The Minnesota Wild and the Chicago Blackhawks meet in NHL action from the United Center on Friday night.
The Minnesota Wild will look to rebound from a 4-3 overtime loss to Colorado last time out. Kirill Kaprizov leads the Wild in scoring with 44 points including a team-high 28 assists as well as 16 goals while Ryan Hartman has 30 points with a team-high 16 goals, 14 assists and a team-best +30 plus/minus rating this season. Marcus Foligno also has 14 goals while Mats Zuccarello has 32 points with 11 goals and 21 assists this season. Cam Talbot has seen the majority of Minnesota’s action in goal, going 15-8-1 with a 3.00 GAA and a .909 save percentage while Kaapo Kahkonen is 7-2-2 with a 2.58 GAA and a .918 save percentage this season.
The Chicago Blackhawks will be looking to bounce back after a 3-2 shootout loss to Seattle in their last game. Patrick Kane leads the Blackhawks with 35 points including 9 goals and 26 assists while Seth Jones has 25 points including 22 assists and Alex DeBrincat also has 32 points with a team-high 23 goals this season. Marc-Andre Fleury’s gone 13-11-3 with a 2.69 GAA and a .916 save percentage in goal for Chicago this year while Kevin Lankinen is 2-5-3 with a 3.43 GAA and an .884 save percentage.
Minnesota is 1-4 in their last 5 road games and 7-3 in their last 10 games against a team with a losing record while the over is 8-2 in their last 10 games as a favorite. Chicago is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall and 2-5 in their last 7 games as an underdog while the under is 4-0-1 in their last 5 games overall.
I get the case to be made either way here, but I’m leaning towards the under as Chicago has had a lot of scoring issues as of late as it’s usually been three goals or less for Chicago, and Minnesota has played in their fair share of lower-scoring games as of late. Give me the under in a 3-2 game either way.