… This is the fourth of six games between the Wings and Hawks this season. The series stands at 2-1-0 in the Wings’ favor. The Hawks won the first 3-2 on December 30th, and the Wings won the next two: 3-2 in OT both times.
… The Blackhawks are coming off a 3-1 win over the Blues Sunday that extended a little win streak they have going to three. Prior to that, they’d had an 0-8-1 stretch that was both hilarious and not long enough.
… That skid and mini streak have them sitting at 6th in the West, 13 points back of the Wings, with a 32-21-7 record. That’s right, over a third of their regulation losses came in the last month.
… To their credit, however, they seem to be on the upswing: one win in their last three was against the Rangers (albeit with Biron rather than Lundqvist in net) and another was against the ridiculous Blues. The other was against Columbus, but they put up 6 goals so it wasn’t close. They’re a team to watch out for again, in theory.
And the fact that they seem to be heating up again makes getting points against them tonight all the more important.
… This is kinda cute. Whoever wrote the Blackhawks’ media game notes cites their home record: 20-6-4. To be fair, that is the third best home record in the League, so it’s no joke.
… To give you an idea the toll the Hawks’ skid took on them, they were 7th in goal-differential at +24 on January 20th, the day before the skid started. They’re now at 9th and +11. Not terrible, but their high-powered offense was misfiring for sure. The Wings’ number changed from +48 to +51 over that span.
… The Hawks will be without Dan Carcillo (out for the season). Niklas Hjalmarsson is out as well. And the big one is Jonathan Toews: out with an upper body injury.
… Corey Crawford is the presumed starter for Chicago.
… The Wings are on a six-game winning streak that beefed up their home record to 26-2-1, 23 wins of which came consecutively. They’ll look to improve their comparably dismal 15-15-1 road record.
… They’re coming off a 3-2 win over the Sharks on Sunday.
… Major news this afternoon: Pavel Datsyuk’s out for two weeks after having knee surgery this morning. Yeah. That sucks. But there is a plus side.
… Dan Cleary should be back tonight.
… Jimmy Howard is scheduled to start for the first time since injuring his finger against Vancouver earlier this month. Joey MacDonald will be his backup. Ty Conklin made it through waivers and will head to Grand Rapids.
… The Wings have been stellar at home and have a chance to pick up where they left off there on Thursday. But in the meantime, they have an important road game against a Central Division rival. The Hawks are well back of them now, but that can change over time, making this specific meeting a key one for ensuring they don’t give an inch in the race. It being Jimmy’s first game back, the Wings will need to be on top of things in case there’s any rust that needs to be shaken off.