The Chicago Blackhawks will face the Washington Capitals on Saturday night. This will wrap up the first half of the season.
The Chicago Blackhawks are coming off their best win since Connor Bedard’s injury. They have been playing better since the holiday break ended, but this defeat over Dallas was a game to be truly proud of. Now, they are on the road for a match against the Washington Capitals.
This is the first meeting for Chicago against Washington, who comes in with a record of 21-15-5 and 47 points. They have had a solid year, but so has every team in the Eastern Conference up to this point.
Scouting Washington
The Washington Capitals, even after all of these years, have a ton of talent. Everything starts and ends with Alexander Ovechkin, who broke Wayne Gretzky’s record for the most goals in NHL history last season. Now, at the age of 40, Ovechkin has 15 goals this season and 912 in his career. Ovechkin tied the record with two goals last time the Blackhawks were in town.
Protas-Strome-Ovechkin
McMichael-Sourdif-Wilson
Beauvillier-Dowd-Leonard
Duhaime-Lapierre-Frank
Sandin-Carlson
Chychrun-Roy
Fehervary- van Riemsdyk
Thompson
The Capitals have some good young players and other great veterans besides Ovechkin. For one, Tom Wilson has developed into one of the best power forwards in the NHL. He is no longer the guy running around creating controversy with big hits. He still has an incredible physical presence to his game, but he doesn’t toe the line as much and is an elite offense producer. So much so that he was named to Team Canada for the Olympics.
A young player to watch out for is Ryan Leonard. The Team USA World Juniors hero (back-to-back Golds in 2023-24/2024-25) is still learning his way in the NHL, but he has star potential.
On the back end, John Carlson has been one of the best defensemen in the NHL for years. As an aging player, he isn’t the producer that he once was, but he’s still someone to game plan for. So is the excellent Jakob Chychrun, who has 15 goals and 16 assists for 31 points in 41 games.
Logan Thompson will start in goal for Washington. Like Tom Wilson, Thompson will be an Olympian with Canada in Milan, Italy. He has become an outstanding goaltender in this league. To beat him, the Blackhawks will have an interesting time. It can be done, but all of the little things need to happen, like traffic in front, good shot selection, and being hard on the forecheck.
Washington is a flawed team, but they are heavy and skilled, so win or lose, they are hard to play against.
Projected Lines, Defense Pairs, & Goalie For Chicago
The Chicago Blackhawks are coming in feeling good about their games. Now, they have a chance to take that momentum and use it in a situation that's been tough for them this season: back-to-back situations.
Spencer Knight will start in goal for Chicago, meaning that they will likely use Arvid Soderblom against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday.
Bertuzzi-Greene-Burakovsky
Donato-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Teravainen-Moore-Lardis
Dach-Foligno-Slaggert
Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Levshunov
Grzelcyk-Murphy
Knight
Why change a winning lineup? This exact lineup beat the Dallas Stars at the United Center on Thursday night.
Keep an eye on two young centers in this game. Ryan Greene and Oliver Moore have started to take their games to another level with Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar out of the lineup. For Moore, the points have started to come. Greene is still working on his finish, but he looks like a guy who belongs in the top nine of a winning group.
How To Watch
The game can be heard locally on AM 720 WGN in the Chicagoland area. To view this game, it can be found locally on CHSN. Nationally, it can be streamed on ESPN+. The puck will drop shortly after 6:00 PM CT.
Visit The Hockey News Chicago Blackhawks team site to stay updated on the latest news, game-day coverage, player features, and more.
For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.