Chicago Blackhawks vs San Jose Sharks Preview & Game Thread

  

Chicago Blackhawks (30-35-9)
vs
San Jose Sharks (42-23-9)

TIME: 7:30PM Central/8:30PM Eastern
RADIO: WGN 720
TV: NBCSCH, NSCA

PROJECTED GOALIES:

Chicago:
Anton Forsberg (10-16-3 W-L | 2.98 GAA | 0.907 SV% | 0 SO)

San Jose:
Martin Jones (28-18-6 W-L | 2.44 GAA | 0.918 SV% | 4 SO)

PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS:

Chicago:
Brandon Saad – Victor Ejdsell – Patrick Kane
Vinnie Hinostroza – Nick Schmaltz – Alex DeBrincat
Tomas Jurco – Artem Anisimov – Andreas Martinsen
Patrick Sharp – David Kampf – John Hayden

Duncan Keith – Jan Rutta
Erik Gustafsson – Brent Seabrook
Jordan Oesterle – Connor Murphy

San Jose:
Evander Kane – Joe Pavelski – Melker Karlsson
Tomas Hertl – Logan Couture – Mikkel Boedker
Timo Meier – Chris Tierney – Kevin Labanc
Barclay Goodrow – Eric Fehr – Jannik Hansen

Paul Martin – Brent Burns
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Brenden Dillon – Dylan DeMelo

STATISTICAL COMPARISONS:

Power Play:
Chicago 16.1% (28th)
San Jose 20.9% (12th)

Penalty Kill:
Chicago 79.6% (20th)
San Jose 84.7%(2nd)

Corsi FOR % (5-on-5):
Chicago 52.96% (4th)
San Jose 50.86% (13th)

Faceoffs:
Chicago 49.7% (17th)
San Jose 51.1%(9th)

SUMMARY:

The Blackhawks will give fans a brand new look at the potential future of the franchise, tonight, with the NHL debut of prospect Victor Ejdsell.  Not only will he be making his NHL debut, but he’ll be doing so with Brandon Saad and Patrick Kane on his flank.  Not a bad deal for the kid.  Matthew Highmore looks to be the odd man out.

Pending visa issues, super hyped prospect and future savior of the franchise Dylan Sikura is scheduled to make his NHL debut on Thursday night and will probably move into second in franchise history with 600 goals in his first game (read sarcasm).

As sad as it might be, these latest moves actually give the Hawks fans something to pay attention to, rather than a team that is just simply terrible at this point in the season.

Join our discussion below and look out for a recap following the game or tomorrow.

Follow me on Twitter @PuckinHostile

About Jeff Osborn

Jeff has covered the Blackhawks since 2009 with his former website www.puckinhostile.com and podcast The Puckin Hostile Shoutcast until 2017, when he moved over to The Rink. After a short hiatus to cover the inaugural Seattle Kraken season, he came back to Blackhawks coverage and started "The Net Perspective" podcast to discuss goaltending and goaltender development.

     

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