Brad Richards had three assists, and Jakub Kindl and Niklas Kronwall each had two assists. Other than those lines and pairings, maybe some of the players from tonight will play again, or Blashill may choose to go with all players who didn’t play last night.
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The Detroit Red Wings are heading into the 2015-16 season with an open competition for starting goaltender, which is a polite way of saying they don’t have total faith in Petr Mrazek and Jimmy Howard has a long-term contract.
Tatar came up huge for Detroit scoring his second of the night with help from Richards that occurred in the crease to take a 3-1 lead. The 2013 first round draft pick was a goal scoring machine during his final season in the QMJHL, averaging exactly a goal per game with 57 goals in 57 regular season games followed by a 24-goal performance in as many postseason games. Ryan Hartman also had three shots on net, while Viktor Tikhonov, who made his Blackhawks debut, had two shots in 15 minutes of ice time. While recent production suggests this won’t happen, there’s no denying that Father Time is hot on the heels of the veterans that make up much of Detroit’s on-ice and dressing room leaders.
Forward Daniel Paille and defenseman Jan Hejda, David Rundblad and Viktor Svedberg played in both games against Detroit.
Matthew O’Connor stopped all 18 shots he faced in the first 29:26. Jared Coreau started in the Wings’ net and made 14 saves on 16 Chicago shots. Chicago had six tries with the extra attacker while Detroit had four. Chris Driedger made 22 saves the rest of the way, allowing only Evander Kane’s two third-period goals. The remaining nine minutes went smooth for Mrazek who dealt with the Chicago rushing offense well stopping another eight shots.
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The Hawks travel to Montreal on Friday to play the Canadiens (0-1) at the Bell Centre.
