On Monday night, the Chicago Blackhawks (20-36-9) snapped a five-game point streak (3-0-2) against the Colorado Avalanche. Despite playing a mostly good road game, they took a hard loss 3-0.
Next up is the San Jose Sharks (17-40-9) who are the one NHL team with a worse record than the Blackhawks this year. Both teams believe that they have a bright future but this isn’t a winning season for either franchise.
This is the third and final time that these two will meet in 2024-25. They split the first two with each team winning at home. Chicago’s win was in their home opener and San Jose’s win came on Halloween.
In those two matchups, 2024 number one overall pick Macklin Celebrini was injured and did not play. That means that Thursday’s matchup will be the first time that Celebrini will face 2023 first-overall pick Connor Bedard in the NHL. These two are friends away from the rink but it will be all business at SAP Center on Thursday night.
Bedard locked up the Calder Trophy as the top rookie in the NHL during the 2023-24 season and Celebrini is trying to do the same thing in 2024-25. He has a chance but Lane Hutson of the Montreal Canadiens and Matvei Michkov of the Philadelphia Flyers may have something to say about it.
This will also be Celebrini’s first chance to play against Artyom Levshunov, who went one pick after him in the 2024 NHL Draft. Levshunov made his NHL debut on Monday against Colorado and was great. It is always interesting to see the top two picks from a draft go head-to-head.
Bedard and Levshunov will fit into Chicago’s lineup like this:
Dach – Bedard – Dickinson
Teravainen – Donato – Mikheyev
Slaggert – Nazar – Foligno
Reichel – Veleno – Bertuzzi
Del Mastro – Murphy
Vlasic – Kaiser
Martinez – Levshunov
Knight
This is the same lineup that Chicago played well with on the road against the Colorado Avalanche. Bedard will skate with Jason Dickinson and Colton Dach. Levshunov will skate with Alec Martinez again despite Martinez leaving the game early on Tuesday.
Spencer Knight will be in the net for the Hawks again. This is notable because it is the first time that he will make consecutive starts in a Chicago sweater. With three days rest in between games, they are going back to Knight which identifies him as the number one goalie.
For San Jose, Celebrini usually plays with William Eklund and Tyler Toffoli on the top line. Their other exciting rookie, Will Smith (taken 4th overall in the Bedard draft), is on the second line with Alex Wennberg and Collin Graf. Alexander Georgiev will be in the net for the Sharks.
With the way that the Blackhawks have played since the Seth Jones trade, the vibes in the room are good. This San Jose team has talent but it is far from the Colorado team that Chicago just looked good against in a loss.
No wins are easy in the NHL for any team but this is a matchup that should allow certain players on both teams to get their touches. For the two number-one picks specifically, this is a chance to shine bright.
Both Bedard and Celebrini are expected to help carry the NHL in the coming years so seeing them match up against each other for the first time is a reason to tune in. Both guys are proud to represent their NHL teams well while trying to become top-flight players.
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