Players to Watch: CHI vs CBJ (1/31/21)
(Photo by Chase Agnello-Dean/NHLI via Getty Images)
It’s a Blackhawks gameday! Sunday night features the second of 2 games in the series against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Blackhawks lost the first one, so look for them to be eager for a bounce back game tonight.
The Chicago Blackhawks got Korpisalo’d on Friday night. Plain and simple. They got 32 pucks to the net and had 21 more shots blocked. Not only were they getting the shots, they had some A+ quality chances. Joonas Korpisalo was simply in god-mode. It was quite annoying.
There are two bits of good news here.
First: Kevin Lankinen was mostly matching him save-for-save on the other end of the ice. The final score was 2-1 and, once again, there was not a soft goal given up by the Blackhawks netminder. Hats off to Kevin Lankinen. He came into this season with the intention of taking the net. Now that he has, he looks absolutely determined to not give it up. None of us are complaining.
Second: The Blue Jackets are starting Elvis Merzlikins in net tonight. Now, saying this is good news has absolutely nothing to do with Elvis and everything to do with Korpisalo not eating at the brains and confidence of the Blackhawks. Merzlikins is a great goaltender. The Blackhawks are going to have a big challenge. But, at least they won’t go into tonight knowing they’re facing the same guy who stoned them on Friday.
Onto the players to watch on Sunday night:
Reese Johnson
Reese Johnson draws into the lineup and is making his NHL debut! It’s still to be seen which line he will slot into. But, you can bet I’ll be watching the rookie to see how he does!
Here’s a fun little tidbit:
Patrick Kane
A shameful outing against Nashville. A lazy shootout attempt against Nashville. An assist on Strome’s goal against Columbus. Those are the extremely basic descriptions of Patrick Kane’s last three games. It’s been a rough go for the Blackhawks’ star player. In the last two, the Blackhawks have dressed 11 forwards and 7 defensemen. It appears that Sunday’s matchup against the Blue Jackets will see them go back to the typical lineup of 12F/6D. That should work well for Kane. He was playing close to 30 minutes per night when they were down a forward. History shows us that Kane can do whatever Kane wants to do, but those minutes just are not sustainable and will lead to a worse season for him and the team. So, with Kane getting more pucks to the net since that first game against the Preds, and likely seeing a normal amount of ice time - it sure would be nice to see Kane get a goal. I could see it leading to a streak.
Brandon Hagel
Brandon Hagel might just find himself on this list until that first goal goes in for him. Well, as long as he’s playing as well as he has been. Matthew Highmore and Reese Johnson are coming into the lineup tonight. Ryan Carpenter is out on the COVID protocol list. I’m hoping the two coming in take the spots on the 4th line with Hagel being bumped up. But, I’ve been saying that since his second game of the season. So, maybe I’m just screaming into the void at this point.
I’d say, “Just win”, but that hasn’t worked lately. Just . . . let us see a good effort. Friday night’s game was a start. Build off of that.