Blackhawks Game Day Preview: Nick Foligno back to top line as Kirill Kaprizov & Wild come calling

Chicago Blackhawks (5-9-1, 11 pts) vs Minnesota Wild (10-2-2, 22 pts)
6:00 pm CT – United Center
TV: CHSN (Ball/Pang)
Radio: 720 AM (Wiedeman/Murray)

The Chicago Blackhawks are back on home ice tonight, and they get their first look at the Minnesota Wild this season. The United Center has not been kind to the Blackhawks this season, as they have lost four in a row after winning the home opener against the San Jose Sharks. They lost all three games against the Wild last season and were outscored 10-2.

Head coach Luke Richardson has once again changed things up. Captain Nick Foligno is back on the top line with Connor Bedard and Lukas Reichel. Pat Maroon is back in the lineup after being a scratch against the Dallas Stars. Maroon played 49 games for the Wild last season, scoring four goals and 16 points. Ilya Mikheyev will sit out for tonight’s game. Isaak Phillips is back in on the blue line, with T.J. Brodie getting scratched for the fourth time in the last five games. Teuvo Teravainen will look to break out of his recent funk. He has three goals and 13 points in his previous nine games against Minnesota.

The Wild are off to an incredible 10-2-2 start, and Kirill Kaprisov is a huge reason why. He is second in the NHL with 27 points, only trailing the Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon, whose four-point night on Saturday has him up to 29. He has eight straight multi-point games on the road. The bottom line is that you must stop No. 97 in green if you want any chance of winning tonight.

Season Series

11/10 vs MIN
11/29 @ MIN
12/23 @ MIN
1/26 vs MIN

Quotables 

“I think just it’s another one of those big, heavier teams, and to give him, that line, especially with him and Reichel, maybe more of a physical presence on the forecheck net front, and I think it’s obviously worked before. We just haven’t found a 100 percent groove. We won two games in a row, but it was only two games. We’re still moving people around in those games. I think it’s a little bit more balanced and gives us a better attack.”

Richardson on putting Foligno back on the top line.

“I’ve seen some offense out of him before in Toronto, and I didn’t really see him much in Vancouver, but I saw there were some hot spurts. I think that’s how he goes. He’s one of those guys who has a lot of speed and is in the right spots a lot and is responsible defensively, gets him the puck. I think just a little more of a shooting mentality would be something on the fly, too, and I think that’s shown. It’s worked for Donato and even Foligno at times this year, shooting the puck and getting to the net on rebounds and loose pucks. Maybe he can get on a bit of a roll that way. We just chatted about that this morning, about trying to add to his game. We definitely would love some more production on the offense from most people, especially from a guy with speed like that.”

Richardson on Mikheyev

“For one thing, we have to be very disciplined and take the least amount of penalties possible. No lazy penalties 200 feet from our net. If it’s a penalty, it has to be that someone fell, and there was a breakdown, and we have to hook someone because it’s a scoring chance. Otherwise, we must be very disciplined, have a good skating game, and stay out of the penalty box. That’s where we see him do a lot of his damage. He’s great everywhere, but that’s where he licks his lips and thrives on that. So, we have to make sure we don’t give him any fuel to the fire. Other than that, we need to know where he is at all times. Like any other good player, get to him early, give him a bump through the hands, and slow him down before he gets the puck because he’s one of those guys who seems to pick up speed when he gets the puck. Just a tight-checking game, we’re going to try and do that and obviously have a plan for when he’s on the ice at all times.”

Richardson on Kaprisov.

Blackhawks Team Leaders

G-Ryan Donato (7)
A-Connor Bedard (10)
P-Connor Bedard (13)
PPG-Teuvo Teravainen/Tyler Bertuzzi (3)
SOG-Bedard (50)
PIM-Pat Maroon (26)

Wild Team Leaders

G-Kirill Kaprizov (9)
A-Kaprizov (18)
P-Kaprizov (27)
PPG-Matt Boldy (4)
SOG-Boldy (50)
PIM-Zach Bogosian/Yakov Trenin (10)

Blackhawks Team Stats

GF/G-2.53 (25^th)
GA/G-3.20 (20^th)
PP%-22.2 (10^th)
PK%-77.8 (19^th)
SOG/G-27.7 (24^th)
SA/G-31.0 (26^th)
FO%-45.2 (30^th)
PIM/G-8:56 (14^th)

Wild Team Stats

GF/G-3.71 (7^th)
GA/G-2.57 (5th)
PP%-22.2 (10^th)
PK%-72.7 (26^th)
SOG/G-28.5 (19^th)
SA/G-28.9 (16^th)
FO%-48.7 (23^rd)
PIM/G-6:08 (3^rd)

Blackhawks Probable Lines

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

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

Scratched:
F- Andreas Athanasiou, F- Ilya Mikheyev, D-T.J. Brodie

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

Wild Probable Lines

Forwards
Kirill Kaprizov-Marco Rossi-Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson-Joel Eriksson Ek-Matt Boldy
Marcus Foligno-Frederick Gaudreau-Ryan Hartman
Yakov Trenin-Marat Khusnutdinov-Jakub Lauko

Defensemen
Jonas Brodin-Jared Spurgeon
Jacob Middleton-Brock Faber
Declan Chisholm-Zach Bogosian

Scratched
F-Michael Milne, D-John Merrill

Injured
G-Troy Grosenick (torn ACL)

Goaltending Matchup

Petr Mrazek (4-7-0, .898 SV%, 3.02 GAA, 0 SO) vs Marc-Andre Fleury (3-0-1, .904 SV%. 2.70 GAA, 0 SO)

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