The Blackhawks have a quick stop at the United Center on Tuesday night before another road trip begins later this week, with Jonathan Toews and the Winnipeg Jets visiting 1901 W. Madison this evening.

When these two teams met four weeks ago in Manitoba — a 3-2 Jets win in overtime — Winnipeg’s playoff hopes seemed unrealistic, with the Jets then being 10 points out with 23 games remaining and four teams in the way. Time continues to be a dwindling resource but the Jets are making it interesting with a 8-4-2 record over the last 14 games that has them in the conversation at 74 points in 73 games. There are still four teams to leap and Winnipeg now has just nine games remaining but the gap is only three points between it and Nashville (77 points in 74 games). It seems like the teams in this playoff chase — which also includes Los Angeles (76 in 73), Seattle (75 in 72) and San Jose (75 in 72) — are all competing for the right to get swept by Colorado in the opening round of the playoffs, but they’re all still very much alive in this race.

Winnipeg’s had some injury issues with depth pieces but the primary scoring threat remains healthy in the trio of Mark Scheifele (89 points in 73 games), Kyle Connor (83 in 73) and Gabe Vilardi (62 in 73). Josh Morrissey is next with 50 points (12 G, 38 A) from the blue line, rejoining the lineup earlier this month after being injured during the Olympics. The next player on the scoresheet is Cole Perfetti with just 30 in 59, so this isn’t exactly an offensive dynamo of a lineup.

The biggest name on this roster in stature — and spelling! — remains Connor Hellebuyck, who has had an up-and-down March to match his up-and-down season. His season numbers are closer to average (19-20-11 record, .899 save percentage, 2.80 goals-against average) than his typically good standard. This month alone, he’s stopped 21 of 23 and 28 of 29 in separate victories over the Avalanche but also allowed five goals on 16 shots to the woeful Rangers.

Hellebuyck is starting this game, with the rest of the lineup being pulled from Saturday’s Winnipeg win in Colorado:

Jets lines
per @Sportsnet broadcast

Connor-Scheifele-Iafallo
Perfetti-Lowry-Vilardi
Koepke-Toews-Lambert
Rosen-Zhilkin-Ford

Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Bryson-Salmonsson

Hellebuyck

— LinesLinesLines (@CcCMiddleton) March 28, 2026

The Jets should also be well-rested, as they’ve been in Chicago since Sunday, allowing The Captain to spend some time on the North Side on Sunday afternoon:

Throwing today’s first pitch at the @Cubs game, NUMBER 19 JONATHAN TOEWS ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/hcUxJGfD7v

— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) March 29, 2026

As for the Hawks, the morning skate brought several news items with it. First, both Matt Grzelcyk and Artyom Levshunov have been ruled out for the rest of the season due to various injuries. Next, Anton Frondell has switched from No. 15 to No. 16, which drew the approval of a recent Blackhawks forward who wore that number for several seasons and was also teammates with Frondell earlier this season.

Marcus Krüger on Anton Frondell wearing his old No. 16 for the Blackhawks.

“(My) kids will like it, don’t have to buy new ones, just change name.”

— Scott Powers (@scottpowers.bsky.social) March 31, 2026 at 12:02 PM

With those two blue-liners out for the season, Kevin Korchinski seems to be a lineup fixture for the remainder of the NHL season. He was once again skating opposite Del Mastro on the third pairing, as the D pairings and forward lines were largely unchanged from Sunday’s game in New Jersey:

Blackhawks lineup this morning
Greene-Bedard-Lardis
Bertuzzi-Frondell-Mikheyev
Donato-Nazar-Burakovsky
Teravainen-Lafferty-Slaggert

Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Rinzel
Korchinski-Del Mastro

— Scott Powers (@scottpowers.bsky.social) March 31, 2026 at 10:41 AM

One noticeable change was on the fourth line, though, where Sam Lafferty will skate in place of Sacha Boisvert. Coach Jeff Blashill offered this reasoning for it:

Jeff Blashill on Sacha Boisvert sitting tonight:

“He’s not going to play every single game but he’ll play a good number of them. We give him a chance to get a feel for it, then you get a chance to watch it. So those are all good learning experiences. I don’t like sitting guys…

— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) March 31, 2026

Spencer Knight was in the starter’s crease, so expected him to get the start.

Let’s go Hawks.

Tale of the Tape

Blackhawks — Statistic — Jets
45.58% (30th) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 48.52% (23rd)
42.29% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 48.12% (24th)
2.55 (30th) — Goals per game — 2.84 (t-24th)
3.23 (25th) — Goals against per game — 3.03 (t-13th)
46.2% (31st) — Faceoffs — 50.8% (t-12th)
17.8% (25th) — Power play — 17.2% (28th)
84.2% (1st) — Penalty kill — 78.3% (21st)
(All stats from this season)

How to watch

When: 7:30 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: CHSN
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720