On Sunday night, the Chicago Blackhawks hung onto a third-period lead to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins at the United Center. The young guys carried the team to victory in a game where Chicago outskated Pittsburgh all night.
Now, the two teams will have an even amount of rest as they finish the second half of a home-and-home with the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena. This is a chance for Chicago to earn a season sweep.
Spencer Knight is going to start in goal for the Blackhawks. This is how the lines and defense pairs will look in front of him:
Donato-Bedard-Mikheyev
Teravainen-Nazar-Bertuzzi
Slaggert-Moore-Kurashev
Reichel-Veleno-Foligno
Vlasic-Rinzel
Korchinski-Murphy
Kaiser-Levshunov
This is the same lineup that the Blackhawks used against the Penguins when they met on Sunday. There is a lot to like.
We don’t know if Connor Bedard, Frank Nazar, or Oliver Moore will be centers in the future, but that is the 1-2-3 punch they will use in this game. If they all turn out to be impactful down the middle, that will increase Chicago’s chances of returning to the playoffs in the future.
The wingers there to support them are all playing well lately. Ryan Donato is one goal away from 30, Ilya Mikheyev just scored his 20th, and Teuvo Teravainen is one point away from 60.
They are still working on adding young depth up front, but there are worse groups than this.
The top pair on defense is Alex Vlasic with Sam Rinzel. That is a solid duo that will only improve over time. Rinzel is playing well beyond his years and Vlasic already looks like a top-pair guy in the defensive zone.
Artyom Levshunov, who may have the highest ceiling of them all on the blue line, is on the third pair with Wyatt Kaiser, who has been wonderful this season. Connor Murphy, the only elder veteran going on defense vs Pittsburgh, will skate with Kevin Korchinski who is working on his game at the NHL level.
The Penguins are having one of the worst seasons they've had in the Sidney Crosby era but the fact remains that he is still playing at the top of his game, which makes them dangerous on any given night.
With other veterans (and future Hall of Famers) like Evgeni Malkin, Erik Karlsson, and Kris Letang there, it's never an easy night against the Penguins regardless of their spot in the standings.
