After a quick holiday break, the Hawks are back in action tonight as they welcome the Winnipeg Jets to the UC. The Jets have been quite the surprise this season, sitting just one point back of first in the central division. They have been on a nice run as of late, recording an 8-1-1 record over their last ten games, including winning their last two. They are being led largely by the two players that had the most trade rumors coming into the season before surprising everyone by signing matching seven-year 59,500,000 million-dollar deals. Mark Scheifele leads the team in points with 36 (12-24), while Connor Hellebuyck has put up a strong season, posting a 16-6-2 record with a.918 SV% and one shutout. They are looking to keep the train rolling and match what they did against the Hawks back on December 2nd, when they won 3-1.
The Hawks are coming off what might have been the biggest disappointment of the season, losing to the Blues 7-5 after giving up five unanswered goals in the last 12:08 seconds of the game. What felt like a Christmas gift—a win against the rival Blues—quickly became a Christmas nightmare. This team played so well to start off this one, including the incredible “Michigan” goal from Connor Bedard in the first 5 minutes of the game. This team is not one that can afford to sit back and let the game come to them; they need to keep their foot on gas and continue to attack until the final buzzer. Jarred Tinordi, who had a good game himself, registering three assists, had a good quote that hopefully the younger players hear: "We've got to learn in those moments. We’ve had leaks before this year. We’ve kind of given them up and battled back. We’ve come back from down before too, and I think learning how to play in those situations, especially on the road, I think sitting back and sitting on your heels is never the recipe to win."
It's been said a million times in the last two seasons, but it's always worth restating. I do not expect this team to win every single game, and my expectations are low. However, what I want to see is this team compete each night and keep things as close as they can, and I want to see this team learn from their mistakes. Tonight will be interesting to see how they respond, especially against what looks like a playoff contender.
Project Lines:
#Blackhawks morning skate lineup: Foligno-Bedard-Kurashev Beauvillier-Dickinson-Raddysh Donato-T. Johnson-Blackwell Reichel-Entwistle-R. Johnson
Adam Gajan is off to a hot start, going 2-0 in his first two games with one shutout and allowing only two goals in his other appearance. He was named Best Goalie at last year's WJC and looks to be on his way to a repeat. Between this and the season he is having with the Green Bay Gamblers in the USHL, it's hard not to get a little excited for the future.
Martin Misiak has one assist in almost 15 minutes of play in his first game.
The American group has been working well in their respective roles. Frank Nazar recorded an assist and finished his first game with 12 minutes of ice time. Sam Rinzel has been having a good year for himself, and that has continued at the WJC. He is making smart passes to help get offense going, and he is seeing a decent amount of ice time, finishing this one just shy of 13 minutes. Finally, you have Oliver Moore and Gavin Hayes. While Hayes is getting more ice time (10 minutes), Moore only saw around 5 minutes of ice time, but the duo got paired up for a penalty kill in which they didn’t allow a goal.
If you are able to check out some of these games, do yourself the favor and tune it. It’s a great chance to look at a few of the bigger names in our prospect pool, and on top of that, this is easily one of the best tournaments around.
That’s going to be it for me tonight; puck drop is at 8 p.m. central time. As always, let's go Hawks.
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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