PREVIEW: Blackhawks Visit Oilers Saturday Night

TIME: 9 p.m. CT
TV: NBCSCH | RADIO: WGN 720 AM | STREAM:
MyTeamsApp
(In Market) &
ESPN+
(Out of Market)
The Blackhawks take their four-game win streak to Edmonton to face one of the hottest teams in the league on Saturday night against the Oilers.

TEAM RECORDS

• CHI: 5-9-2, 12 PTS
• EDM: 12-4-0, 24 PTS

HOW TO WATCH

After a pair of national broadcasts, the Blackhawks return to NBC Sports Chicago on Saturday night with Stephen Nelson and Colby Cohen on the call. John Wiedeman and Colin Fraser have the radio broadcast on WGN Radio

HELLO, FRIEND

The first meeting of the season between the Blackhawks and the Oilers will be the first time several names on both sides of the ice face their former teams and the only other NHL home they've known.
Caleb Jones and Jujhar Khaira were both drafted by Edmonton -- Jones a fourth-round pick in 2015 and Khaira a third-round pick in 2012 -- and are set to return to Rogers Place for the first time on Saturday night. Jones played 93 NHL games for Edmonton over three seasons before joining the Blackhawks via trade on July 12. Khaira skated 258 games for the Oilers over parts of six seasons before signing as a free agent in Chicago on July 28.
On the flip side, longtime Blackhawks blueliner Duncan Keith will face his former team as a member of the Oilers, the other half of the trade that brought Jones to Chicago. Keith, who requested a trade to be closer to his son, won a trio of Stanley Cups, a pair of Norris Trophies and a Conn Smythe Trophy in 16 seasons with the Blackhawks, appearing in 1.192 regular-season contests, a number that is second in franchise history.
Slater Koekkoek, in his second season with the Oilers, would've been set to play his first game against Chicago since leaving in free agency after the 2019-20 season. Former Blackhawk Brendan Perlini could face the Blackhawks for just the second time after being traded to Detroit in exchange for Alec Regula on Oct. 28, 2019.

LINEUP NOTES

Interim head coach Derek King said Friday that Kevin Lankinen is expected to return to the crease against Edmonton after Marc-Andre Fleury started the last two games and six of the last seven. The second-year netminder won his last start on Nov. 7 over Nashville, 2-1.
After a full practice without limitations on Friday, Brandon Hagel could also return to the lineup. Hagel missed the last three games with a shoulder injury and has has six points (4G, 2A) in 13 games this season.
"He's feeling good. He had a good skate today," King said Friday. "We'll see how he is in the morning. Hopefully everything's fine and then I'll play him."

SPECIAL TEAMS

The Blackhawks and Oilers possess some of the league's top special team units, with Edmonton proving lethal at both sides of the man advantage.
Edmonton owns the league's best power play at 40.5% with 20 power-play tallies, while also owning the second-best penalty kill unit at 88.2% with just six goals allowed to opposing power plays. The all-time league record for power play percentage over the course of a season is 31.9%. The all-time league mark for penalty kill rate in a full season is 89.6%.
Chicago's early-season success on both the power play and penalty kill has cooled slightly, but the Blackhawks still sit eighth in penalty killing at 86% and are tied for 14th on the power play at 19.6% with a seventh-best 11 power-play goals.

BROTHERLY LOVE

Caleb Jones made his Blackhawks debut in Wednesday night's game against Seattle, joining brother and teammate Seth Jones in the lineup for their first ever regular-season game together. The last set of brothers to play for Chicago simultaneously were Brent and Rich Sutter, whose final game in the lineup together was on Feb. 20, 1995. Prior to the Jones', Daniel and Henrik Sedin were the last brothers to skate together on April 7, 2018.