Blackhawks Game Day Preview: Elusive three-game winning streak on the line vs Patrick Kane & Red Wings

Chicago Blackhawks (5-7-1, 11 pts) vs Detroit Red Wings (5-5-1, 11 pts)
7:00 pm CT – United Center
TV: TNT (Burke/Pang/Redmond)
Radio: 720 AM (Wiedeman/Murray)

The Chicago Blackhawks are hosting the Detroit Red Wings, who are looking for their first three-game winning streak since they won five in a row in February 2023. They want to build on the momentum from a 3-2-0 road trip and back-to-back victories over the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks. The Red Wings snapped a three-game losing streak against the Buffalo Sabres last time out.

This will be the 754^th all-time meeting between these two historic franchises. The Blackhawks have enjoyed recent success against their longest rival, going 15-8-1 since the start of the 2015-16 season. Ilya Mikheyev has two goals and seven points in eight career games versus Detroit. He can use a breakout performance, as he has just an empty-net goal and one assist in his first 13 games with the Blackhawks. Ryan Donato will look to continue his career-high five-game point streak. He had five goals and seven points on the road trip. Petr Mrazek, drafted by the Red Wings in 2010, is 7-3-2 versus his former team with a .880 save percentage (SV%), 3.22 goals-against average (GAA), and one shutout.

The Red Wings have been struggling to score goals at 5v5 this season. They are 30^th in the league with just 15 5v5 goals, eight fewer than the Blackhawks. They have been very good on the power-play with nine goals and the seventh-best conversion rate at 26.5%. On the flip side, they are 29^th in penalty-killing at 67.6%. The Blackhawks’ key to victory tonight will be their ability to stay out of the box and draw penalties.

Season Series

11/6 vs DET
1/10 @ DET

Quotables 

“So many great memories and unbelievable moments. Great friends and relationships were made. It seems like just yesterday you’re getting drafted there. The city was kind of overwhelming at first for me, especially being an 18-year-old kid. What we built there was unbelievable. A lot of great memories, and it’ll always be fun to go back.”

Patrick Kane on returning to Chicago

“Just of late, coming off two wins, they’re a team with confidence on the rush. Their offensive numbers are top half in the league in a lot of categories. They’re a deep team and a confident team, so they’ll present a challenge to us.”

Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde on the Blackhawks.

“We’re only a point or two behind a few teams in our division and I think that’s really important right now. So, what we need to do is just continue to play like we have been playing and clean up a few areas as we go along and get stronger and stronger and if a team comes in here struggling, we have to make sure we have to get off to a good start here at home and start building off our atmosphere here. It’s a tough play to play in, and if you’re not ready at the beginning, it’s going to be a difficult night and we have to make sure it lasts for 60, maybe 65 minutes.”

Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson

Blackhawks Team Leaders

G-Ryan Donato (7)
A-Connor Bedard (9)
P-Connor Bedard (12)
PPG-Teuvo Teravainen (3)
SOG-Bedard (45)
PIM-Pat Maroon (26)

Red Wings Team Leaders

G-Dylan Larkin (7)
A-Lucas Raymond (10)
P-Raymond (11)
PPG-Larkin (5)
SOG-Larkin (30)
PIM-Ben Chiarot (19)

Blackhawks Team Stats

GF/G-2.77(21^st)
GA/G-3.15 (15^th)
PP%-22.5 (10^th)
PK%-75.0 (22^nd)
SOG/G-30.8 (24^th)
SA/G-30.0 (24^th)
FO%-45.9 (29^th)
PIM/G-9:32 (18^th)

Red Wings Team Stats

GF/G-2.64 (25^th)
GA/G-3.18 (20^th)
PP%-26.5 (7^th)
PK%-67.6 (29^th)
SOG/G-34.1 (31^st)
SA/G-35.7 (32^nd)
FO%-50.7 (12^th)
PIM/G-8:16 (10^th)

Blackhawks Probable Lines

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

Defensemen
Wyatt Kaiser-Seth Jones
Alex Vlasic-Connor Murphy
Nolan Allan-Isaak Phillips

Scratched:
F- Andreas Athanasiou, F-Joey Anderson, D-T.J. Brodie

Injured:
D-Alec Martinez (groin), G-Laurent Brossoit (knee)

Red Wings Probable Lines

Forwards
Alex-DeBrincat-Dylan Larkin-Patrick Kane
Andrew Copp-J.T. Compher-Lucas Raymond
Jonatan Berggren-Marco Kasper-Vladimir Tarasenko
Michael Rasmussen-Joe Veleno-Christian Fischer

Defensemen
Simon Edvinsson-Moritz Seider
Ben Chiarot-Jeff Petry
Albert Johansson-Erik Gustafsson

Scratched
D-Justin Holl

Injured
F-Tyler Motte (upper body), F-Tim Gettinger (undisclosed)

Goaltending Matchup

Petr Mrazek (4-6-0, .900 SV%, 3.02 GAA, 0 SO) vs Cam Talbot (3-1-1, .923 GAA, .923 SV%, 1 SO)

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