^{Hey, look, a division rival we get to finally see in Utah!}

The Chicago Blackhawks and the Utah Mammoth last played when the roster cement was still setting. Game 3 of the year, way back on October 13th.

Chicago visits Utah for the first time this year, and both teams might as well played 3 years ago. However, we’re going to get really chummy – 3 games from the 1st to the 12th, with 2 home games bookending a 5 game road trip.

Early on, Chicago beat Utah 3-1 at United Center. Despite allowing just 14 shots, Vitek Vanecek had a rough start, and Utah was shut down by Spencer Knight. Knight, for months was the hottest goaltender in the league, giving Chicago a sense of false hope that their rebuild was miraculously over.

Since then, however, Utah’s ripped off a 7 game win streak, tied for the best record in the NHL, an ice-cold November, a mixed December, a dominant 2026, and now a pending trade deadline and changes looming.

The Blackhawks, meanwhile, sat high in the playoff chase for more than 2 months. Come Thanksgiving, the Blackhawks were just 2 points out of a playoff spot. Come Christmas? They were dead last in the NHL.

Connor Bedard being hurt destroyed the Chicago offense, and Spencer Knight being more human ravaged their defense. Chicago went from 2.8 goals against per game from before Thanksgiving, to 3.4. Scoring flipped the other way, from 3.1 to just 2.3. Their goal differential went from +7 to -38.

They’ve climbed back up from the cellar, but are well out of the playoff picture. That doesn’t mean they can’t play spoiler, though.

What’s keeping Chicago from being the Win-dy city?
Chicago lives and dies with Connor Bedard up front. The Canadian center, slighted with the Olympics roster committee, is the life force that Chicago relies on. Prior to December 12th, he was crushing it offensively for the Blackhawks, with 44 points in just 31 games. Bedard was averaging 1.42 points a game, 4th overall behind some random guys – Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid and Nikita Kucherov. No big deal.

Bedard has played 15 games now, after returning, but he’s posting just 11 points in that time frame. Worse, he was +8 when he went down, and since he’s -12. Defensively, he’s not great enough to overcome the slowness from his recovery, and Chicago is a mess top to bottom otherwise.

Tyler Bertuzzi and Andre Burakovsky tried to keep the magic for Chicago while Bedard was down, but failed miserably. The #2 and #3 point producers – with 26 and 21 points to Bedard’s 44 produced 8 points each in 12 games. Since the day Bedard went down, and even after his return, overachieving play by Ilya Mikheyev, as well as both Bertuzzi and Bedard are the only players producing at half a point per game or more. The latter duo, however, is a combined -29 since December 13th.

Key points to secure a victory today:
Soder-boom Last night, Chicago put up a total of 15 shots on the Colorado Avalanche, and were outshot by 20. Spencer Knight gave up 2 goals on 34 shots, plus an obligatory empty-netter sealed it. This means Spencer Knight had yet another great game. In fact, a .941 against Colorado is an amazing game. Lucky for Utah, even Knight’s not able to be Vejmelka and play every game, eveon on a back to back.

Arvid Soderblom will be starting against Utah. Soderblom is… well, he’s a professional goalie being paid professional goalie pay. Not sure why, though, as he’s getting just .874 of his shots, and giving up just shy of 3.9 goals a game.

Soderblom is in the bottom 10 of all goaltenders with 10 or more starts when it comes to save percentage. His 3.89 goals against is the second worst in the league, behind only Petr Mrazek. Any goalie playing more than 10 games? Jonathan Quick and Vitek Vanecek have fewer points earned. Quick has earned just 10 of a possible 40 points on a Rangers squad that effectively was dead in the water on January 5th. Soderblom has earned 12 of 34 possible points.

Utah needs to tee off against Soderblom, and put Chicago in the rear-view mirror before the first horn sounds.

Put em’ to Bed Connor Bedard hasn’t woken up from his injury yet, despite the lone goal against Colorado last night. Since he got injured, he’s below a point per game, has struggled to provide an offensive spark to his team. Chicago has the fewest goals in the NHL since he returned on January 9th – both in total goals, and goals per game.

Chicago struggles to get more than 2 goals a game, and has been giving up 3.3+ over that span. It’s no wonder they’ve fallen off hard.

To be successful, Utah needs to keep Bedard asleep. A 10% power play – while also giving up a shorthanded goal – is a recipe for disaster for Chicago, so not giving Bedard space on the power play, and keeping him bottled up at even strength – even at the cost of selling out and giving Bertuzzi the power play looks, or giving Ryan Greene extra space and time to work at 5v5 – should be a recipe for success in keeping the Blackhawks down.

Nike Andre Tourigny needs to Just Do It already. The Kid Line? Needs to happen. Peterka, Guenther, and Cooley just need to be a thing. I’m even fine slotting in Yamamoto for Guenther (for now) to keep a speedy line speedy.

Peterka took an offside for a goal that would have given Utah a 4-0 lead, something that occurred because he had a speedy winger with Guenther on his wing. Sean Durzi was also up on the play – the speediest defenseman. The trio blazed into the zone and overwhelmed Minnesota – one of the best teams in the league.

Saddling Peterka with Hayton and McBain has been criminal. It’s time to let him be free and the player he needs to be.

A speedy line of Peterka – Cooley – Guenther gives 3 great shots, 2 great playmakers, and 2 guys willing to crash the net. That’s a coaches dream, which is why it’s so damn baffling that it doesn’t happen.

Other lines can adjust. Schmaltz has been more than capable centering the top line with Keller and Crouse. The Kid Line should be set. The rest of the combinations? Honestly, it’s not that critical.

In my ideal world, you have McBain and Hayton together as a center-wing duo for the 3rd line. Then the bottom spots would be cemented with Kerfoot and Stenlund on the 4th line.

That leaves Yamamoto, Carcone, Tanev and O’Brien to round out a 3rd line wing and 4th line wing. Yamamoto and Carcone give Utah a lot of flexibility in what they want to do, including as trade sweeteners, or as assets that will not let Tanev or O’Brien ever see the hot lights under a Delta Center scoreboard again this year.

Sometimes genius happens accidentally, other times genius happens because there is no other alternative. Right now, Tourigny’s working hard to find every other alternative – and it’s time for him to just do the smart thing.

Projected Lineups:
Clayton Keller — Nick Schmaltz — Lawson Crouse
JJ Peterka — Barrett Hayton — Kailer Yamamoto
Michael Carcone — Jack McBain — Dylan Guenther
Brandon Tanev — Kevin Stenlund — Liam O’Brien

Mikhail Sergachev — Sean Durzi
Nate Schmidt — John Marino
Ian Cole — Nick DeSimone

Karel Vejmelka
Vitek Vanecek

Game start 2 PM at the Delta Center or Utah 16 / SEG plus

TUSKS UP!