Quick Hitter Preview: Blackhawks vs. Capitals

It’s a matinee matchup on Madison Street today as the Blackhawks host the Washington Capitals. A loss on Thursday night against the Rangers extended the Hawks losing streak to five games, while the Capitals are on a four-game slide themselves. Washington took the first meeting of the season between the two teams by a score of 4-2 back in November. Puck drop is scheduled for 11:30 AM central time.

Three Things

• The Blackhawks recent skid has put them dead last in the league standings. At this point in the season, Hawks fans should be looking for continued improvement from young players like Henri Jokiharju, Collin Delia, and Dylan Strome.
• Washington captain Alex Ovechkin unsurprisingly leads the league in goals with 33. He’s got a deadly one-timer from his “office” in the left circle, so the Blackhawks need to cut out unnecessary penalties to avoid giving Ovechkin prime scoring opportunities on the power play.
• Jakub Vrana is an under-the-radar opponent to keep an eye on. He has registered 26 points (15 goals, 11 assists) so far this season, but those numbers don’t speak to how dangerous he truly is. He flies around the ice always looking to insert himself into scoring areas, so Hawks defensemen need to be sound in their positioning to avoid getting burned by #13 in white.

Projected Lineups

Blackhawks
*lines based on practice yesterday

Caggiula – Toews – Kane

DeBrincat – Strome – Kahun

Saad – Kampf – Kruger

Hayden – Anisimov – Kunitz

Keith – Seabrook

Dahlstrom – Murphy

Koekkoek – Gustafsson

Delia

Ward

Capitals

Ovechkin – Backstrom – Wilson

Vrana – Kuznetsov – Oshie

Burakovsky – Eller – Connolly

Stephenson – Dowd – Smith-Pelly

Kempny – Carlson

Orlov – Niskanen

Orpik – Siegenthaler

Holtby

Pheonix Copley

Laugh It Off

Hockey comedy video creator and recent guest on the Four Feathers Podcast, Jillian Fisher, made a mid-season report card for each division and it’s hilariously accurate.

If the NHL did mid-season report cards: The Central 😬😆 pic.twitter.com/PZLEzA0Oe7

— Jillian Fisher (@FisherJillian) January 18, 2019

Featured Photo: Getty Images