PREVIEW: Blackhawks Open Three-Game Trip in Arizona

TIME: 8 p.m. CT
TV: NBCSCH | RADIO: WGN 720 AM | STREAM:
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The Blackhawks embark on a three-game road trip on Thursday night with the second meeting of the season against the Arizona Coyotes.

TEAM RECORDS

• CHI: 11-17-5, 27 PTS
• ARI: 6-22-3, 15 PTS

HOW TO WATCH

Mike Monaco and Colby Cohen are on the call Tuesday night on NBC Sports Chicago with pregame coverage beginning at 7:30 p.m. Joey Zakrzewski and Nick Olczyk also have the radio broadcast of the game on WGN Radio.

VS. ARIZONA

The Blackhawks defeated the Coyotes 2-1 on Nov. 12 at home as Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Strome scored for Chicago. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 22 of 23 shots that evening and has now won his last six starts against the Coyotes. In those six appearances, he has two shutouts and has allowed two goals or fewer in the other four starts.
Patrick Kane notched two assists in the victory and now has 17 career multi-point games against Arizona. The Blackhawks outhit the Coyotes 35-20 in the November victory. Jonathan Toews has points (7G, 12A) in 11 of his last 16 games against the Coyotes. Strome has goals in two of his last three games against Arizona and was drafted by the Coyotes with the third overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft.

POWER UP THE CAT

With two power-play goals on Tuesday night, DeBrincat 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.
DeBrincat's two power-play tallies came 40 seconds apart against the Avalanche. He became the fifth Chicago skater to notch two power-play markers in a span of 40 seconds or fewer, joining Bobby Hull (0:13 on March 20, 1969), Dustin Byfuglien (0:16 on Nov. 30, 2007), Max Bentley (0:26 on Jan. 20, 1946 & 0:36 on Nov. 8, 1945) and Doug Bentley (0:31 on Feb. 26, 1947).
Since the 2018-19 season, when DeBrincat scored a career-best 13 PPG's, he shares seventh in the league with 47 goals on the man advantage. He shares 4th in the league with 20 goals during the 2021-22 campaign and 3rd (McDavid) with 52 goals since the beginning of last season.

BLOCKBUSTERS

Chicago blocked 21 shots vs. Colorado, the sixth time this year they have blocked 20 or more shots in a game. Seth Jones and Jake McCabe led the team with four blocks each against the Avalanche.
Jones is averaging 4.71 blocked shots per 60 minutes which is the second highest figure of his career (5.21 in 2019-20 with CBJ) and he shares 15th in the league with 67 blocks this season. McCabe has blocked three or more shots in five of his last six games.
McCabe and Connor Murphy are fifth and sixth respectively in the league in blocked shots per 60 minutes (min. 20 games). Murphy blocked a season-high seven shots in Saturday's game against Nashville. It matched the third most of his career. He has blocked three or more shots in six of his last eight games. His 73 blocked shots this season share eighth in the NHL. Murphy finished third in the league with 123 blocks last season and was 10th in that category during the 2019-20 campaign.
Chicago is sixth in the league averaging 14.91 blocks per 60.

ON THE DOT

Jonathan Toews is fourth in the NHL winning 59.3 percent of his faceoffs this season (min. 400 draws). The figure is his third highest single-season total, trailing the 2011-12 season when he won 59.4% of his draws and the the 2012-13 campaign when Toews won 59.9% of his draws. He has never been below 53.2% at the faceoff dot in his career.

PLAYING THE HITS

The Blackhawks are fifth in the league with 845 hits this season. Chicago has logged 30 hits or more in a game 11 times this year. They notched a season-high 41 hits on Oct. 24 against Detroit and it was one of two instances this year in which they recorded 40 or more hits in a game (Nov. 7 vs. NSH).
Calvin de Haan matched a career high with seven hits on Tuesday against the Avalanche.