Blackhawks Game Day Preview: Looking to right the offensive ship in Edmonton

Chicago Blackhawks (0-1-1, 1 pt) @ Edmonton Oilers (0-1-0, 0 pts)
9:00 pm CT – Rogers Place
TV: CHSN (Ball/Pang)
Radio: 720 AM (Wiedeman/Murray)

It won’t take long for the Chicago Blackhawks to get the bad taste out of their mouths from Friday’s 2-1 overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets. They are right back at it tonight against the reigning Western Conference champions. The Edmonton Oilers were embarrassed by the Jets 6-0 on opening night, so they will be looking for a better performance. The Blackhawks need to figure out a way to start scoring more goals and will get a crack at backup goaltender Calvin Pickard tonight. In nine career games against the Blackhawks, Pickard is 3-4-0 with a .921 save percentage (SV%), 2.80 goals-against average (GAA), and one shutout.

The Blackhawks have had some success against the high-powered Oilers recently. Since the start of the 2013-14 season, they are 16-12-2 versus Edmonton. Teuvo Teravainen will look to get back on the scoresheet tonight. He has seven goals and 20 points in 18 career games against the Oilers. This will be Taylor Hall’s first game in Edmonton since Dec. 9, 2021, when he was a member of the Boston Bruins. The Oilers selected Hall first overall in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. In six seasons with Edmonton, he scored 132 goals and 328 points before he was traded to the New Jersey Devils for Adam Larsson in 2016.

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Defensively, the Blackhawks will need to worry about the dynamic duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. McDavid has killed Chicago in his career with 11 goals and 30 points in 20 games. Draisaitl has done his fair share of damage, too, with 16 goals and 36 points in 24 games. The Oilers added some offensive depth in the offseason by adding veteran wingers Jeff Skinner and Victor Arvidsson. While those moves haven’t paid off yet, this is the deepest team the Oilers have surrounded their two superstars.

Oilers defenseman Brett Kulak will play in his 500^th NHL game tonight. We could also see some milestones tonight as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman enter one point shy of 700 and 400 career points, respectively. Hopefully, they have to wait at least one more game to celebrate.

Head coach Luke Richardson will roll with the same lineup as last night, with the only exception being the change in goal.

Season Series

10/12 @ EDM
1/11 vs EDM
2/5 vs EDM

Quotables

“Every team has a style that they can play to win. It’s only two games into the season, but we’ve found something in our game that we want to stick with and get better at. We have a lot of work to do, but it’s good to see that everyone’s buying into the system.”

Seth Jones on the Blackhawks defensive play so far.

Keep improving.

Watch 📺: https://t.co/HHApQHjK8q pic.twitter.com/Q1L7oh1Aud

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) October 12, 2024

Blackhawks 2023-24 Team Leaders

G-Teuvo Teravainen/Nick Foligno/Ryan Donato (1)
A–Connor Bedard (2)
P-Bedard (2)
PPG-N/A
SOG-Bedard/Foligno (6)
PIM-Pat Maroon (12)

Oilers Team Leaders

G-N/A
A-N/A
P-N/A
PPG-N/A
SOG- Jeff Skinner (4)
PIM-Derek Ryan/Ty Emberson/Leon Draisaitl (2)

Blackhawks Team Stats

GF/G-1.50 (27^th)
GA/G-3.50 (17^th)
PP%-0.0 (23^rd)
PK%-100 (1^st)
SOG/G-26.0 (22^nd)
SA/G-31.0 (24^th)
FO%-43.3 (25^th)
PIM/G-10:30 (20^th)

Oilers Team Stats

GF/G-0.00 (30^th)
GA/G-6.00 (28^th)
PP%-0.0 (23^rd)
PK%-33.3 (28^th)
SOG/G-30.0 (11^th)
SA/G-20.0 (1^st)
FO%-59.2 (2^nd)
PIM/G-6:00 (7^th)

Blackhawks Probable Lines

Forwards
Nick Foligno-Connor Bedard-Teuvo Teravainen
Taylor Hall-Philipp Kurashev-Tyler Bertuzzi
Ilya Mikheyev -Jason Dickinson-Joey Anderson
Pat Maroon-Ryan Donato-Andreas Athanasiou 

Defensemen
Alec Martinez-Seth Jones
Alex Vlasic-T.J. Brodie
Wyatt Kaiser-Connor Murphy 

Scratched:
LW-Lukas Reichel, D-Nolan Allan, RW-Craig Smith

Injured:
G-Laurent Brossoit (knee), D-Artyom Levshunov (foot)

Oilers Probable Lines

Forwards
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins-Connor McDavid-Zach Hyman
Jeff Skinner-Leon Draisaitl-Viktor Arvidsson
Mattias Janmark-Adam Henrique-Connor Brown
Vasily Podkolzin-Derek Ryan-Corey Perry

Defensemen
Mattias Ekholm-Evan Bouchard
Darnell Nurse-Travis Dermott
Brett Kulak-Ty Emberson

Scratched
D-Troy Stecher

Injured
C-Roby Jarventie (knee), LW-Evander Kane (hip), C-Carl Berglund (undisclosed), RW-Brady Stonehouse (undisclosed)

Goaltending Matchup

Petr Marzek (0-1-0, .846 SV%, 4.09 GAA, 0 SO) vs Calvin Pickard (0-0-0, .857 SV%, 2.08 GAA, 0 SO)

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