Blackhawks Gameday Preview: Blackhawks look to avoid post-holiday hangover against Sabres

Chicago Blackhawks (12-21-2, 26 pts) at Buffalo Sabres (12-19-4, 28 pts)
6:00 p.m. CT – Keybank Center
TV: ESPN2 (Buccigross/Callahan)
Radio: WGN 720 AM (Wiedeman/Murray)

Following the holiday break in the NHL schedule, the Chicago Blackhawks head back out on the road to finish a three-game “road trip” against the reeling Buffalo Sabres. Thankfully, the Blackhawks are not catching the Sabres in the midst of their winless streak, which was broken against the New York Islanders in a 7-1 drubbing on Monday. Prior to that win, the Sabres had gone 0-10-3 with their last win having come on November 23. Even still ,the Blackhawks cannot be looking past anyone since they still sit at the bottom of the NHL standings and have dropped their last two games.

The Blackhawks had an opportunity to head into the holiday break with a good feeling and a potential win against the Minnesota Wild back on Monday, but fell short in a 4-3 loss in Minnesota. Chicago held a lead twice against the Wild at 1-0 and 2-1 in the game, but allowed answering goals quickly after taking both leads, something that has plagued the Blackhawks this season. Over their last 15 meetings, the Wild hold a 14-0-1 record over the Blackhawks. Yikes. Luckily, the Blackhawks have been more fortunate against the Sabres. Dating back to the 2010-11 season, Chicago holds a 16-5-2 record in the last 23 games against Buffalo.

After Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar switched linemates, with Bedard joining Taylor Hall and Tyler Bertuzzi and Nazar playing with Nick Foligno and Ryan Donato, a lot was made about what the results would look like for the Hall-Bedard-Bertuzzi line. But the switch actually led to the Foligno-Nazar-Donato line being the most effective against the Wild. Behind arguably Nazar’s best game of the season, the second line at 5v5 against Minnesota had a 16-9 advantage in Corsi-For, a 9-4 advantage in shots on goal, a 7-5 scoring chance advantage, and a 4-2 high-danger scoring chance advantage. They also scored a goal at 5v5. Nazar also led the team in 5v5 on ice Corsi-For (69.7%), Shots-For (78.95%), and had a team-high four individual scoring chances at all strengths.

Season Series

10/19 vs BUF – 4-2 L
12/27 at BUF

Blackhawks Team Leaders

G-Ryan Donato (11)
A-Connor Bedard (21)
P-Connor Bedard (28)
PPG-Teuvo Teravainen (5)
SOG-Bedard (85)
PIM-Connor Murphy (38)

Sabres Team Leaders

G-Tage Thompson (17)
A-Rasmus Dahlin/Owen Power (17)
P-Tage Thompson (26)
PPG-Jason Zucker (4)
SOG-Tage Thompson (88)
PIM-Dylan Cozens (41)

Blackhawks Team Stats

GF/G-2.57 (28th)
GA/G-3.20 (24th)
PP%-22.5 (10th)
PK%-85.3 (4th)
SOG/G-25.7 (30th)
SA/G-29.6 (27th)
FO%-43.6 (31st)
PIM/G-8:08 (12th)

Sabres Team Stats

GF/G-2.94 (19th)
GA/G-3.40 (27th)
PP%-14.7 (29th)
PK%-77.0 (24th)
SOG/G-27.4 (25th)
SA/G-29.0 (20th)
FO%-48.7 (24th)
PIM/G-10:34 (30th)

Blackhawks Probable Lines

Forwards
Taylor Hall-Connor Bedard-Tyler Bertuzzi
Nick Foligno-Frank Nazar-Ryan Donato
Teuvo Teräväinen-Jason Dickinson-Ilya Mikheyev
Pat Maroon-Lukas Reichel-Philipp Kurashev

Defensemen
Alex Vlasic-Connor Murphy
Nolan Allan-Seth Jones
Kevin Korchinski-T.J. Brodie

Scratched:
Joey Anderson, Louis Crevier

Injured:
Laurent Brossoit (knee), Alec Martinez (neck), Craig Smith (IR)

Sabres Probable Lines

Forwards
Jason Zucker-Tage Thompson-Alex Tuch
JJ Peterka-Dylan Cozens-Jack Quinn
Peyton Krebs-Jiri Kulich-Zach Benson
Beck Malenstyn-Ryan Mcleod-Sam Lafferty

Defensemen
Rasmus Dahlin-Bowen Byram
Mattias Samuelsson-Owen Power
Jacob Bryson-Connor Clifton

Scratched
Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Henri Jokiharju, Dennis Gilbert

Injured
Jordan Greenway (IR)

Probable Goaltending Matchup

Petr Mrázek (7-12-1, .902 SV%, 2.94 GAA, 0 SO) vs Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (9-11-3, .895 SV%, 3.03 GAA, 1 SO)