Another away Central Division opponent awaits the Blackhawks early in the final week of October, while Chicago looks to end its four-game losing streak against the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night.

Colorado had its own four-game losing streak to start the season, but has since turned things around with five straight wins, including a 5-4 home win over the Ottawa Senators on Sunday night. The league’s best offense from last season was electric again early this season, scoring at least three goals in eight of its nine games and averaging 3.77 per night, not far off the 3.68 mark who led the NHL in scoring in 2023-24. Some familiar faces are also at the top of the stat columns for Colorado: Cale Makar continues to be one of the most exciting blue-liners the game has ever seen with 16 points (3 G, league-best 13 A) in just nine games. Nathan MacKinnon has 15 (4 G, 11 A) and Mikko Rantanen has 13 (4 G, 10 A). Casey Mittelstadt, who joined at last season’s trade deadline, has 12 points (5 G, 7 A), while leading scorer Ross Colton has eight – including four on the power play – and is on track for his Prior broke his career high of 22 goals. And that team is still playing without captain Gabriel Landeskog, who hasn’t played since winning the cup in 2022, forward Artturi Lehkonen, who is recovering from offseason surgery, and forward Valeri Nichushkin, who is suspended until mid-November , as he works his way through The NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program.

But these players won’t cure Colorado’s biggest ailment right now: keeping the puck out of their own net. Justus Annunen’s numbers (4-1 record, .905 batting average and 2.48 goals against average) are fine, but incumbent starter Alexandar Georgiev’s numbers are not (1-3, .810 and 4.99, respectively). Annunen started Colorado’s game on Sunday night, so it looks like the Blackhawks will have scoring opportunities with Georgiev in goal. Here’s what the rest of Colorado’s lineup looked like against Ottawa:

According to the morning report, changes are afoot in the Blackhawks’ lineup. Lukas Reichel has been sent back to the fourth row, while Connor Bedard is now flanked by Teuvo Teravainen and Phillip Kurashev on the top row. Kurashev will be replaced at 2C by Nick Foligno, following Ben Pope from the Sun times:

Mrazek heads back into the net for his third game in a row, but switching strikers remains the main attraction here. The Bedard line with Reichel was pretty terrible against Dallas, but neither trio could claim glory in that loss. It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario with the lineup at the moment: It seems like there’s no chemistry because the teams don’t stay together that long, but the teams don’t stay together that long because they keep losing. As mentioned, Colorado has struggled defensively this season, but the Avalanche can also play – and score – at a pace that the Blackhawks probably can’t match. Five straight losses and eight of their first ten losses will set off some alarms for this team that may be ringing a little.

I guess we’ll see what happens next, right?

Let’s go, Hawks.

Story from the tape

Blackhawks — Stats — avalanche
43.71% (32nd) – 5 against 5 Corsi For – 52.68% (6th)
42.37% (31st) – 5v5 Expected Goals for – 51.70% (9th)
2.17 (32nd) – Goals per game – 3.68 (1st)
3.52 (29th) – Goals conceded per game – 3.07 (17th)
46.3% (29th) – Faceoffs – 47.9% (23rd)
16.60% (28th) – Powerplay – 24.5% (5th)
75.76% (27th) – Penalty shootout – 79.9% (12th)
(All statistics from last season)

Here’s how to watch

When: 8:00 p.m. CT
Where: Ball Arena, Denver
TV: CHSN (How to Watch) And if this matter isn’t resolved by November, we may release a long list of places to pirate streams of the game for free. Just kidding.
Web stream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720