Time: 7:00pm ET
Place: United Center – Chicago, IL
TV: NBCSCH, BSDET, NHL
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket
Blackhawks Blog: Second City Hockey
Preview
The first road trip of the season is off to a bad start as the Red Wings lost last night in Montreal 6-1. Tonight the Wings find themselves back across the border to take on a scuffling Chicago Blackhawks team that is looking for its first win of the season.
The struggles for Chicago can be traced directly to their struggles five on five. After their first five games, the Blackhawks have surrendered seventeen goals at even strength while they have only potted three of their own. Their rebuilt blue line, led by offseason acquisitions Seth Jones and Jake McCabe, has struggled to limit chances and reigning Vezina winner Marc-Andre Fleury has struggled to keep those chances from going in the net. Their one saving grace so far is that as bad as they have been five on five, their special teams have been that good. Chicago comes in with the second best penalty kill in the league, surrendering a single goal while down a man on fourteen tries. The Power Play is not quite as good for them, but it is pretty good in its own right as they have scored five power play goals in eighteen tries which is good enough for eleventh in the league.
As if their sluggish start was not bad enough for Chicago, Patrick Kane, Erik Gustafsson, and Ryan Carpenter all missed practice yesterday due to entering into the league COVID-19 protocol and are unknown for the game as of this morning. This will be another test game from Detroit. Chicago comes in struggling badly with all kinds of scuttlebutt swirling around the team, especially the coaching staff. Over the last few seasons, playing the Red Wings have been the medicine to cure what has ailed struggling teams. For the Red Wings to take another step forward in their development they need to start taking advantage of a team on a cold steak and I think all of Red Wings Nation would love for that to start tonight with the Blackhawks.