The Chicago Blackhawks have not had much success in their past six games, but they did beat the Los Angeles Kings in that span.
The Blackhawks will try to turn results around against the Kings once again on Thursday night at Los Angeles.
Chicago beat the visiting Kings 2-1 in overtime on Nov. 3, ending a four-game winless streak.
Chicago was shut out for the second time this season on Saturday, giving up three power-play goals in a 4-0 loss against the Winnipeg Jets to start the current three-game trip.
The loss dropped the Blackhawks to 1-3-2 in their past six games, watering down their impressive 4-2-0 start to the season.
The Blackhawks returned to Chicago after the loss to Winnipeg and held a long practice on Tuesday, looking to improve on their offensive zone play.
“Our in-zone (play) has been good,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said. “We’re moving the puck around well. It’s just (about) getting in the zone. It hasn’t been clean, and we haven’t had a chance to work on it with all the games.”
The Kings are coming off a 1-0 victory against the visiting Minnesota Wild on Tuesday in a rare low-scoring game for Los Angeles this season.
“For the last three weeks, we’ve talked about, can we win a game 2-1 or 1-0?” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “We find a way to do it.”
The Kings will be looking to win three games in a row for the second time this season.
“As you get better as a team, you’re looking for perfection on both ends, it doesn’t exist,” McLellan said. “We still have a long way to go to really get to that point.”
Los Angeles also will be looking to improve on its power play after going 0-for-4 with the man-advantage against the Wild, including a five-minute power play.
“It was one of those nights where if the power play was sharp, we could have been up 3-0,” McLellan said. “When your power play is not there and you can still win the game that was a real positive, but we did work on some things in practice (Monday) that we haven’t had any time to and you can see some of the results here (against the Wild).”
The Blackhawks have been hampered by injuries to their goalies, but that situation is improving.
Arvid Soderblom made 21 saves against the Jets before departing because of dehydration issues. He returned to practice on Tuesday and likely will start against Los Angeles after stopping 32 of 33 shots against the Kings last week.
Dylan Wells, who replaced Soderblom and made 12 saves in his NHL debut, was reassigned to Rockford of the American Hockey League on Tuesday.
Petr Mrazek is on the road trip and is expected to start on Saturday night at the Anaheim Ducks.
Alex Stalock (concussion protocol) skated on his own before practice on Tuesday, a week after he slammed into the goalpost early in a 3-1 loss to the New York Islanders, but he is not on the trip.
–Field Level Media
