Following a 3-1 win over the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night, the Chicago Blackhawks hit the road for a three-game road trip starting this afternoon in Calgary, taking on the Flames. Chicago is on a three-game win streak following the win over the Kraken, the first three-game win streak the Blackhawks have enjoyed since February of 2023 when they won five-straight games between February 17-25.
Chicago looks to be getting healthier as Petr Mrázek was activated from IR earlier this week and backed-up Arvid Söderblom on Thursday night, and both defensemen Seth Jones and Alec Martinez have been skating ahead of practices and morning skates recently. In Jones’ case, it appears possible he could be activated and in the lineup as early as this afternoon’s game following the re-assignment of defenseman Wyatt Kaiser yesterday afternoon.
Anders Sorensen’s adjustments to the Blackhawks playing style and system have been working. The team is 4-3-0 in seven games since Sorensen took over in the interim after firing Luke Richardson. Over that span of time, the Blackhawks are scoring 2.86 goals per game and allowing 2.86 goals per game, ranking 14th and 15th in the NHL. They also have killed the last 31-straight penalties against them dating back to November 27th.
Helping power the Blackhawks offensively in the past few games has been the duo of Ilya Mikheyev and Teuvo Teräväinen. Like we all predicted. Over the past three games, Teräväinen has recorded eight points (1G, 7A), the most points he has produced in a three-game stretch in his NHL career. We Teräväinen has also closed the gap on Blackhawks points leader Connor Bedard, now up to 21 points on the season and just five behind Bedard. Mikheyev comes into today with a three-game goal streak, having scored four goals over that stretch of time. His goal on Thursday night to open the game was the 21st time the Blackhawks have scored the opening goal of a game, leading the NHL.
Quotables
“He looked good today. He should be good to go. We’ll see tomorrow.” – Blackhawks interim head coach Anders Sorensen on Seth Jones’ health status (via Charlie Roumeliotis)
“Not when it first happened but probably around the three and a half week mark I wasn’t sure if I was going to return before Christmas or what the case was. There was a point where it just wasn’t getting better and I was getting super frustrated. At the three and a half week mark, I tried to skate and I couldn’t put my skate on, but 10 or 12 days after that I really turned a corner.” – Seth Jones on his right foot injury that has kept him out of action since November 14 (via Charlie Roumeliotis)
“Anders says it’s not sexy, but it is. It’s good hockey, and that’s what guys are seeing. It’s tape-to-tape, it’s clean, it’s in the back of the net. Or it’s a breakout play that just looks so good, and now you’re flying. You have three guys or four guys flying in the rush, and plays develop from that because we have guys who have the skill to make those plays. It’s exciting to see our group understand that and get rewarded for that.” – Nick Foligno on the Blackhawks’ style of play under Anders Sorensen leading to recent success (via Ben Pope)
