Blackhawks: A chance to redeem themselves at Arizona

(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /
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The Chicago Blackhawks have a chance to redeem themselves against the Arizona Coyotes tonight, just a few days after blowing a lead against them.

The Chicago Blackhawks are in trouble. They are without some key players due to injury and now Calvin de Haan joins that group. He is their best shut down defenseman and they severely lack depth at that role. The bigger issue is that the show goes on despite the loss and the schedule doesn’t even slightly lighten up before the holiday break.

The Arizona Coyotes just came into Chicago on Sunday and handed the Blackhawks a loss in comeback fashion. They are a better team right now that plays with a better structure so this will be another difficult game. This game is also in Arizona so the Coyotes will have the matchup game to their advantage. They get scoring by the committee as well so there isn’t really one player to focus on if they do find themselves playing a matchup game.

The Blackhawks are trying to get out of the last place in the Central Division while the Coyotes are trying to get to first place in the Pacific Division. That gives a reason to believe that both teams are going to play this game with urgency. The Blackhawks will win if they bury their chances because they take a lot of risks to get those chances. The Coyotes are a very structured team so if the Blackhawks can trap them into playing a run and gun game they will have a chance because the Blackhawks have more offensive skill.

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If the Blackhawks do get the goals they need by playing a game that both teams trade chances, they will need their goaltending to be solid. Robin Lehner should get this game as Corey Crawford was left out to dry in Las Vegas in the 5-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. Lehner has shown the ability to steal games for Chicago and he literally almost did that on Sunday night when Arizona was in Chicago. As long as the game doesn’t go to a shootout, Lehner has been money in 2019-20 so far. This is a huge game for both teams, but the Blackhawks really need to string together a few wins in a row.