For the third and final time this season, the Edmonton Oilers will face the Chicago Blackhawks. Both teams have one victory against each other in 2024-25, so Wednesday night’s match will decide the winner of this year’s season series.
1. The Hawks kicked off their campaign with a four-game road trip and the only one of those games they won came against the Oilers in Edmonton. Despite the home side throwing 38 shots at Petr Mrazek, the Hawks managed a 5-2 victory with five goals on 20 shots against Calvin Pickard.
After reaching the Stanley Cup Final in the spring, Edmonton opened their season with three consecutive losses. Since that sluggish start, they’ve been among the best teams in the NHL. The Oilers are currently 33-16-4, good for first place in the Pacific Division and third in the league overall.
By the time the Oilers and Hawks met for the second time in January, the two sides were at opposite ends of the standings. Despite the difference in success, Chicago put a lot of pressure on Edmonton, scoring twice in the first period. The Oilers buried three goals in the second frame and earned the win when Zach Hyman scored in overtime.
So, all told, this season series hasn’t gone as you’d expect between a Stanley Cup contender and a basement dweller. The Hawks have three out of a possible four points against the Oilers this year and Chicago has outscored Edmonton 8-to-6 across two games.
2. Winning the season series against the Oilers would be a nice consolation prize for the Hawks as they trudge through another miserable year. Edmonton won all three of their games against Chicago in 2023-24 by a combined score of 9-to-2, so taking two of three meetings in 2024-25 would indicate some improvement for the rebuilding club.
The Hawks made an effort in the summer to build a more competitive roster around first-overall pick Connor Bedard after going 23-53-6 in his rookie season. The team added forwards Tyler Bertuzzi, Teuvo Teravainen, Ilya Mikheyev, and Patrick Maroon, along with defenders TJ Brodie and Alec Martinez and goaltender Laurent Brossoit.
The additions haven’t made much of a difference thus far, as the Hawks sit 31st in the league with a 16-31-5 record. They fired head coach Luke Richardson back in December with an 8-16-2 record and they’ve gone 8-15-3 since replacing him with Anders Sorensen.
3. The Hawks rank 31st in the NHL with 134 goals scored and 27th with 178 goals against this season. Chicago has above-average special teams, with their power play scoring on 23.2 percent of their chances and their penalty kill stopping 81.5 percent of opportunities against, but they’ve been outscored 91-to-123 at even strength.
Bedard is leading the way offensively with 15 goals and 45 assists through 52 games, which is somewhat underwhelming after the former Regina Pat was named the Calder Trophy winner for the league’s top rookie with 22 goals and 61 points in 68 games last season. Bertuzzi is first on the Hawks in goals with 17, followed by Bedard and Ryan Donato with 15, and then Teravainen and captain Nick Foligno with 11.
Chicago’s goaltenders, Petr Mrazek and Arvid Soderblom, have combined for a .900 save percentage this season, which is solid considering the team defence playing in front of them. Brossoit still hasn’t made his debut with Chicago yet because of a knee injury suffered in the off-season. He had surgery on his knee in August and then another operation done in November.
4. The Oilers have an illness going through their dressing room so playing the second leg of a road back-to-back after going to overtime on the first night is going to present a challenge.
Mattias Ekholm was unavailable on Saturday when the Oilers lost to the Maple Leafs and John Klingberg stepped up with 20:46 in just his second game back after missing over a year with hip issues. He dipped back down to 15:55 on Tuesday in St. Louis with Ekholm back in the lineup, but the Oilers might opt to give Klingberg a rest when playing their second game in as many nights.
Adam Henrique was out on Tuesday with an illness and rookie Noah Philp jumped back into the lineup with Vasily Podkolzin and Connor Brown on his wings. If Henrique is again unavailable on Wednesday, we’ll likely see the Oilers roll with the same forward group that they used against the Blues.
