The Vancouver Canucks and the Chicago Blackhawks meet in NHL action from the United Center on Monday night.
The Vancouver Canucks come into this one looking to rebound from a 1-0 loss at the hands of the Calgary Flames last time out. J.T. Miller leads the Canucks in scoring with 44 points including a team-high 15 goals and 29 assists while Quinn Hughes has 33 points with a team-high 31 assists. Conor Garland also has 10 goals this season with a total of 24 points and the aforementioned Hughes leads the Canucks with a team-best +9 plus/minus. Bo Horvat’s also added 23 points with 13 goals of his own for Vancouver this year. Thatcher Demko’s seen the majority of action between the pipes for the Canucks, going 17-14-2 with a 2.57 GAA and a .918 save percentage this season.
The Chicago Blackhawks will look to rebound from a 6-4 loss at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche last time out. Patrick Kane leads the Blackhawks with 41 points including 11 goals and 30 assists while Seth Jones has 29 points including 26 assists and Alex DeBrincat also has 36 points with a team-high 26 goals this season. Marc-Andre Fleury’s gone 14-14-3 with a 2.88 GAA and a .909 save percentage in goal for Chicago this year while Kevin Lankinen is 2-5-4 with a 3.41 GAA and an .889 save percentage.
Vancouver is 5-11 in their last 16 games as a road underdog and 1-4 in their last 5 games overall while the under is 5-1 in their last 6 games as an underdog. Chicago is 2-5 in their last 7 home games and 1-5 in their last 6 games overall while the under is 5-0-1 in their last 6 games as a home favorite.
I get the case to be made either way here, but I’m leaning towards the Blackhawks. The Canucks are starting to regress back to the team that we saw struggling with all of their front office issues but just with a new staff in the office. Chicago’s always had their problems, but while the Blackhawks have lost 5 of 6, they’ve scored 10 goals in their last two games and that’s gotta give Chicago some kind of confidence heading into this one that they can generate enough offense to grab a win. Give me Chicago here.