The Chicago Blackhawks will play their 65th game of the regular season on Thursday night against the Utah Mammoth.
The Chicago Blackhawks and Utah Mammoth are going to play each other for the second time in under a week. This is also the third matchup since the Olympics ended. Both games ended in victory for Chicago, including a 3-2 overtime win on Monday night.
For the Blackhawks, it is two straight games against the Mammoth, who played against the Minnesota Wild in between on Tuesday night. The Mammoth suffered a 5-0 defeat at the hands of the Wild, so they will return home with extra hunger to get back on track.
Scouting Utah
The Utah Mammoth is going to play its first game since the announcement of a new contract extension for former Blackhawks first-round pick Nick Schmaltz. He has become quite a good NHL forward, and he plays with a ton of great talent around him.
The lines look a bit different for Utah as they are switching some things up after losing a couple in a row.
Keller - Schmaltz - Crouse
Peterka - Cooley - Guenther
McBain - Hayton - Carcone
Kerfoot - Stenlund - Yamamoto
Sergachev - Weegar
Schmidt - Marino
Cole - Durzi
Vejmelka
Instead of having Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, and Dylan Guenther on a super top line, Guenther and Lawson Crouse have switched spots. With Logan Cooley and JJ Peterka on the second line with Guenther, there is some nice depth in their top-six with these combinations.
Karel Vejmelka was the first goalie off the ice for Utah at their morning skate, so he will start in goal for them as the league's leader in goalie wins. It was Vitek Vanecek in goal on Monday at the United Center. He played very well, despite the loss, but they will be going back to their number one in this game.
Unlike their first matchup and the last handful of games for Utah, they will have Mikael Sergachev back in the lineup. Paired with the newly acquired Mackenzie Weeger on the top pair, there are defensemen on this team who can make an impact.
Don't expect to see the same performance out of the Utah Mammoth in Thursday's game as they showed on Monday. With a playoff berth on the line for them, every point is crucial.
Projected Lines, Defense Pairs, & Goalie For Chicago
The Blackhawks had an optional morning skate on Thursday in Salt Lake City, but the lines aren't expected to change very much.
There is the possibility that they go 11/7 instead of the traditional lineup of 12/6, in which case Ethan Del Mastro will dress on defense instead of Sam Lafferty at forward, but that won't be known until warmups.
Arvid Soderblom is set to start for Chicago. He earned a shutout victory for the Blackhawks last time they were in Utah, and he is looking for a big performance again.
Drew Commesso started in goal for the Blackhawks on Monday, but he was sent down to the Rockford IceHogs in response to Spencer Knight's return. Knight will back up in this game and then likely face the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday.
Greene-Bedard-Burakovsky
Bertuzzi-Nazar-Teravainen
Mangiapane-Donato-Mikheyev
Lardis-Lafferty-Slaggert
Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Rinzel
Grzelcyk-Levshunov
Soderblom
Vitek Vanecek robbed Connor Bedard at point-blank range a couple of times on Monday, but Bedard had one of his best games of the season. Despite that, he walked away with just one assist.
Learning to accept that this is the reality of the NHL sometimes is part of Bedard's development, and he handles it well. Look for him to get on the scoresheet in this one as a response.
Nick Lardis is likely with the team for good now, but he is still on the fourth line at the moment. Playing well and finding the back of the net when his name is called will be his path to more ice time.
On defense, Alex Vlasic, Artyom Levshunov, and Sam Rinzel are seeing a post-trade deadline increase in role, and they are mostly thriving. On the road against a good Mammoth team, they will be tested again.
UPDATE: Spencer Knight will start for Chicago, despite not being on the ice during the morning skate. This is his first game back following his illness that kept him out for three games.
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 on CHSN locally. Nationally, it is available to stream on ESPN+. The puck will drop shortly after 8:00 PM CT.
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