All That I’ve Got: Blackhawks at Utah HC Preview
The Blackhawks returned from the 4 Nations break and offered us a stark reminder of their current inadequacies last weekend. Now it takes that act on the road for a trio of games, starting with Tuesday’s game against the Utah Hockey Club in the building that Jordan still owns.
Utah was one of the sleeper preseason picks for a postseason push, as its younger roster continues coming of age at the NHL level. They’re still very much in contention with about one-third of the season left, sitting at 59 points in 58 games with Calgary (56 points in 62 games) and Vancouver (63 in 57) still ahead of them for the second wild card spot in the West. It’s not an impossible climb but a four-point deficit is still going to be a challenge with the schedule slowly starting to wind down. And any missteps by Utah could have St. Louis (58 in 58) or Anaheim (57 in 56) catch them in the standings, too. Lately, the Hockey Club recovered from a five-game losing skid in late January and early February with four wins in its last six, including a crucial 2-1 win at home over the Canucks on Sunday night.
Youth is being served all over the Utah lineup, too. Captain Clayton Keller leads things off with 63 points (20 G, 43 A) in 57 games, followed by the slightly older Nick Schmaltz with 44 (11 G, 33 A) in 58. Behind him are the young, exciting duo of Logan Cooley (44 in 51) and Dylan Guenther (43 in 46), who were both drafted earlier this decade and look to be the kind of scoring threat which will be a divisional problem for Chicago to deal with over the next decade-plus. If there’s one knock against the offensive group at the moment, though, it’s a possible lack of scoring touch. Utah is one of the better possession teams in the league with top-10 numbers at 5-on-5 including a 52.52 percent shot attempt share (6th) and 52.28 expected goal share (8th) but it’s still in the bottom third of the league at just 2.79 goals per game (tied for 22nd), suggesting they haven’t quite figured out how to turn all that puck possession into goals yet.
The blue line is highlighted by offseason addition Mikhail Sergachev, who’s been one of the foundational elements to this team while skating 25-plus minutes a night. Utah’s defense was bolstered in the last month with John Marino getting on the ice in mid-January for the first time this season and Sean Durzi returning last week after being sidelined by injury in October. Take that trio and toss in veteran/old friend Olli Maatta, who’s had a solid, steady season, and the Utah HC has a top-four that could help make things quite interesting for this side down the stretch.
In net, Connor Ingram (9-8-4 record, .882 save percentage, 3.27 goals-against average) has been mostly outplayed by Karel Vejmelka (14-15-4, .909, 2.52), who backstopped Utah’s most recent victory and is expected to be in net for this one, per the morning skate. Here’s the rest of the expected lineup:
#UtahHC practice lines: Keller-Cooley-SchmaltzCarcone-Hayton-GuentherCrouse-McBain-DoanKerfoot-Stenlund-BjugstadMaccelliO’BrienSergachev-MarinoCole-KesselringMäättä-DurziDesimone-Bortuzzo— Belle Fraser (@bellefraser1) February 25, 2025
Utah is a few more seasons ahead in its rebuild than the Hawks are but it does offer a glimpse of what can hopefully start to unfold here because the present happenings just aren’t any fun. Chicago was thumped 10-3 in a pair of games last weekend and, since winning three straight in mid-December, the Hawks have won just five of 24 (5-14-5). Colton Dach was recalled on Monday to provide another forward for the road trip, and guess who’s heading to the press box again?
Looks like Colton Dach will replace Lukas Reichel in the lineup.— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) February 25, 2025
Reichel was benched during Sunday’s loss to the Leafs, so this isn’t a total shock. Still annoying, though. Anyway, here’s what the rest of the lines will be:
Blackhawks lines in morning skate:Nazar-Bedard-Bertuzzi Teravainen-Foligno-MikheyevSlaggert-Dach-DonatoMaroon-Kurashev-SmithMartinez-JonesVlasic-MurphyDel Mastro/Allan/Brodie rotatingSoderblom— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) February 25, 2025
Hopefully that Nazar-Bedard duo on the top line gives us some moments of brilliance.
Let’s go Hawks.
Blackhawks — Statistic — Utah HC44.35% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 52.52% (6th)43.40% (31st) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 52.28% (8th)2.65 (28th) — Goals per game — 2.79 (t-22nd)3.49 (30th) — Goals against per game — 3.0 (17th)45.1% (31st) — Faceoffs — 50.9% (11th)25.2% (6th) — Power play — 23.5% (t-11th)81.2% (8th) — Penalty kill — 80.7% (11th)(All stats from this season)
How to watch
When: 8 p.m. CTWhere: Delta Center, Salt Lake CityTV: CHSNWebstream: ESPN+, HuluRadio: WGN 720
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