Blackhawks Preview: January Schedule
Photo by Chase Agnello-Dean/NHLI via Getty Images
The NHL season is finally upon us. The 2020-21 season kicks off Wednesday night with 5 games on the schedule.
Philadelphia v. Pittsburgh (5:30 pm ET)
Montreal v. Toronto (7:00 pm ET)
Chicago v. Tampa Bay (8:00 pm ET)
Vancouver v. Edmonton (10:00 pm ET)
St. Louis v. Colorado (10:30 pm ET)
That’s right, the Blackhawks kick off their season on opening night.
Against the reigning Stanley Cup Champions.
Great.
With the shortened season, there is a pretty condensed schedule. Teams are only playing opponents within their division and see a lot of opponents twice in a row to cut down on travel. It’s going to be a very strange season.
So, let’s take a look at what January looks like for the Chicago Blackhawks.
*For reference, the 2019-20 Blackhawks had a record of 32-30-8 for 72 points. They finished 7th, and last, in the Central Division.
This month features 5 two-game series against the same opponent in the same arena. Staying in the same city for both games limits travel and travel fatigue. The majority of the month sees a Blackhawks game every other night, but there is one back-to-back series on the 26th and 27th, and one two-day break between games on the 20th and 21st.
Blackhawks January opponents:
Tampa Bay Lightning - 1/13, 1/15
Florida Panthers - 1/17, 1/19
Detroit Red Wings - 1/22, 1/24
Nashville Predators - 1/26, 1/27
Columbus Blue Jackets - 1/29, 1/31
Tampa Bay Lightning
(Last season: 43-21-6 92pts 2nd in Atlantic Division)
The first two games of the season will be in Tampa taking on the 2020 Stanley Cup Champs. That’s quite the challenge right off the hop. They’ve had some roster adjustments, and Nikita Kucherov is on LTIR. So, they lessens the burden on the Blackhawks defenders, but the roster is still ridiculously good.
They didn’t make any big additions to their roster during the offseason, but they didn’t need to.
Top players: Steven Stamkos, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Victor Hedman, Brayden Point
Florida Panthers
(35-26-8 78pts 4th in Atlantic Division)
After the two-game series in Tampa, the Blackhawks will head to South Florida to take on Coach Q and the Florida Panthers. Former Blackhawks Vinnie Hinostroza and Anthony Duclair should be an interesting forward duo to go up against. Former Blackhawks defenseman, Gustav Forsling, was claimed off the waiver wire. It’s left to be seen whether he will be on the roster or not.
Their big offseason addition was Patric Hörnqvist. He put up 17 goals and 15 assists last season in Pittsburgh. He’s getting up there in age, but he’s a big, strong pest to play against. The scoring touch is clearly still there, and Florida has enough talent to help him out.
Sergei Bobrovsky has been ruled unfit to play. In typical Quenneville fashion, we don’t know who will be in net. They’ve got some young guys behind Bobrovksy in Dreidger and Montembeault. Either would be a solid option.
Top players: Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov, Aaron Eklad, Keith Yandle
Detroit Red Wings
(17-49-5 39pts 8th[last] in Atlantic Division)
The Blackhawks finally have the Detroit Red Wings back in their division with a chance to renew their rivalry. The problem here - both teams are very, very bad.
Looking at the offseasons for both teams, it’s arguable that Detroit did more to get better than Chicago did. They got better in goal with the addition of Thomas Greiss. Other additions included Bobby Ryan, Jon Merrill, Troy Stecher, and Vladislav Namestnikov.
It’ll be interesting to see if or how the rivalry between these teams grows again. It may be for the bottom of the division.
Top Players: Dylan Larkin, Vladislav Nemestnikov, Troy Stecher, Thomas Greiss
Nashville Predators
(35-26-8 78pts 5th in Central Division)
The Nashville Predators is the one team on this list that Blackhawks fans are most familiar with, at least when it comes to playing the Hawks. The games against the Preds is also the one back-to-back series in January.
On paper, their forward group isn’t all that exciting. On the back end, they have the 2020 Norris Trophy winner, Roman Josi. The assumption would be that Pekka Rinne and Juuse Saros will split the starts.
Some interesting additions they made in the offseason include Erik Haula, Mark Borowiecki, and Luke Kunin. Haula has a lot of speed and was consistently a pain for the Hawks when he played for Minnesota. Borowiecki adds more veteran experience to their defense core. After years in Ottawa, I’m sure he will be on a high from playing for a better team. Luke Kunin is a player who always seemed to look his best playing against the IceHogs when he was with the Iowa Wild. He put up 15 goals and 16 assists for Minnesota last season.
Top Players: Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, Filip Forsberg, Ryan Johansen
Columbus Blue Jackets
(33-22-15 81pts 5th in Metro Division)
The month of January ends with a two-game series at home against the Blue Jackets. They’re an interesting team. They are never at the top of their division, but they’re consistently hard to play against and don’t give up easily. I mean, they took the Lightning to 5 overtimes in one playoff game. That was a fun one to watch. They have good talent up and down the lineup, but not many players would be considered great.
Their big offseason addition came from trading Josh Anderson to Montreal for Max Domi. This could end up being a great deal for them. They were already a pain to play against, and Domi multiplies that by about 10.
Top Players: Pierre-Luc Dubois, Seth Jones, Zach Werenski Max Domi, Joonas Korpisalo
There you have it. The Blackhawks start their season with a bang. There’s no easing into this one. It’s probably good for the team. They have to come out fighting right away.
If I had to make predictions, I think they’ll drop both games to Tampa. I could see them splitting the series with Florida, Nashville, and Columbus. Detroit is the big question mark. We’ll get an early look at who has a leg up in the battle for last in the division. I’ll make a bold prediction and say Chicago takes both games against Detroit.
Looking back on those will be interesting for February. . .