Protest the Hero: Blackhawks vs. Senators Preview

1 week ago  /  Second City Hockey  /  Read Time: 3 minutes 37 seconds

For as much as everyone likes to point at the Buffalo Sabres and (ewww) Detroit Red Wings as cautionary tales in regard to the length of rebuilds, the Senators might actually be the shining example that getting the majority of your drafting decisions right doesn’t necessarily equate to a linear path to contention, and the Hawks will get an up-close look at that team when it visits the United Center on Wednesday night.



Ottawa has selected two of the best young forwards in hockey in Tim Stutzle (19 G, 44 A in 60 GP), and media darling Brady Tkachuk (23 G, 23 A in 58 GP), and matched them with a strong supporting cast of homegrown scorers like Drake Batherson (16 G, 31 A in 60 GP), and Shane Pinto (14 G, 11 A in 48 GP). They’ve also drafted two strong puck-moving defensemen in Jake Sanderson (6 G, 34 A in 59 GP) — who had a minor coming out party during the 4 Nations — and Thomas Chabot (5 G, 29 A in 59 GP), to help construct a solid and defensively responsible back end.



Their recent Achilles heel was their starting goaltending, which they addressed last summer by trading for 2023 Vezina winner Linus Ullmark. And while Ullmark hasn’t been quite the goalie he was in Boston (I think the Panthers took an irreplaceable chunk out of everyone on that “historic” Bruins squad), he’s still a top-20 starter in Goals Saved Above Expected, and both his goals against average (2.71), and save percentage (.911), are firmly better than league average. The Senators are a top-10 team in goals against per game, and Ullmark is a significant part of the reason why.



Ottawa has also tried a flurry of aggressive moves in the last few years, with varying degrees of success. Their trades for Alex DeBrincat and Jakob Chychrun both look like significant misses in hindsight. Ditto for the Vlad Tarasenko signing. But Claude Giroux has been everything they could have asked for and more. The point is they’ve absolutely been going for it for multiple seasons now, and yet the last time they were in the playoffs (2017), so were the Blackhawks.



Entering the game tonight, the Senators sit one point behind the Red Wings for the final Wild Card spot in the East, and they’re one of the six teams currently fighting it out for that slot who are all only separated by a grand total of four points. This is the closest they’ve been to relevance in eight seasons and, while Stutzle is trying his best to drag them there by himself — he’s in the midst of a 12-game point streak (4 G, 14 A) — Ottawa has gone just 1-5-1 in their last seven, with their lone win coming against the Sharks. Below is their most recent lineup, which lost 5-4 in the shootout to the Washington Capitals on Monday night.



Senators lines
per x.com/tsn1200

Tkachuk-Stützle-Giroux
Perron-Norris-Batherson
Greig-Pinto-Amadio
Gregor-Gaudette-Highmore

Sanderson-Zub
Chabot-Jensen
Hamonic-Matinpalo

Ullmark— lineslineslines.bsky.social (@lineslineslines.bsky.social) March 3, 2025 at 5:08 PM



Meanwhile, the Blackhawks are suddenly masquerading like they’re an offensive juggernaut. Don’t look now, but they’ve scored 16 goals in their last three games, and at least five goals in five of their last eight. Obviously, the problem all along was either Seth Jones or Nick Foligno (why not both?!?).



What makes the sudden scoring surge all the more baffling is that none of it is coming from Connor Bedard. Not only has Bedard been pointless in the last six games — which is by far the longest scoring drought of his young career (his previous high was three games) — but he’s also managed a measly 11 shots in those six games as well.



So how are they scoring so much all of a sudden? Let’s start with Teuvo Teravainen, who currently trails Bedard by a single point for the team lead. I think we’ve all been pleasantly surprised by how effective Teuvo has been offensively this season (14 G, 34 A), but I don’t know that any of us realized just how good he’s been lately:



Teuvo Teräväinen keeping some pretty good company since mid-December. pic.twitter.com/CW4FFGg3Ys— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) March 4, 2025



Just behind Teuvo is Ryan Donato (22 G, 23 A), who could be traded any second now. Donato is on a spectacularly timed heater, scoring 16 points (7 G, 9A) in his last 10 games. His recent surge has also placed him in some lofty company from league-wide perspective:



Ryan Donato has been DOMINANT this season — with 18 even-strength goals, which puts him ahead of the likes of Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Auston Matthews, among others.Crazy stuff. pic.twitter.com/XqBhX7O9Nx— PuckEmpire (@puckempire) March 2, 2025



Aside from that, Anders Sorensen’s system change continues to reward his defenders as they’ve now scored 21 goals in his 34 games as head coach, after only scoring five goals through Luke Richardson’s 26-game tenure. Ethan Del Mastro and Wyatt Kaiser have been especially active of late, which seems like no coincidence, as it correlates directly with a steady increase in ice time for both players.



The morning skate suggests another kid-heavy lineup, with TJ Brodie appearing to be the odd man out on the blue line. Up front, Colton Dach joins Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar on the top line, providing a slightly different kid line that should still be interesting to watch. Landon Slaggert drops down to the left wing opposite Tyler Bertuzzi with Andreas Athansiou in the middle of that trio. Spencer Knight will have the (k)night off, apparently, with Arvid Soderblom the expected starter.



Morning skate updates:

Dach-Bedard-Nazar
Teravainen-Donato-Mikheyev
Slaggert-Athanasiou-Bertuzzi
Maroon-Reichel-Smith

Vlasic-Crevier
Del Mastro-Murphy
Kaiser-Martinez

Soderblom in starter’s crease.

Foligno, Kurashev, & Dickinson are all skating in non-contact jerseys.— Greg Boysen (@gregboysen.bsky.social) March 5, 2025 at 9:43 AM



Let’s go Hawks.







Tale of the Tape



Blackhawks — Statistic — Senators43.83% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 50.43% (14th)42.91% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 49.36% (20th)2.75 (25th) — Goals per game — 2.82 (21st)3.48 (30th) — Goals against per game — 2.85 (10th)44.8% (31st) — Faceoffs — 52.8% (4th)25.9% (6th) — Power play — 23.5% (11th)81.3% (9th) — Penalty kill — 77.1% (19th)(All stats from this season)







How to Watch



When: 6:30 p.m. CTWhere: United Center, Chicago, ILTV: CHSNWebstream: ESPN+Radio: WGN 720...

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