NEWSLETTER
Game three of four for the Chicago Blackhawks tonight on their West Coast road trip as they prepare to take on the Vancouver Canucks in Vancouver. After dropping a 5-2 loss to the Oilers last night, the Blackhawks will need to have their first bounce-back performance under interim head coach Derek King. The Canucks come into tonight’s game off a 3-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night, which snapped a five-game losing streak for Vancouver. Chicago has lost eight of their last ten games against the Canucks.
Broadcast Info
Puck Drop: 7:00 p.m. CT
TV: NBCSCH+, ESPN+ (Out of Market)
Radio: WGN 720 AM, TUDN 1200 AM (Spanish)
Expected Lineups
Blackhawks (5-10-2)
DeBrincat – Dach – Kane
Kubalík – Toews – Hagel
Hardman – Strome – Khaira
Kurashev – Carpenter – Borgström
Stillman – S. Jones
McCabe – Murphy
de Haan – Gustafsson
Fleury
Canucks (6-10-2)
Pearson – Horvat – Hoglander
Podkolzin – Miller – Garland
Dickinson – Pettersson – Boeser
Motte – Lammikko – Chiasson
Ekman-Larsson – Poolman
Hughes – Hamonic
Burroughs – Myers
Demko
Injury Report
Blackhawks:
MacKenzie Entwistle (Week-to-Week – Ankle)
Tyler Johnson (Day-to-Day – Neck)
Canucks:
Luke Schenn (Day-to-Day – Lower Body)
Matthew Highmore (Day-to-Day – Undisclosed)
What To Watch For
• The Canucks are 4-8-1 since beating the Blackhawks earlier this season on October 21, a 4-1 win for Vancouver. Kevin Lankinen was in net for that contest, but Marc-André Fleury will be the starter for Chicago tonight. In his last 14 appearances against the Canucks, Fleury is 12-0-2 with a .912 save-percentage. Fleury has won his last three starts for the Blackhawks and has a .950 save-percentage in those three games.
• Seth Jones and Alex DeBrincat come streaking into tonight’s contest. Jones has tallied at least point in his last eight games, a career-long streak, with eight points over that span. DeBrincat scored twice last night to extend his point-streak to five games. He has seven points over his point streak and has scored seven goals in his last seven games.
• The biggest discrepancies between the Blackhawks and Canucks coming into tonight are at the faceoff dot and on special teams. Tonight will see two of the best faceoff-winning centermen in the league go against each other as Jonathan Toews and Bo Horvat meet at center ice. Of the 16 players to take at least 300 faceoffs this season, Toews (58.7%) has the highest win-percentage, followed by Horvat (58.5%) in second. But overall, the Canucks rank 10th in the NHL as a team at the faceoff circle, while the Blackhawks come in at 23rd. On the special teams side, Vancouver’s 22nd-ranked powerplay will go against Chicago’s ninth-ranked penalty-kill. Where it gets interesting for the Blackhawks is when they have the man-advantage tonight, putting their 16th-ranked powerplay unit up against the NHL’s worst penalty-killing unit, as the Canucks have a 60.3% kill-rate this season. In their last ten games, Vancouver has been shorthanded 35 times and allowed 18 powerplay goals against, for a league-worst 48.6% kill-rate since October 30.
Get Caught Up
Fleury starting for Blackhawks. Borgstrom in for Reese Johnson. De Haan in for Caleb Jones.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) November 21, 2021
"Talked to Marc (Crawford) quite a bit. It’s going to take me a week to get up to speed with the systems and all the players, their needs and what I can do to help out."–new Blackhawks assistant coach Rob Cookson
— Phillip Thompson (@_phil_thompson) November 21, 2021
New assistant coach Rob Cookson said he'll be focusing on the forwards and will work with Matt Meacham on the power play. Says he's an intense guy. Easy to get along with, difficult to please.
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) November 21, 2021
