Tonight will be a rare second meeting this season between two inter conference combatants. The Chicago Blackhawks and New York Islanders met back in November, which resulted in a 3-2 Hawks win at the Madhouse. The Islanders, who are currently riding a two game win streak in which their goal scoring has erupted, will be looking for vengeance as they return home to play their first game of the New Year.

There is one problem. When the Blackhawks win, they usually go into a groove. Chicago is coming off a very solid 1-0 Win against the Los Angeles Kings. Both teams appeared to do everything right on both ends of the ice, and Chicago was fortunate that their first period goal was enough insurance for them to rely on a strong responsible game and shut out LA.

There is clearly a pattern emerging with this Blackhawks team. They are very good at building off momentum from a previous win, and taking the same approach all the way until their next loss. Tonight they will likely have alot more room to generate opportunities than they did versus the Kings, as the Islanders are coming off a couple run and gun wins that worked very well for them.

Although I hate to discredit any team, the last two wins by New York may have been a combination of perseverance and capitalization of teams that took them lightly with a lead. Chicago is not one of those teams to take teams lightly after getting a lead, and they learned their lesson two days ago when they allowed St. Louis to beat them on a comeback.

The bottom line:

Chicago played about as perfect of a game against Los Angeles, and will see a hell of a lot more offensive opportunities against the Islanders tonight. Expect the floodgates to open, but not at the sacrifice of Chicago's puck managing defense. New York is simply not solid enough (structurally) to compete night in and night out, and will not have an opportunity to generate as much offense as they have in the last two games, due to the fact that Chicago will be more alert than the last two opponents they faced.

PLAY: Chicago Blackhawks Regulation -110