Blackhawks Kings Preview

Following a total shit-show of a loss in Toronto last night, the Hawks come back to Chicago tonight to face the 3rd in the West Los Angeles Kings. The Kings are RED hot right now, on a six game win streak including huge W's against the Blues and Ducks. The key to this win streak for LA is goal tending, which is surprising. Now normally good goal tending isn't anything new for LA fans, but Jonathan Quick has been injured since mid-November and the Kings haven't missed a beat with Ben Scrivens. Scrivens has played out of his mind, posting a save percentage of .943 and 3 shut outs.

Conversely, goaltending is a serious issue for the Hawks. Crow is still injured meaning rookie call up from Rockford Antti Raanta has been forced to step up. He had two unreal saves against Philly saving the Hawks from what could have been two short handed goals, but looked brutal last night in Toronto giving up 5 goals on 25 shots before being pulled. Kaner still tallied 2 in the loss at least, and the Hawks had just finished a road trip in Canada, so maybe they were tired. Can't be an excuse tonight though, considering the Kings are traveling into the UC from Ontario. 

PREDICTION: This is gonna be a really good game tonight, potentially a Western Conference Finals preview. The Kings are gonna be hungry for a W vs. Chicago considering they bumped the Kings from the playoffs last year in five games. They're red hot and this is tough competition, but the Hawks are fast and such good passers, the likes of which Scrivens hasn't seen before. This is classic good offense vs. good defense, and in this case, I think the Hawks speed and ability to put pucks in the net wins them this game. It'll be close and probably go to overtime. Hawks: 3 Kings: 2 in OT.