One more dance before Christmas for the Blackhawks. They’ve been playing better lately, but their last game wasn’t their best for the first 40 minutes. Hopefully they have a better start and have a full 60-minute effort tonight against a division rival.

The Blackhawks didn’t have a morning skate, so we’ll see what they’re doing in net and for defensive pairs as the game gets rolling. Anders Sorensen will speak with the media in Minnesota before the game to confirm the goalie.

Broadcast Info

Puck Drop: 7:00 PM CT
TV / Streaming: Chicago Sports Network (if/where available)
Radio: WGN 720 AM

Expected Lineups

Chicago Blackhawks

Taylor Hall — Connor Bedard — Tyler Bertuzzi
Nick Foligno — Frank Nazar — Ryan Donato
Teuvo Teräväinen — Jason Dickinson — Ilya Mikheyev
Pat Maroon — Lukas Reichel — Joey Anderson

Alex Vlasic — Connor Murphy
Nolan Allan — Seth Jones
Kevin Korchinski — TJ Brodie

🥅 Arvid Söderblom

Minnesota Wild

Kirill Kaprizov — Marco Rossi — Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson — Frederik Gaudreau — Matt Boldy
Marcus Foligno — Marat Khusnutdinov –Ryan Hartman
Brendan Gaunce — Travis Boyd — Devin Shore

Jonas Brodin — Brock Faber
Declan Chisholm — Jared Spurgeon
Jon Merrill — Zach Bogosian

🥅 Filip Gutavsson

Injury Report

Chicago Blackhawks

• Laurent Brossoit (knee), Alec Martinez (neck) and Craig Smith (back) are on IR.

Minnesota Wild

• Joel Eriksson Ek, Jacob Middleton are on IR. Yakov Trenin is day-to-day.

What to Watch For

• The Blackhawks and Wild are both 4-6-0 in their last 10 and the Wild come in riding a four-game losing skid. Beware a desperate team at home before Christmas.

• Bedard with Hall and Bertuzzi was hot in the last game. It looks like Bedard and Bertuzzi are finding some good chemistry (finally). Let’s see if they can light the lamp again.

• Chicago’s third line of Teräväinen, Dickinson and Mikheyev has been as hot as any line in the NHL. Let’s see if they can stay hot to close out the schedule before Christmas.

Get Caught Up

As a teenager, Connor Bedard now has:

30 career 🚨
8️⃣ career 3-point games
2️⃣1️⃣ career multi-point games

He's still putting up some of the best U20 numbers among active NHL players – and in #Blackhawks historyhttps://t.co/B0nFwyXYrL

— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) December 22, 2024