of tonight’s game, but possible for Game 4.
THE NUMBERS
The Hawk penalty kill (93.9%) remains the best in the playoffs by a wide margin.
Minnesota’s leading playoff scorer, Zach Parise, has one point thus far, and two of Minnesota’s three goals have come off the blade of reserve defenseman Clayton Stoner.
If all those trends continue, the Wild will have trouble winning a single game in this series. They probably won’t. But the numbers do point to the Hawks effectively shutting down the Wild’s best players thus far.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
Chicago
Bickell Toews Hossa Sharp Smith Kane Saad Kruger Nordstrom Morin Handzus Versteeg
Keith Seabrook Oduya Hjalmarsson Leddy Rozsival
Crawford
Minnesota
Moulson Koivu Coyle Parise Granlund Pominville Niederreiter Haula Fontaine McCormick Brodziak Heatley
Suter Spurgeon Brodin Scandella Prosser Stoner
Bryzgalov
All for now,
JJ