Chicago Blackhawks Season Preview: January

The New Year will hopefully be a good one as by the time the Blackhawks play their first game of the New Year they will be in the thick of the hunt for the Stanley Cup.  With football coming to an end at about this time, hockey will take more of a prominent role with sports fans and will start grabbing headlines in the sports world.

The Blackhawks will open up January with a visit to Anaheim to play the Ducks.  The Hawks went 1-3 against the Ducks last season and hopefully they’ll be able to do much better against them this season than they did last season.  

Chicago will travel to Los Angeles to take on the Kings for their second game of the month.  Last season, the Blackhawks had a 3-1 advantage over the Kings and should be able to keep that up this season.  The next game they play will be against the Dallas Stars, at home.  Last season, the Blackhawks played the Stars four times splitting the series at two wins a piece.  Can they sweep the Stars and continue their drive towards the playoffs?

Ottawa will come to the United Center early on in the month to take on Chicago.  These teams played just one game during the 2009-2010 season with Chicago winning that one.  The Hawks should be able to beat Ottawa and keep on rolling.  

Following their game against the Senators, the Blackhawks will host the New York Islanders in their second game of a five game home stand.  The Blackhawks and the Islanders met just once last season and the Islanders beat the Blackhawks so Chicago will be looking to get some revenge this season.

After their game with the Islanders, the Blackhawks will host the Colorado Avalanche in the last game of their home stand.  Chicago played Colorado four times last year and won three out of four games and will hope to do the same against them this season.  

Following that game, the Blackhawks will travel to Nashville to take on the Predators once again and will follow that up with a home game against that same team.  Last year, not including the playoffs, the Blackhawks met the Predators six times and split those six games.  Chicago needs to win these two games to keep their momentum up and keep ahead of Nashville, a team that should be pretty good again next season.

After their two games against Colorado, the Blackhawks will hit the road and travel to Detroit where they will face the Red Wings as they start to close out the month of January.  Last season, they played Detroit six times and split the series with them.  This has become one of the better rivalries in the NHL and should continue to be a good one with this game.

Following the Blackhawks game against Detroit they will host a familiar foe from the Stanley Cup Finals, Philadelphia.  Aside from the Finals, the Blackhawks played the Flyers just once last season and they lost that game.  This game should be one of the best that both of these teams play all season because they will both have memories of the Stanley Cup Finals embedded in their heads.  Look for this to be a battle.

The final game of the month will take place at home against the Minnesota Wild.  The Wild and the Blackhawks met three times last season and Chicago held the advantage over the Wild 3-1.  Minnesota has improved a little this offseason but the Blackhawks should be able to win this one and finish out the month of January strong.

The following outlines the Blackhawks schedule for the month of January:

January 2nd-Chicago at Anaheim
January 3rd-Chicago at Los Angeles
January 5th-Dallas at Chicago
January 7th-Ottawa at Chicago
January 9th-New York Islanders at Chicago
January 12th-Colorado at Chicago
January 15th-Chicago at Nashville
January 16th-Nashville at Chicago
January 22nd-Chicago at Detroit
January 23rd-Philadelphia at Chicago
January 25th-Minnesota at Chicago