"It's very important to get a game in here before the playoffs," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "You get three or four more practices before he plays a playoff game. It helps getting at least a start here and getting back on the on the ice as well. This is the next step."
Scott Darling has started the past 11 games for the Blackhawks, who will open the Stanley Cup Playoffs on the road against either the Dallas Stars or St. Louis Blues.
Captain Jonathan Toews and defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson likely will not play Saturday, Quenneville said. Chicago also will be without injured forwards Artem Anisimov, Marian Hossa and Andrew Shaw, and suspended defenseman Duncan Keith.
The revised lineup doesn't change a thing for the defending Stanley Cup champions.
"We'd like to win the game," Quenneville said. "That's what we're playing for."
Hjalmarsson said the Blackhawks are motivated to play well for Crawford.
"You want to help him out and build his confidence back to the level he was playing before he was hurt, which was really high," Hjalmarsson said. "He's a gamer. One game for him and he's ready to go. He's one of those goalies that likes it when it's more competitive, and playoff time in the past, he's been of our best players."
The Blue Jackets did not practice Saturday, but coach John Tortorella said after a 4-1 win at the Buffalo Sabres on Friday that goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky will start the season finale.
Forwards Jared Boll and Rene Bourque will play after being scratched against the Sabres.
Boll, the longest tenured Blue Jackets player, having made his debut in October 2007, could be playing his last game for Columbus despite having one more season on his contract. Boll has been a frequent scratch this season.
"Obviously I expect to be back," he said last week. "I've been here my whole career. I have a contract for next year. We'll see what happens. All my focus is on this organization, winning games and being successful. That's what I want to do and this is where I want to be. That's my plan moving forward."
Here are the projected lineups:
BLACKHAWKS
Andrew Ladd - Teuvo Teravainen - Richard Panik
Artemi Panarin - Dennis Rasmussen - Patrick Kane
Bryan Bickell - Andrew Desjardins - Dale Weise
Brandon Mashinter - Marcus Kruger - Tomas Fleischmann
Trevor Van Riemsdyk - Christian Ehrhoff
Viktor Svedberg - Brent Seabrook
Erik Gustafsson - Michal Rozsival
Corey Crawford
Scott Darling
Injured: Marian Hossa (lower body), Artem Anisimov (upper body), Andrew Shaw (upper body)
Suspended: Duncan Keith
Scratched: Niklas Hjalmarsson, Michael Leighton, Jonathan Toews
BLUE JACKETS
Brandon Dubinsky - Boone Jenner - Cam Atkinson
Brandon Saad - Alex Wennberg - Nick Foligno
Scott Hartnell - William Karlsson - Rene Bourque
Matt Calvert - Gregory Campbell - Jared Boll
Ryan Murray - Seth Jones
Dean Kukan - David Savard
Justin Falk - Dalton Prout
Sergei Bobrovsky
Joonas Korpisalo
Scratched: None
Injuries: Jack Johnson (shoulder), Curtis McElhinney (knee), David Clarkson (back), Fedor Tyutin (lower body), Cody Goloubef (oblique)
Status report: Rasmussen will play for the first time in five games and Ehrhoff goes in for Hjalmarsson. … The Blue Jackets assigned forwards Oliver Bjorkstrand and Josh Anderson to Lake Erie of the American Hockey League on Saturday. Korpisalo and Kukan are expected to follow Sunday.
Who's hot: Kane has five goals and four assists in four games. … Saad, a former Blackhawk, scored his 30th goal of the season on Friday to join Jenner, marking the first time the Blue Jackets have had two 30-goal scorers in a season. Dubinsky has two goals and an assist in two games.
