Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
The two worst teams in the league meet in California on Thursday night when the Blackhawks visit the San Jose Sharks — feel the excitement!
Chicago and San Jose enter this game occupying their likely ultimate destinations in the NHL standings. The Blackhawks are in 31st with 49 points in 65 games, which is seven behind Buffalo and eight behind Nashville — and with those two teams having a game in hand on the Hawks. San Jose is six points behind the Hawks in dead last and those 43 points have game in one additional game than Chicago. So, yeah, this is almost a dungeon-dweller matchup with the sides unlikely to swap spots before the season concludes next month.
Like Chicago, San Jose unloaded some veterans at the deadline. Out went players like Mikael Granlund, Luke Kunin, Fabian Zetterlund and Nico Sturm for a slew of picks and prospects that added to the Sharks’ burgeoning draft capital as their own rebuild unfolds. Thanks to moves that happened in that first week of March and over the last year or so, San Jose now owns a pair of picks in the first and second rounds of each of the next two drafts. The Sharks will have plenty of opportunities to stockpile its prospect pipeline, starting with the possibility of the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 draft.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 draft is already wearing black and teal in Macklin Celebrini, who is tied for the team lead with 48 points (20 G, 28 A) in 54 games. Joining him atop that leaderboard is 2021 No. 7 overall pick William Eklund at 48 (14 G, 34 A) in 61, giving San Jose a decent enough pair of pieces to build the long-term puzzle here. Will Smith, who was the No. 4 overall pick in 2023, is behind the pace of that duo at 33 points (12 G, 21 A) in 58 games during his first full NHL season, but it’s far too early to be drawing any worthwhile conclusions on him. Those three players make up half of San Jose’s top-six, though, which is part of the reason why they’ve been a somewhat less miserable watch this season than the visitors because their kids have played a starring role since the start of the season. The blue line is a little more veteran-heavy but has recently seen injuries thrust Shakir Mukhamadullin — a former first-round pick of New Jersey — thrust into a top-pairing role. There’s not much else here — or in net — other than veterans occupying roster spots until kids came take their jobs. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
The results have been especially miserable lately for San Jose, though, with the Sharks having lost their last three games and 20 of their last 24 overall. Clearly a team much closer to Chicago’s weight class this season, but we all know how those games have gone this season, don’t we?
Here’s the expected lineup, based on Wednesday’s practice:
#SJSharks lines, d-pairs in practiceEklund-Celebrini-ToffoliGraf-Wennberg-SmithKovalenko-Dellandrea-KostinGrundstrom-Giles-GoodrowFerraro-MukhamadullinVlasic-LiljegrenSchuldt-Desharnais
Gregor is the extra forward
— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) March 12, 2025
As for the Hawks, the recent results haven’t been decidedly better but it has been a little more of a pleasant watch lately with so much youth in the lineup compared to earlier portions of the season. That trend appears to continue in this game, based on the expected lineup below. That includes recent acquisition Spencer Knight back in net and a weird first line with Jason Dickinson on Connor Bedard’s wing opposite Colton Dach. It’s nice that Frank Nazar is getting another shot at center but it’s also a little weird to have him flanked by likely future bottom-six guy Landon Slaggert and barely-fourth-line-worthy Nick Foligno. Life is a lesson in contrasts, though, isn’t it?
Spencer Knight starts against the Sharks tonight — his first time making consecutive starts for the Blackhawks.Lineup expected to be the same as Monday:Dach-Bedard-Dickinson Teravainen-Donato-Mikheyev Slaggert-Nazar-Foligno Reichel-Veleno-Bertuzzi
Del Mastro-Murphy…
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 13, 2025
Let’s go Hawks.
Blackhawks — Statistic — Sharks43.69% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 45.59% (31st)42.59% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 44.22% (30th)2.72 (25th) — Goals per game — 2.61 (31st)3.46 (29th) — Goals against per game — 3.7 (32nd)44.6% (31st) — Faceoffs — 48.4% (25th)25.0% (7th) — Power play — 19.8% (22nd)81.2% (t-9th) — Penalty kill — 73.7% (28th)
(All stats from this season)
When: 9:30 p.m. CT
Where: SAP Center, San Jose
TV: CHSN+
Webstream: ESPN+, Hulu
Radio: WGN 720
