Spencer Knight Will Make Blackhawks Debut Vs Kings

The Chicago Blackhawks are set to play the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night. This will be their first matchup at the United Center following the big Seth Jones trade. The night of the deal, Chicago beat the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center.

One of the pieces that came back to Chicago in the Jones trade is goaltender Spencer Knight. He was a high draft pick and has the tools to be an incredible goalie in the NHL.

With Sergei Bobrovsky in Florida, Knight was unable to take over as the starter but he has been a wonderful backup and he is still developing at this level. The Blackhawks may have the opportunity he needs.

With Petr Mrazek and Arvid Soderblom on the current roster, it is unclear how they will handle the workload down the stretch. There is also Laurent Brossoit who is hurt and Drew Commesso who is in the AHL waiting for an opportunity of his own. Kyle Davidson has a lot to figure out.

One thing we do know is that Knight will make his Blackhawks debut on Monday night against the Kings. He worked in the starter’s net during Monday’s practice while Soderblom was in the backup crease. Mrazek seems to be the odd man out for this game.

Knight enters this start with a record of 12-8-1, a 2.40 goals against average, and a .907 save percentage. It is going to be harder playing on this Blackhawks team than it was the defending Stanley Cup champions but he has what it takes to excel in this challenge.

In front of Spencer Knight, this is how the Blackhawks will line up:

Slaggert-Bedard-Nazar

Teravainen-Donato-Mikheyev

Dach-Athanasiou-Bertuzzi

Maroon-Reichel-Smith

Vlasic-Crevier

Del Mastro-Murphy

Kaiser-Martinez

The Los Angeles Kings are a really good team that is great at keeping the puck out of their net. The Blackhawks will have to work hard to find good scoring areas if they are going to find the back of the net enough to win.

On the other end of the rink, Knight will have to face great shooters like Anze Kopitar, Adrian Kempe, and Kevin Fiala. If he wants to make a good first impression on the Chicago fanbase, he will have to stand on his head against a great team.

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