The Chicago Blackhawks host the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Sunday night at the United Center.
The Panthers season has been a bit of a roller coaster: a sluggish start out of the gate put them behind the curve early, they stabilized into something resembling a competent team for a stretch, then dipped again into inconsistency before finally showing some signs of life recently. After going 6-4-0 in their last 10 games and riding a modest two-game win streak — including a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Wild Saturday night — the Panthers now find themselves just outside the playoff picture, very much in the mix but still looking up at the line. They’re two points back of the New York Islanders, who currently sit third in the Metropolitan Division, and Florida even has a game in hand. The margin for error is thin, but the door is still very much open if they can string together a more sustained run instead of oscillating between “dangerous contender” and “what are we doing here?” mode.
Obviously, missing Aleksander Barkov for the entire season and not getting Matthew Tkachuk back until just last week has had a massive impact on the Panthers’ overall performance and current spot in the standings, stripping them of two true drivers of elite offense for most of the year.
Even so, Florida’s top six has still managed to range from good to legitimately great. Brad Marchand has somehow turned in yet another elite offensive season at 1.17 points per game, continuing to defy both age curves as one of the most consistently productive wingers in the league. Sam Reinhart (0.98) remains the steady, do-everything scoring presence he’s been for years. Sam Bennett (0.80) brings a blend of pace, physicality, and secondary scoring. Carter Verhaeghe (0.78) is still one of their best transition threats and off-puck finishers, and Anton Lundell (0.70) continues to quietly develop into a reliable two-way center who can contribute real offense without sacrificing defensive structure. In other words, even in a season defined by major absences, the Panthers’ forward core has been good enough to keep them relevant, even if the team overall has been inconsistent.
On the back end, injuries haven’t been nearly as disruptive overall, but losing No. 1 defenseman Seth Jones (0.60) on Jan. 10 to an upper-body injury is still a massive blow. No one on the roster is realistically replacing Jones’ production, but Aaron Ekblad (0.43) and Gustav Forsling (0.34) form a defensively excellent pairing that can at least hold down the top-pair fort and keep things structurally sound, and the others are proven veterans who can win.
Maybe the biggest issue has been in net where starter Sergei Bobrovsky is having a definitively down year, posting just a .875 save percentage and ranking fifth-worst in the league in goals saved above expected (-10) among the 18 goalies with at least 20 games played. However, because Bobrovsky started Saturday against the Minnesota Wild, the Blackhawks will face Daniil Tarasov who has faired better, albeit in less than half the game, with a fairly average .906 save percentage and 3.1 goals saved above expected.
The Panthers line and pairings for Sunday are expected to look as follows:
Panthers lines vs Blackhawks:
Verhaeghe – Rodrigues -Reinhart
Luostarinen – Lundell – Marchand
Greer -Bennett -Tkachuk
Vilmanis – Kunin -Samoskevich
Forsling – Ekblad
Mikkola -Balinskis
Bjornfot -Petry
Tarasov
Bobrovsky
Injured: Barkov, Jones, Kulikov, Nosek, Gadjovich…
— 32 Hockey Updates (@32HockeyUpdates) January 25, 2026
For the Blackhawks, they’re coming off picking up at least a point in three straight games against some of the best teams in the league. Their most recent outing was a 2–1 shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, a game that saw Chicago get steamrolled in terms of possession but where smart chance suppression and an excellent performance from Arvid Soderblom were enough to steal a point anyway. The Blackhawks did get better as the game progressed, but it’d be nice to see them tilt the ice a little earlier as well, rather than spending the opening stretch almost weathering the storm. Ryan Greene scored the lone goal of the game, his third goal in seven games after going 19 straight without finding the back of the net.
The last time the Blackhawks faced the Panthers was back in early October, when Florida came away with a 3-2 win. It was a relatively close game, though it also came at a time when both teams were performing very differently than they are now. It’ll be interesting to see if Chicago can play Florida as tightly as they did then and as they’ve managed to do against other top teams in recent games — especially since the Panthers are on the second game of a back-to-back.
The Blackhawks lines at morning skate Sunday were shuffled a bit, most noticeably the top two lines have a new look. Oliver Moore has been moved up to be on the wing with Connor Bedard and Andre Burakovsky while Ryan Greene was united with Frank Nazar and Nick Lardis to form a kids line. Spencer Knight will be in net.
New Blackhawks lines vs Panthers in morning skate:
Moore-Bedard-Burakovsky
Greene-Nazar-Lardis
Bertuzzi-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Donato-Foligno-Slaggert
(Dach-Lafferty)
Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Levshunov
Grzelcyk-Murphy
Knight
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) January 25, 2026
Hear from Oliver Moore ahead of tonight’s game vs Panthers
– Being predictable with new linemates
– Measuring stick games against top teams
– and MORE
— CHGO Blackhawks (@CHGO_Blackhawks) January 25, 2026
One other interesting tidbit here: the Blackhawks own the Panthers’ 2026 first-round pick, which means it’s very much in Chicago’s best interest to beat Florida and help keep them out of the playoff picture. The worse the Panthers finish in the standings, the better it is for the Blackhawks in terms of pick value.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Panthers
46.94% (28th) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 51.78% (9th)
44.39% (30th) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 51.07% (12th)
2.69 (26th) — Goals per game — 2.98 (20th)
3.04 (15th) — Goals against per game — 3.26 (23rd)
47.1% (29th) — Faceoffs — 47.2% (t-27th)
21.0% (13th) — Power play — 18.7% (22nd)
85.4% (1st) — Penalty kill — 81.9% (9th)
(All stats from this season)
How to watch
When: 6 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: CSHN, NHLN
Webstream:
Radio: WGN 720