Blackhawks vs Stars Preview

The Chicago Blackhawks (23-29-10) visit Dallas to face the Stars (38-14-10) for the third and final time this season. The Blackhawks have won both contests so far, however the Stars are 9-0-1 in their last 10 games and hope to redeem themselves against the young, inexperienced Blackhawks.

Photo by: Chicago Blackhawks

The Blackhawks are coming off of a tough 6-3 loss on home ice to the Vancouver Canucks on Friday as the young core learns to overcome new challenges and responsibilities due to the departure of Jason Dickinson, Nick Foligno, and Connor Murphy. Perhaps the biggest challenge being how to close out hockey games. These last 20 games are a chance to learn how to do just that, as well as a chance for new leaders to naturally emerge.

As we pass the trade deadline, the playoff bound teams start to separate from the lottery hopeful teams. With the Blackhawks being with the latter, they look to focus on developing the young core each night.

Nick Lardis got called up to the big squad from the Rockford IceHogs on Saturday. The young sniper has the team lead with 18 goals this season in the AHL, as well as 5 goals in 21 NHL games with the Blackhawks from his first stint with the team back in December and January.

Drew Commesso also got the call up alongside Lardis on Saturday. Commesso is likely to back up Arvid Soderblom tonight in Dallas as Spencer Knight remains out with an illness. The Blackhawks 2020 second round pick has appeared in 2 games this season, a 5-1 loss against Washington as well as a 3-0 shutout win versus Nashville.

Players to Watch:

Connor Bedard

Bedard has 6 points in 7 career games against the Stars, including a 2 game goal streak and 6 game point streak the he looks to keep alive.

Wyatt Johnston

Johnston has 5 goals in his last 5 games, 2 of which have come on the powerplay. Johnston leads the NHL in powerplay goals this season with 21 (Pavel Dorofeyev in 2nd with 16). Dallas has the 2nd best powerplay in the league, scoring at a 29.9% rate.