Quick Hitter Preview: Blackhawks at Devils

Hawks at Devils - 1/14/19

Author:
Jonnie Nonnie
Publish date:
Jan 14, 2019 2:18 PM EST

On Saturday night, the Blackhawks lost their second straight overtime contest. They will look to bounce back tonight against the New Jersey Devils, who are coming off a 3-2 win on Saturday against Philadelphia. Tonight marks the first meeting of the season between the two teams. Puck drop is scheduled for 6 PM central time.

Three Things

After starting the year with a lifeless power play, the Blackhawks have really turned things around lately. In the past 12 games, they have gone 13-36 (36.4%) with the man-advantage. Much of that success can be attributed to the Patrick Kane-Alex DeBrincat connection. Kane has always been an elite passer, but DeBrincat is starting to find himself in the perfect position to rack up power-play tallies.
Carl Dahlstrom had a brutal game on Saturday night against Vegas. He was caught out of position numerous times and got burned on the zone entry that led to the game-winning goal in overtime. He had been holding his own previously so it looks like Jeremy Colliton will stick with him and hope for a rebound performance instead of inserting newly acquired defenseman Slater Koekkoek into the lineup.
Devils leading scorer Taylor Hall (37 points) remains out of the lineup with a lower-body injury, so look for Kyle Palmieri (36 points) and Nico Hischier (31 points) to pick up the slack for New Jersey.