The Chicago Blackhawks are set to take on the Minnesota Wild on Sunday night. These are what the projected lines are.
The Chicago Blackhawks are going to take on the Minnesota Wild on Sunday. The Wild come to the United Center riding one of the best records in the NHL.
When you look at the lineups of each team, there is a lot of talent on both sides but the Wild are way deeper. Minnesota is good enough to dominate this game but the Hawks have found themselves in games against teams like this before.
This is what the Hawks are looking like ahead of this matchup in terms of line combinations, defense pairs, and goalies:
Foligno-Bedard-Reichel
Hall-Kurashev-Bertuzzi
Anderson-Dickinson-Teravainen
Maroon-Donato-Smith
Kaiser-Jones
Vlasic-Murphy
Phillips-Allan
Mrazek
Soderblom
The forward lines keep changing for Luke Richardson's team. It makes sense because they have struggled to score but they also haven't had much time to gain any chemistry.
Teravainen is down to the third line despite showing some of the goods when paired with Connor Bedard. Nick Foligno and Lukas Reichel appear to be getting a shot together on Bedard's wings.
The second line with Taylor Hall, Philipp Kurashev, and Tyler Bertuzzi is interesting. There is a little bit of everything with that line and they may be able to stick long-term if they can find a way to get on the board at even strength.
The Minnesota Wild have a lot more consistency in their lineup. This is what their projected lines look like ahead of Sunday's matchup:
Kaprizov-Rossi-Zuccarello
Johansson-Eriksson Ek-Boldy
Foligno-Gaudreau-Hartman
Trenin-Khusnutdinov-Lauko
Brodin-Spurgeon
Middleton-Faber
Chisholm-Bogosian
Fleury
Gustavsson
There is a whole lot of high-end talent in that top six. It starts and ends with Kirill Kaprizov who comes into Sunday with the second-most points in the NHL.
Matt Boldy, Marco Rossi, and the veteran Mats Zuccarello all have been sensational as well. The Hawks have to defend at a high level to shut this group down.
On defense, there are three great star-level guys like Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin, and Brock Faber. All of them are capable of making a big offensive play and they all defend well.
Changes could be made to both but these are what you can expect from both teams as of right now.
Visit The Hockey News Chicago Blackhawks team site to stay updated on the latest news, game-day coverage, player features, and more.