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Dallas Stars (18-14-5) at Chicago Blackhawks (25-11-12) 7PM Central NBCSN, WGN
THE BUZZ
It’s all Teuvo, all the time in Chicago right now. But that seems more prevalent in the fanbase and some of the media than the team, who appear to be playing down the arrival of the talented rookie from Finland. Teravainen will center the fourth line tonight, and don’t be too surprised if linemates Ben Smith and Joakim Nordstrom end up taking more faceoffs than he does, depending on who’s on the other side of the dot. As I mentioned yesterday, the Hawks seem to want to bring Teravainen along slowly, keep it simple for him and allow him to grow into his eventual role.
In the meantime, there’s a hockey game tonight.
Dallas comes into town out of the playoff picture (for now), but still with a respectable, over .500 record, having won four straight (including a 7-1 home win over Minnesota in their last game), and the ability to hurt you if you take them for granted. In fact, the Stars are unbeaten on the road over the last month. The Hawks will need to be absolutely on top of their game and prepared for the antics of uber pest Antoine Roussel.
THE NUMBERS
Power Play Dallas, 22nd, 16.9% Chicago, 16th, 18.6%
Penalty Kill Dallas, 22nd, 79.1% Chicago, 1st, 89.9%
THE LINEUPS
Dallas
Benn Seguin Sceviour Cole Spezza Hemsky Roussel Eakin Garbutt Moen Fiddler Ritchie
Goligoski Klingberg Oleksiak Daley Benn Demers
Lehtonen
Chicago
Saad Toews Hossa Sharp Richards Kane Bickell Kruger Shaw Nordstrom Teravainen Smith
Keith Seabrook Oduya Hjalmarsson Rozsival Rundblad
Crawford
I'll recap tomorrow,
JJ