‘Cause it’s Winter in Chicago and the Hawks are on Tonight: Blackhawks vs. Oilers Preview
A final week of Blackhawks games before the upcoming break for the 4 Nations Face-Off continues at the United Center on Wednesday night, with the Edmonton Oilers returning for a national broadcast.
Edmonton was here just over three weeks ago, winning 4-3 in a game during which Chicago twice enjoyed a two-goal advantage. That’s been a bit of a theme lately for the Blackhawks: an early lead of a goal or two that ends up disappearing by the end of the evening, as the Blackhawks have just two wins in their last 11 outings and are mired in a 4-12-3 stretch since a three-game winning streak in mid-December. Those defeats have been somewhat soothed by the kids playing central roles in a lot of those games. Most notably, of course, is Connor Bedard, who’s had at least one point in 11 of the 14 games played in this calendar year (5 G, 7 A). One of those games without a point was against these Oilers, though, and likely had to do with Bedard spending 9:16 of his 18:10 of 5-on-5 ice time out against Leon Draisaitl. Hopefully the Hawks are a little more matchup-focused in this game and do their best to get Bedard away from Draisaitl or that other Connor who’s pretty good, too, so their kid can flourish a little bit.
That may be slightly easier this time around, too, because Draisaitl and McDavid have been skating together on Edmonton’s top line alongside Corey (/vomit) Perry recently, including in Tuesday night’s game against the Blues. Edmonton won that game 3-2 and that top line had a decent amount of quantity in their 5-on-5 possession (60 percent shot attempt share) but perhaps not as much quality as one would expect (42.74 percent expected goal share). Still, the sight of 29 and 97 together on the ice is enough to disrupt the healthiest of cardiovascular systems for those who have to face it or cheer against it, so limiting that duo will be essential to any success in this one because it doesn’t really matter who the third skater is when those two wizards are on the ice.
Edmonton actually didn’t score a single 5-on-5 goal against the Blues, with McDavid scoring early on the power play, Draisaitl adding a late tying goal with the Oilers’ net empty and Connor Brown providing the winner during 3-on-3 in the extra session. The older adage for success against this Edmonton was to stay out of the box and force them to win at 5-on-5, because the Oilers hadn’t really proven to be capable of doing so. That’s less the case these days, with Edmonton having a plus-15 goal differential at 5-on-5 (116 for, 101 against) and is eighth in the league overall in the percentage of goals scored at 5-on-5. The number they’ve allowed is on the higher side, though, indicative of the less-than-stellar goaltending it’s had this season between starter Stuart Skinner (20-12-4 record, .902 save percentage, 2.68 goals-against average) and backup Calvin Pickard (13-4-0, .901, 2.47). They’ve both been closer to average than good, although that might be enough on a team that features the best hockey player on the planet and another who could be the runner-up for that title. We’ll find out for sure in the spring and summer months.
As for this game, Skinner Skinner was in net against St. Louis, so the expectation here is that Pickard will be in net for this tilt. Here were the lines from that game against the Blues, with the noted McDavid/Draisaitl duo atop the lineup:
Oilers lines
per @edmontonjack.bsky.social
Draisaitl-McDavid-Perry
Arvidsson-RNH-Hyman
Skinner-Philp-Kapanen
Podkolzin-Janmark-Brown
Nurse-Klingberg
Ekholm-Bouchard
Kulak-Emberson
Skinner— lineslineslines.bsky.social (@lineslineslines.bsky.social) February 4, 2025 at 6:38 PM
As for the Hawks, the handful of days off have seen some veterans return from injuries and a shuffle among the forward lines. Landon Slaggert and Ryan Donato appear to be joining Connor Bedard on the top line while Craig Smith is returning to skate on the fourth lines. What’s extremely annoying is that Smith’s return comes at the expense of Colton Dach. A similar story unfolds on the blue line where Connor Murphy is coming back but that means Nolan Allan is watching from the sidelines. Surely we could get some kids into the lineup somewhere else, right?
Anyway, here’s the rest of those lines, with Arvid Soderblom getting the nod between the pipes:
These appear to be the Blackhawks lines against the Oilers tomorrow:
Slaggert-Bedard-Donato
Teravainen-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Foligno-Nazar-Bertuzzi
Maroon-Reichel-Smith
Martinez-Jones
Vlasic-Murphy
Del Mastro-Brodie— Greg Boysen (@gregboysen.bsky.social) February 4, 2025 at 11:34 AM
We’ve been saying that the Hawks have typically risen to the occasion when a top-tier opponent is on the schedule but that certainly didn’t come to fruition against the Panthers on Saturday afternoon, did it? Edmonton is arriving on the tail end of a back-to-back, though, so the possibility of catching the opponent napping does exist. Only one way to find out.
Let’s go Hawks.
Blackhawks — Statistic — Oilers44.14% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 54.37% (3rd)43.47% (31st) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 55.64% (2nd)2.58 (31st) — Goals per game — 3.28 (t-4th)3.42 (30th) — Goals against per game — 2.7 (7th)45.2% (30th) — Faceoffs — 52.0% (8th)23.2% (11th) — Power play — 24.2% (7th)81.6% (10th) — Penalty kill — 76.0% (23rd)(All stats from this season)
How to watch
When: 8:30 p.m. CTWhere: United Center, ChicagoTV: TNTWebstream: MaxRadio: WGN 720
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