The Blackhawks are back in action tonight as they come in as winners in two of their last three games. With the season winding down, it seems like this team is playing more for fun and just enjoying themselves a bit more out there, which is making for some entertaining games. This mindset saw some great performances on Sunday against the Coyotes, including four assists from Seth Jones, a hattrick from Colin Blackwell, and three points from Bedard, including a beautiful example of just how good his hands and hockey IQ are as he was able to show great patience for a great powerplay goal. Arvid Soderblom even looked great picking up his fourth win of the season, with all of them coming against the Coyotes and Leafs, which is funny to me. What we have seen in the two games against the Yotes is what this team needs to do these last 17 games. End the season strong, build some confidence going into the summer, and just try to find some enjoyment and have fun. It's been a long and tough year, but this team has dug deep, and honestly, for the cards they were dealt, I think they did better than what was expected from them. As fans, should we be satisfied with the results? Of course not, but we need to be realistic and see the positives, which there were this year, and feel good that from our point of view right now things are going in the right direction.

Game Day
The Ducks make their way to the UC for the latest edition of the Toilet Bowl. The Ducks come into this one sitting at 30th in the league with 49 points. They have gone 4-5-1 over their last 10 and are losers in their last two. The Ducks are another team in the middle of a rebuild and trying to find their identity going forward. They have a lot of nice young pieces, the emergence of Frank Vatrano, and very good odds of adding yet another key piece to the upcoming draft. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a rematch of these teams in the playoffs in a few years, and if these teams develop the way we hope, it should be some exciting hockey.

Projected Line Up

Blackhawks lines in morning skate vs Ducks — Athanasiou’s return seems like it’ll finally happen:

Foligno-Bedard-Kurashev
Blackwell-Dickinson-Anderson
Athanasiou-TJohnson-Raddysh
Donato-Entwistle-RJohnson

Vlasic-Jones
Korchinski-Megna
Tinordi-Zaitsev

Mrazek

— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 12, 2024

The big takeaway from these lines is the return of Andreas Athanasiou, who has been out with a groin injury for the last four months. He will plug into the 3rd line, and it will be a nice way to ease him back into action. It's great to see him getting some game action. Low-risk situation if he can make it work great if he doesn’t feel 100% he isn’t costing this team anything. It might not be much, but the extra offensive piece is nice to have.

Quick Note
The Hawks announced they had signed Landon Slaggert to a two-year entry-level deal. He spent the last 4 years at Notre Dame, where, as captain, he led the team in goals and points this past season. From what I have seen of him, he is a great depth forward who has a lot of energy and gives his all each shift. He could play a good role for the future of this team, not in the main core, but as the type of player you can plug in for anyone. We will get our first look at him this Friday when he makes his NHL debut against the Kings. It was a very special moment for the local kid.

That’s going to be it from me, puck drop is set for 7:30pm central time. As always, Lets Go Hawks!

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