Sweet ’69: Blackhawks vs. Wild Preview
The Chicago Blackhawks close out a four-game homestead against the Minnesota Wild on Sunday night.
Although the Wild are still a top-10 team in the league based on their .610 points percentage, they’ve been having a rough time of it lately, losing five of their last six games and going just 4-6-0 in their last 10. In their latest loss, a 5-4 defeat by the Calgary Flames on Saturday night, the Wild did come back from trailing 4-1 midway through the third to get within one goal, but couldn’t complete the comeback. However, that was the Wild’s only close loss in January so far as the others have been by margins of three goals or more.
John Hynes: "At the end of the day, you choose your hard.. Now, we're choosing to lose….We've got to get back to the commitment level it takes to win. The mentality. The fire. The competitiveness. The depth in the lineup. Right now, it's not enough. It's not enough." #mnwild— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithNHL) January 26, 2025
The Wild have been struggling at generating offense in the last month, despite boasting a top six with the likes of Kirill Kaprizov (1.42 points per game), Mats Zuccarello (0.97), Marco Rossi (0.88), Matt Boldly (0.86), and Joel Eriksson Ek (0.60). Minnesota’s back end even has a few defensemen — namely Jonas Brodin (0.52), Brock Faber (0.47), Jake Middleton (0.45), and Jared Spurgeon (0.41) — with solid offensive contributions. It’s the rest of the lineup that has really fallen off lately, with no one in the bottom-six having a even 0.40 point per game production rate at this time.
So really, Minnesota’s fall lately hasn’t been surprising, especially since the Wild have mediocre to poor shot shares: they’re 26th in shot attempts (47.88 percent) and 21st in expected goals (49.81 percent). Additionally, their special teams are poor, sitting in the 23rd spot for power play (19 percent) and 30th for penalty kill (70.2 percent). The main reason the Wild were winning before — and could still easily in the future — is that their quality suppression (2.26 expected goals per 60 against, fourth best) combined with above average goaltending (9.25 save percentage, fourth best) had been allowing them to have a low goals-against rate (2.33 per 60, 21st) and still pull off a decent amount of wins. It hasn’t been working well in the last month, obviously, but it could against a team like the Blackhawks.
For the season series, the Blackhawks managed a 2-1 overtime victory in October, but the Wild have won the last two games: a 3-2 win in November and a 4-3 victory in December … two low offense teams keeping it close.
Because the Wild played last night in Calgary, they did not hold a morning skate in Chicago and their exact lines for Sunday are unknown. The lines they ran against the Flames are below:
#mnwild linesKaprizov-Eriksson Ek-ZuccarelloOhgren-Rossi-BoldyFoligno-Gaudreau-HartmanLauko-Khusnutdinov-TreninMiddleton-FaberChisholm-SpurgeonMerrill-BogosianFleury— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithNHL) January 25, 2025
The only mostly sure thing is the Wild will have Filip Gustavsson in net. He’s been the better goalie in net for the Wild, with a .913 save percentage in 32 games.
As for the Blackhawks, they failed to hold onto another two-goal lead in their latest game, falling 4-3 in overtime to Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday. The game wasn’t a total loss considering how the young kids fared as five players 23 or younger got a point in this game: Nazar (1 G, 1 A), Crevier (1 G, 1 A), Dach (1 G), Bedard (1 A) and Reichel (1 A). Yes, it’d be great if the Blackhawks could learn to hold a lead at any point in the game, but at least the players with long-term potential in the organization continue to show promise.
As for lines, the Blackhawks also didn’t have a morning skate on Sunday, but the ones they ran at Saturday practice are the same as the last game:
#Blackhawks lineup at practice:Nazar-Bedard-BertuzziTeravainen-Dickinson-MikheyevDach-Reichel-FolignoMaroon-Donato-KurashevAllan-MurphyVlasic-CrevierDel Mastro-BrodieMrazekSöderblomOut: Jones (illness) and Martinez (illness)— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) January 25, 2025
Defense pairings are what could change: despite both Seth Jones and Alec Martinez not participating in practice Saturday due to an illness, there is a chance one or both will be well enough for the game against Minnesota.
Murphy (groin) won't be quite ready to play tomorrow vs Minnesota, although he is close. But the Hawks are hopeful Jones and Martinez will be healthy enough to play. https://t.co/WBRZwjyPGN— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) January 25, 2025
Jones would obviously slide in with Nolan Allan in the above pairs, replacing Connor Murphy who was acting as a placeholder and his not ready yet. And hopefully Martinez would take TJ Brodie’s spot so Ethan Del Mastro can play in a second game while up with the Blackhawks, as intended last game.
TJ Brodie has struggled with a lot this year, but nothing more than D-zone turnovers."[When you] start trying to think of where you’re supposed to be on the ice, you stop reading the actual play and you hesitate."Story: https://t.co/RpbKJq7BK4— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) January 25, 2025
With the Blackhawks trading the starting position between goalies, Petr Mrazek will be in net Sunday.
Blackhawks — Statistic — Wild44.24% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 47.88% (26th)43.81% (30th) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 49.81% (21st)2.60 (31st) — Goals per game — 2.90 (19th)3.44 (30th) — Goals against per game — 2.88 (11th)44.8% (30th) — Faceoffs — 48% (27th)23.5% (9th) — Power play — 19% (23rd)81.2% (11th) — Penalty kill — 70.2% (30th)(All stats from this season)
How to watch
When: 6 p.m. CTWhere: United Center, ChicagoTV: CHSNWebstream: ESPN+Radio: WGN 720
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