Chicago Blackhawks: No surprise, the Avalanche are heavy favorites on Monday
By Ryan Sikes
The Chicago Blackhawks will look to put a stop to the Colorado Avalanche’s home win streak, sitting at 15 straight coming into Monday night’s contest. The last time these two teams met, Cale Makar put Kirby Dach on a highlight reel in overtime to give the visiting Avs the win.
The Blackhawks have lost their last three games and are 0-1-1 against Colorado this season, also suffering a 4-2 loss on opening night.
Chicago Blackhawks vs. Colorado Avalanche Tale of the Tape
Power-play:
CHI: 18.9% (18th)
COL: 24.5% (10th)
Penalty Kill:
CHI: 76.0% (25th)
COL: 74.8% (27th)
Faceoffs:
CHI: 49.4% (20th)
COL: 47.2% (28th)
Goals per game:
CHI: 2.34 (29th)
COL: 4.15 (1st)
Goals against per game:
CHI: 3.27 (22nd)
COL: 3.03 (19th)
Top scorers:
CHI: Patrick Kane – 9 goals, 27 assists, 36 points
COL: Nazem Kadri – 15 goals, 36 assists, 51 points
Betting Odds
As you would expect, the Avalanche are heavy favorites coming into this game:
Money lines, over/under, TV per WynnBet:
- Blackhawks: +240
- Avalanche: -290
- O/U: 6.5
- Time: 8 pm CT
- TV: ALT, NBCS-CH+, ESPN+
Projected Lineups
After playing quite well against the Minnesota Wild in the second leg of their back-to-back home and home series on Saturday, Kevin Lankinen has been placed on the injured reserve (hand).
Bad news: Kevin Lankinen injured his right hand last night against the Wild and has been placed on IR. He's expected to miss some time.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) January 23, 2022
Arvid Soderblom has been called up and will be the #2 goalie moving forward.
Here’s how the Blackhawks lined up in Saturday’s game:
Forwards
Hagel-Strome-Kane
DeBrincat-Toews-Lafferty
Kubalik-Dach-Kurashev
Borgstrom-Carpenter-Entwistle
Defense
McCabe-Seth Jones
De Haan-Murphy
Caleb Jones-Gustafsson
Goaltender
Lankinen
Obviously, with Lankinen sidelined, Marc-Andre Fleury likely goes against the high-powered Avs tonight. Over his future Hall-of-Fame career, the 37-year-old has gone 15-9-3 in 28 games against Colorado, owning a .917 SV% and 2.52 GAA with three shutouts.
In both meetings this season, “Flower” gave up four goals to the Avs.
Here’s how Colorado lined up against Montreal on Saturday:
Forwards
Landeskog-MacKinnon-Rantanen
Nichushkin-Kadri-Burakovsky
O’Connor-Newhook-Compher
Jost-Maltsev-Aube-Kubel
Defense
Toews-Makar
J. Johnson-Girard
MacDermid-E. Johnson
Goaltender
Kuemper
Related Story. 3 teams that should trade for Marc-Andre Fleury before the deadline. light
The Chicago Blackhawks will need to find their offense and find it fast against the top-scoring team in the league. They are 4-0-2 when leading after two periods on the road. If they can get a couple of goals early, the Hawks have a chance to steal one in Denver.