Happy Halloween Hawks fans! How fitting that today two of the league's worst will battle it out in the NHL version of a horror film. The Sharks come into this one with a 2-7-2 record, and the Hawks are 3-6-1, so talk about a real rink of horror situations tonight. This will be the second time these two teams will clash. The Hawks took game one back on October 17th when they put together a 4-2 win in front of the hometown crowd. It was a great get-the-monkey off-back game for Taylor Hall, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Jason Dickinson, who registered their first goals of the year, and the top powerplay unit continued to click as they picked up two goals with the man advantage.
Something has changed since the last time these two faced off; they got a little upgrade on the back end as they traded for defenseman Timothy Lijegren from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Lijgren is a decent defender who just seemed to get lost in the shuffle with Toronto, so coming to a team like San Jose where he will be given the top four minutes will be a good change of pace for the defender as he looks to get his career back on track. Coming into this one, the Sharks are on a two-game win streak. They had a great come-from-behind victory against Utah Hockey Club on Monday and then a solid 4-2 win over the Kings on Tuesday. This Sharks team isn’t as bad as their record shows; they are clearly in the dark days of the rebuild, but on any given night they could steal a victory. The Hawks cannot take them lightly or get caught in the playing down to their opponent’s trap. This is a team the Hawks can and should beat, and there are no moral victories here for anything less than a W.
The Sharks are turning to Mackenzie Blackwood between the pipes for this one. He has a 1-3-2 record to go along with his.888 save percentage. He backstopped the team to their first win of the season on Monday. He has played the Hawks well throughout his career, going 3-0-3 with a.919 save percentage, so there could be a little confidence here for him.
Projected Line Up
Blackhawks’ lines remain the same: Kurashev-Bedard-Teräväinen Hall-Foligno-Bertuzzi Mikheyev-Dickinson-Donato Maroon-Reichel-Smith
It looks like the Hawks will run back what they sent out against the Avalanche on Monday. One interesting note is Lukas Reichel was skating with the top powerplay unit in the bummer role. Not only has he been playing well, but Coach Richardson has also talked about how he is impressing in practice with his work ethic. It’s great to see him getting rewarded for his hard work, and hopefully this is just the start.
Petr Mrazek will start in his fifth consecutive game tonight. I don’t need to keep talking about how well he is playing this year and what he is doing for this team, but Monday's 24 save performance is just another notch in the belt for good starts. Arvid Soderblom is back with the team and will be the backup for this one. With 3 games in 4 days and back-to-back games this weekend, expect him to get back in the net here fairly soon.
That’s going to be it for me; puck drop is set for 9:30 central time. As always, Let's Go Hawks.
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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