Chicago Blackhawks vs. Dallas Stars NHL December 29, 2024: Preview, Watch, Lineups

For the final time this calendar year, the Blackhawks will take to the ice at the United Center when they host the Dallas Stars for the fourth and final time of the season on Sunday night.

Let’s start with the Blackhawks for a change, since the Stars are better known than most Chicago opponents and there’s some news regarding the home team this afternoon. This news is the return of Wyatt Kaiser from the Rockford IceHogs, while Kevin Korchinski heads up I-90 in the other direction.

The Blackhawks are sending Kevin Korchinski back to Rockford, recalls Wyatt Kaiser.

— Mark Lazerus (@marklazerus.bsky.social) December 29, 2024 at 10:00 am

Having Kaiser back in Chicago is a good thing: He has shown that he is an NHL-level defenseman and is only 22 years old, so more reps is a good thing for him. The bad thing is that it comes at Korchinski’s expense. With Alec Martinez on the practice ice for Sunday morning’s skate, it appears he is close to returning, which would give Chicago eight active defensemen: Kaiser, Murphy, Jones, Brodie, Vlasic, Allan, Crevier and the aforementioned Martinez. From that standpoint, it’s very, very difficult to argue against Korchinski not being in the top six of this group, and he’s absolutely expected to be part of the bigger picture here in the long run, so losing him is extremely annoying on his way back to the AHL, when it seemed like all the reviews of his game were largely positive and there was no better place for his continued development than at the NHL level in Chicago. A counterargument might be that Korchinski playing more than 20 minutes a night in Rockford would be better than the 16:46 average in nine games with the Hawks, but that could be remedied by simply playing Korch more .

Anyway, Kaiser won’t be fit yet, having already played two games this weekend, and Martinez isn’t quite ready to return yet, so Louis Crevier is in the lineup for this game.

Crevier arrives tonight and Soderblom will start in net for the Blackhawks. Kaiser is here, but is playing back-to-back games in Rockford, so won’t be playing tonight.

— Tracey Myers (@traceymyers.bsky.social) December 29, 2024 at 10:42 am

Here are the expected forward lines and D pairings:

The Blackhawks defensive pairings tonight:
Brodie Jones
Vlasic Crevier
Allan Murphy https://t.co/OsoUgYhS0E

— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) December 29, 2024

The last time these two teams met, it was a resounding 6-2 win over the Stars at 1901 W. Madison on Thanksgiving Eve, with Taylor Hall scoring a hat trick to pace Chicago’s offense. Dallas has been closer to average than good in the 13 games since, with a 7-5-1 record in that span that has seen the Stars slip slightly to fourth place in the Central Division with 41 points on the season. Injuries have piled up a bit lately: Tyler Seguin is having hip surgery that will likely end his season, Matthew Dumba is going on IR before Christmas, and Mason Marchment is now out after suffering a injury in Dallas’ last game on Thursday Puck shot in the face: a 3-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild.

There isn’t much offensive power here and these injuries don’t help. The Stars’ leading scorer is Matt Duchene with 30 points (17 G, 13 A) in 34 games and the now injured Marchment was second with 27 (12 G, 15 A) in 33. Four other active Dallas players are over 20 points brand, with the fifth being the failed Seguin. What Dallas does have is an excellent blue line with Miro Heiskanen, who remains one of the game’s best. Behind them, the goaltending tandem of strong starter Jake Oettinger and competent backup Casey DeSmith have combined to form a defense that ranks fourth in the league with just 2.59 goals conceded per game. With 85.1 percent, the Stars are also number 4 in the league in penalty kills. But all of this is a reminder that that same defense gave up six goals against a Blackhawks team that couldn’t score against anyone, leading to the coach being fired not long after that offensive outburst. So there’s really no telling what could happen in this game.

Let’s go, Hawks.

Blackhawks — Stats — Stars
45.16% (31st) – 5 against 5 Corsi For – 52.71% (7th)
45.24% (30th) – 5v5 Expected Goals for – 52.64% (7th)
2.56 (29th) – Goals per game – 3.12 (12th)
3.28 (25th) – goals conceded per game – 2.59 (4th)
43.7% (31st) – Faceoffs – 51.4% (12th)
22.2% (t-13) – Powerplay – 15.5% (27th)
85.4% (3rd) – Penalty shootout – 85.1% (4th)
(All stats this season)

Here’s how to watch

When: 7:30 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: ESPN (Another night without CHSN!!)
Web stream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720