Morning Skate: Red Wings @ Blackhawks — Preview and How to Watch

Game Preview

The Wings continue their father-son road trip in Chicago, renewing pleasantries with an old Western Conference foe, the Blackhawks. Detroit is coming off a 3-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres yesterday as they look to avoid a third straight defeat.

It was a short while ago that the Hawks looked like sellers at the trade deadline and even had the front office approach Brent Seabrook about waiving his no movement clause (there were other rumblings that Duncan Keith was on the short list too). But, the Hawks are now red hot, winners of six straight and sit just two points out of a playoff spot in the West.

Sellers? You tell me. They will look for their seventh straight win against a Wings team they’ve taken four of the last six meetings from. During their six-game win streak, Patrick Kane has been on fire, scoring 14 points (five goals) in that span.

For the Wings, Dylan Larkin continues his strong campaign, netting his 23rd goal of the season against the Sabres yesterday and has five points in his last five games.

The Wings lead the all-time series between these two teams with a record of 357-283-84-11 in 735 meetings.

Wings Lineup Notes

Can’t stress enough how nice it would be to have Justin Abdelkader permanently off the top line in Detroit — he hasn’t scored a goal since Dec. 8 — but, I guess Jeff Blashill doesn’t see it the same way.

There doesn’t seem to be any change to Tyler Bertuzzi’s status as he was expected to miss the weekend and will be looked at on Monday.

Hawks Lineup Notes

Corey Crawford hasn’t played since Dec. 16, but some good news for Hawks fans as he’s been practicing this week and could be closer to a return to game action.