Players to Watch: CHI vs NJD (10/15/21)

(Photo by Michael Martin NHLI via Getty Images)

The Chicago Blackhawks are back in action tonight taking on the New Jersey Devils. The puck drops at 6pm CST. The Hawks will be looking to bounce back from dropping their season opener to the Colorado Avalanche. 

Kevin Lankinen will get the net tonight as they have a back-to-back this weekend. Marc-Andre Fleury will play his former team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, tomorrow night. 

The Blackhawks had an absolutely abysmal start to their game on Wednesday night - allowing 3 goals in the first 10 minutes of the game. Once the first period was mercifully over, they tightened up their game and saw some improvement. But, they need to be a lot better tonight and going forward. 

Here are your players to watch! 

Patrick Kane

Patrick Kane had a really good first game of the season. That is, if you ignore the first 55 minutes of the game. It appeared that Kane could not find the switch to go from “Preseason Kane” to “Regular Season Kane”. Quite simply, he needs to be better. The Devils aren’t as tough of an opponent, though also not weak, so maybe he can get it up a notch tonight. 

Erik Gustafsson

Yes, you are reading that correctly. Your eyes are not deceiving you. Erik Gustafsson is back with the Blackhawks on a 1-year, $850k contract. And he’s slotting into the lineup tonight. I don’t even have any predictions here. I’m just very curious how this is going to go. Just hoping for no game-ruining turnovers. 

Adam Gaudette 

Adam Gaudette is making his 2021-22 regular season debut tonight. He was a healthy scratch in game number 1, but he’s slotting in tonight in place of Ryan Carpenter. Gaudette had a really nice training camp and preseason and says he feels better than he ever has after working on some health issues in the offseason. This could be a breakout year for him. Maybe that even starts tonight.