The Blackhawks are coming off of their second win in a row on Thursday and they look to stay in the win column tonight against the Dallas Stars.
The Stars are 3-3-0 so far this season, an underwhelming record for the Stars as they are expected to be a top contender in the west.
The Blackhawks are now 2-0 with Connor Bedard in the lineup, and they look like a whole new team. The 1-5-0 start to the season feels better than it did two games ago, and it feels like the Blackhawks can, and will play their way out of it.
Blackhawks projected lines:
Kantserov – Bedard – Kane
Bertuzzi – Frondell – Teravainen
Moore – Nazar – Donato
Smith – Greene – Greenway
Vlasic – Cole
Kaiser – Levshunov
Del Mastro – Rinzel
Spencer Knight gets the start tonight, this will be his fourth consecutive start.
For the first time this season the Hawks have four forward lines that seem to work. Frank Nazar returning really helped get that third line going, they were the Hawks’ best line on Thursday according to certain advanced metrics.
The only change is on the back-end. Bowen Byram will not play again tonight, and it looks as though Ethan Del Mastro will get the call once again.
Byram is still listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. It is unknown what the injury is exactly, but Byram did take a puck to the helmet against the Penguins. Byram had multiple concussions in his first few years in the NHL.
What I’m watching for:
- Finishing your chances: on Thursday, the Hawks had so many opportunities to expand on the lead and potentially run up the score. Connor Bedard could have had two or three more and Frank Nazar whiffed on two glorious chances, one in front of a wide open net. Bedard and Patrick Kane have only played two games together but their chemistry is undeniable, watch for them to start burying some of those chances.
- Powerplay: with a full forward group, the Blackhawks powerplay has looked on par with some of the best in the league. The Dallas Stars are a team that struggle to score goals. They rank 30th in the NHL in goals for per game and have the 29th ranked powerplay at 12.5%. It is crucial that the Hawks powerplay is effective tonight. The Stars are a top the NHL in goals against per game with 1.71.
- Frondell’s matchup: against the Penguins, Anton Frondell was matched against Sidney Crosby. Frondell got two assists and was above 50% on the draw against Crosby. Frondell was then trusted to defend against the Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor line in Thursday’s win against the Jets. Anton Frondell is proving to be a strong 2-way center who can play against top lines, leaving the Bedard line to play against lesser matchups.
Stars projected lines:
Robertson – Hintz – Rantanen
Seguin – Steel – Benn
Hryckowian – Hyry – Kiviranta
Faksa – Blackwell
Lindell – Heiskanen
Harley – Lundkvist
Bischel – Myers
Capobianco