Blackhawks Game Day Preview: Connor Bedard vs Matvei Michkov, Part I

Chicago Blackhawks (7-12-1, 15 pts) @ Philadelphia Flyers (8-10-2, 18 pts)
Noon CT – Wells Fargo Center
TV: CHSN (Ball/Pang)
Radio: 720 AM (Wiedeman/Murray)

The Chicago Blackhawks are in the City of Brotherly Love for the only time this season as they take on the Philadelphia Flyers. They are looking to win back-to-back games for only the second time this season after beating the Florida Panthers on Thursday. Philadelphia used to be a house of horrors for the Blackhawks as they went 22 years and 14 games between regular-season wins, but they have won two straight at the Wells Fargo Center since snapping the losing.

Jason Dickinson should be available for today’s game after suffering a hand injury on Thursday and missing Friday’s practice. There will be no other lineup changes, meaning Philipp Kurashev will be scratched for the second straight game. Today’s game will feature two top stars from the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, as Connor Bedard and Matvei Michkov will square off for the first time in their careers. Michkov has six goals and 15 points in his first 18 NHL games.

The Flyers will get some key bodies back in their lineup today, including defensemen Cam York and Emil Andrae. An upper-body injury has kept York out of game actions since Oct. 23. Morgan Frost will be back in the lineup. He’s been a healthy scratch 11 times this season, including four out of the last five games. His name has been in the trade rumor mill lately, and the Blackhawks are among the teams looking to acquire a center. It’s fun to see him out there in front of the Chicago brass.  

Season Series

11/23 @ PHI
3/23 vs PHI

Quotables

“I could name 100 things [I could be doing better]. I don’t know, man. It has been frustrating, for sure. I just don’t feel like I’m really doing anything. So I’ll keep chipping away at it, I guess, and hopefully find my game again. It has been a tough stretch. You feel like you don’t have it or whatever, and you lose a bit of confidence. And it just kind of goes on.”

Bedard on his recent struggles

“I think the best thing we did was put him with two players who are really responsible and are playing good hockey. They hold onto pucks and make some plays in the O-zone. Just being patient with that. It happened last game; it came to them because they were doing the right things, and last night, I think it took all of us to play a good defensive game to win. I think that’s a sign of a good team and growth with players, maybe playing out of their comfort zone in a different role to get that job done.”

Head coach Luke Richardson on Bedard

“If we have the puck more on your initial battles, I think you will draw more penalties. And we’re skating more because we have the puck. That’s usually when a team puts a stick on you laterally; nowadays, that could be a 50-50 for a penalty at any moment. So, we want to continue that. We can’t get discouraged and yell at the refs because you’re not going to get penalties doing that. You’ll probably take penalties doing that because they’re annoyed at listening to you whine all the time. We just have to play our game and move our feet a little bit more and I think that will get us some power-play opportunities. The way we’re trying to execute in practice is starting to carry over into the game.”

Richardson on how to get more power plays.

Blackhawks Team Leaders

G-Ryan Donato (8)
A-Connor Bedard (12)
P-Connor Bedard (15)
PPG-Teuvo Teravainen (4)
SOG-Bedard (55)
PIM-Pat Maroon (28)

Flyers Team Leaders

G-Travis Konecny (11)
A-Konecny (12)
P-Konecny (23)
PPG-Konecny (5)
SOG-Owen Tippett (57)
PIM-Konecny/Tyson Foerster (27)

Blackhawks Team Stats

GF/G-2.35 (30^th)
GA/G-3.00 (13^th)
PP%-21.2 (13^th)
PK%-79.3 (16^th)
SOG/G-26.3 (28^th)
SA/G-30.7 (27^th)
FO%-45.6 (29^th)
PIM/G-8:00 (12^h)

Flyers Team Stats

GF/G-2.70 (21^st)
GA/G-3.50 (28^th)
PP%-16.9 (21^st)
PK%-86.6 (4^th)
SOG/G-29.0 (17^th)
SA/G-28.2 (10^th)
FO%-51.1 (13^th)
PIM/G-10:33 (28^th)

Blackhawks Probable Lines

Forwards
Connor Bedard-Jason Dickinson-Joey Anderson
Tyler Bertuzzi-Nick Foligno-Ilya Mikheyev
Taylor Hall-Ryan Donato-Teuvo Teravainen
Pat Maroon-Lukas Reichel-Craig Smith

Defensemen
Alex Vlasic-Connor Murphy
T.J. Brodie-Alec Martinez
Wyatt Kaiser-Nolan Allan

Scratched:
F-Philipp Kurashev, D-Louis Crevier

Injured:
G-Laurent Brossoit (knee), D-Seth Jones (foot)

Flyers Probable Lines

Forwards
Owen Tippett-Sean Couturier-Travis Konecny
Joel Farabee-Morgan Frost-Bobby Brink
Tyson Foerster-Noah Cates-Matvei Michkov
Scott Laughton-Ryan Poehling-Garnet Hathaway

Defensemen
Cam York-Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler-Rasmus Ristolainen
Emil Andrae-Egor Zamula

Scratched
F-Nicolas Deslauriers, F-Anthony Richard, D-Erik Johnson

Injured
G-Samuel Ersson (lower body), D-Jamie Drysdale (upper body), D-Ryan Ellis (back)

Goaltending Matchup

Petr Mrazek (6-8-0, .911 SV%, 2.66 GAA, 0 SO) vs Aleksei Kolosov (0-4-0, .872 SV%, 3.71 GAA, 0 SO)

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