The Chicago Blackhawks have a huge test ahead of Thanksgiving

The Chicago Blackhawks have a huge test ahead of them before American Thanksgiving. They will face off against the Dallas Stars on Wednesday night ahead of the holiday. This is sure to be a very hard game against a big-time team.

The Dallas Stars are currently 11-5-3 which is good for 25 points and the top spot in the Central Division. They are also fourth in the overall NHL standings and the Vegas Golden Knights are the only Western Conference team ahead of them.

What is it that makes the Stars so good? The answer is everything but it starts and ends with their goaltender Jake Oettinger. He is fourth in the NHL with a 2.18 goals-against average. He is also tied for third with a .929 save percentage. He has truly been the backbone of the team.

As for their forward group, there are some really good ones. Jason Robertson leads the team in scoring with 29 points. Roope Hintz is also elite as he has 23 points on the year for second on the team in scoring.

Joe Pavelski has 21 points and Jamie Benn has 20 which is awesome because the veteran studs on the team are still contributing after all these years. Tyler Seguin is also trying to have a resurgence as he has 15 points in 19 games played.

The Chicago Blackhawks have a great Dallas Stars team next on the schedule.

As far as defense, they have one of the best in the league with Miro Heiskanen. Guys like Esa Lindell, Nils Lundkvist, Jani Hakanpaa, and Ryan Suter also contribute defensively as well which rounds out a rather nice group.

The defense isn’t as offensively gifted (besides Heiskanen) as some others in the league but they do their jobs exceptionally well elsewhere on the ice. All of these great skaters in front of that goalie make it no wonder why they are leading the division.

The Blackhawks are struggling. After a hot start, they have come crashing down. This past weekend was brutal for them as the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins really destroyed them. With a team like Dallas approaching, they need to be much better if they want to win.

Coming into the season, the Blackhawks were seen as a lottery team and now they are starting to look like that. To be honest, with kids like Connor Bedard and Adam Fantilli available, that might be the best thing for them. We will see what happens.