PREVIEW: Blackhawks Host Canadiens Looking for Third Straight

TIME: 7:30 p.m. CT
TV: NBCSCH | RADIO: WGN 720 AM | STREAM:
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The Blackhawks return to Chicago in the midst of their second winning streak of the season as the Montreal Canadiens visit the United Center on Thursday night. Chicago finished a three-game trip with comeback wins against Vegas and Columbus for their first wins of the new year.

TEAM RECORDS

• CHI: 13-18-5, 31 PTS
• MTL: 7-24-4, 18 PTS

HOW TO WATCH

Can't make it out to the United Center? Pat Foley and Eddie Olczyk are on the call Thursday night on NBC Sports Chicago with pregame coverage beginning at 7 p.m. John Wiedeman and Paul Caponigri also have the radio broadcast of the game on WGN Radio.

SHAW RETURNS

Ahead of Thursday's game, Andrew Shaw will make his return to the United Center to celebrate his 10-season NHL career in front of a hometown crowd. The Mutt stepped away from the game last season, but without fans in the building was never given a proper send-off from his biggest fans. His legacy will be highlighted in a pregame ceremony on the ice before the Blackhawks take on the Canadiens, Shaw's other NHL home for three seasons.

VS. MONTREAL

The Blackhawks are 13-2-2 in their last 17 contests against the Canadiens with wins in their last three matchups.
Chicago beat Montreal 2-0 on Dec. 9 as Marc-Andre Fleury secured his 500th career win, becoming the third goaltender in league history to reach the milestone. It was his 69th career shutout as he stopped all 30 shots. Jonathan Toews and Henrik Borgstrom scored the goals for Chicago in the victory. Toews won 13 of 16 (81 percent) of his faceoffs that evening as well.

REICHEL DEBUT

Top prospect Lukas Reichel is expected to make his NHL debut on Thursday night. The German forward has 20 points (9G, 11A) in 20 games with the AHL's Rockford IceHogs this season, including a four-point night (2G, 2A) on Friday against the Chicago Wolves and a two-point outing the following evening in Milwaukee (1G, 1A).
Reichel is expected to play a few NHL games during his first call up before finishing the season back in Rockford
as part of a long-term development plan
for the skilled forward.

BACK IN ACTION

The Blackhawks activated Kevin Lankinen and Erik Gustafsson from COVID-19 protocol on Wednesday morning. Lankinen missed six games to start the 2022 calendar year and Gustafsson missed three games in protocol.

CAT ON THE ATTACK

Alex DeBrincat recorded his fifth multi-goal game of the 2021-22 campaign on Tuesday. His nine goals since Dec. 15 share second in the NHL and his 23 markers are fourth in the league this season.
With two power-play goals on Jan. 4, he reached the 20-goal plateau in the fewest number of games of his NHL career (33 games). The previous quickest instance of him scoring 20 markers came last year when he recorded his 20th in the 36th game of the season. It is the fourth time in five seasons that the Farmington, Hills, Michigan native has registered 20 or more goals in a campaign.
Since the 2018-19 season, when DeBrincat scored a career-best 13 PPG's, he is seventh in the league with 41 goals with the man advantage. He is third in the NHL with 55 goals since the beginning of last season ... He recorded a three-game goal streak (4G) from Jan. 2-6.

RILEY ROLLING

Riley Stillman recorded his first career multi-point outing (2A) on Tuesday and extended his point streak (1G, 3A) to a career-long three games. His seven assists and eight points this season are career highs.