2:00pm CST
United Center
TV/Radio: WGN

PROJECTED STARTERS

Chicago – Cam Ward (14–9–4, SV%: .894, GAA: 3.69)
Dallas – Anton Khudobin (11–13–3, SV%: .923, GAA: 2.56)

TEAM STATISTICS

Power Play
Chicago (22.3%, 9th)
Dallas (19.5%, 16th)

Penalty Kill
Chicago (73.5%, 31st)
Dallas (81.9%, 7th)

Shorts for/against
Chicago (31.9, 15th; 35.3, 30th)
Dallas (30.0, 23rd; 31.3, 16th)

Shooting %
Chicago (10.5%, 7th)
Dallas (8.4%, 27th)

Faceoff %
Chicago (49.6%, T18th)
Dallas (52.0%, T5th)

Avg. height/weight
Chicago 6’1”, 195lbs
Dallas 6’2” 209lbs

PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS

Chicago Blackhawks

Drake Caggiula–Jonathan Toews–Patrick Kane

Alex DeBrincat–Dylan Strome–Dominik Kahun

Brandon Saad–Artem Anisimov–Dylan Sikura

Chris Kunitz–Marcus Kruger–John Hayden

Duncan Keith–Brent Seabrook

Carl Dahlstrom–Connor Murphy

Slater Koekkoek–Erik Gustafsson

Dallas Stars

Roope Hintz–Tyler Seguin–Alexander Radulov

Jamie Benn–Radek Faksa–Blake Comeau

Mattias Janmark–Jason Dickinson–Jason Spezza

Andrew Cogliano–Joel L’Esperance–Brett Ritchie

Esa Lindell–John Klingberg

Miro Heiskanen–Roman Polak

Jamie Oleksiak–Taylor Fedun

Analysis

The Blackhawks dropped arguably the biggest game of the season on Friday night to the Colorado Avalanche. The Blackhawks are falling farther out of the playoff picture with every passing day. In order for the Blackhawks to have any hope at continuing their playoff push, they will need to beat the playoff-hopeful Dallas Stars on Sunday afternoon.

Bright spot from Friday’s game was once again Patrick Kane, who now has extended his point streak to 20 games. There is no doubt that the Blackhawks will need Kane to keep up his superhuman season if they want to squeak in as a final playoff team. Other bright spots included Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Strome continuing their hot play since the turn of the new year.

Dallas is coming off the second game of their back-to-back after taking on the Hurricanes yesterday afternoon. The Dallas Stars have cooled of late after playing really good hockey around the all-star break. After winning five games in a row at one point, the Stars have since lost six of their last eight, allowing teams such as the St. Louis Blues to jump them in the standings.

Dallas needs a win on Sunday just as much as the Blackhawks do. The Stars hold on to the top wild-card spot in the Western Conference with a chance to catch the Blues for third place in the Central Division. To better their roster, the Dallas Stars acquired Mats Zuccarello from the Rangers after being shut out by the Hurricanes yesterday. The Stars hope that he can improve their offense as they look to hold on to a wild-card position.

The Blackhawks are one of the teams chasing the Stars, so a loss for the Stars would spell more worry as the Wild, Avalanche, Coyotes and Canucks are all still hovering in the wild-card discussion.

Comment below in our live game thread tonight!

And look for the internet’s most robust recap of the game tomorrow morning on the-rink.com.

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