For the final fourth and final time this season, the Blackhawks will square off against the St. Louis Blues, with Wednesday night’s game happening down at the Enterprise Arena in Missouri.
These two teams have not met since an unpleasant Festivus miracle, as the Blues rallied for five unanswered goals in the third period to skate away with a 7-5 victory at home just before Christmas. That happened while the Blackhawks were firmly entrenched in their “lose every game on the road” portion of the schedule, though. Bedard pulled off a Michigan in that game, too:
It’s been better for St. Louis in the back half of the schedule, with new coach Drew Bannister posting a 28-18-4 record after replacing Craig Berube (13-14-1) in mid-December. But it hasn’t been good enough for the Blues to capture a playoff spot. St. Louis has 87 points with four games remaining and is five points behind the Golden Knights, who have an additional game in hand. A win of any sort by Chicago would officially eliminate St. Louis from the playoffs, which seems like the most ideal outcome for this evening’s game, doesn’t it?
St. Louis is currently touring the bottom feeders of the NHL, losing in overtime to the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night before beating the Anaheim Ducks in 6-5 in the shootout on Sunday. There’s also a 4-0 defeat against the Sharks among the Blues’ last 10 games, so they’ve certainly proven capable of looking as bad as any team in the league — even the Hawks! The Blues briefly seemed like possible playoff participants after an 8-2 stretch earlier this month, but losses in their last five have St. Louis in that wonderful hockey purgatory between “not good enough for the playoffs” and “not bad enough to land a top draft pick.” It’s a shame, really.
There is some young talent here, with 24-year-old Robert Thomas leading the team in scoring at 81 points (24 G, 57 A) in 78 games and 25-year-old Jordan Kyrou right behind him at 63 (27 G, 36 A) and 22-year-old Jake Neighbours is tied for the team lead with 27 goals. The blue line is older, though, and St. Louis’ farm system is closer to mediocre than good, with The Athletic ranking it at No. 14 in the league earlier this year. Top prospect Jimmy Snuggerud recently opted for another year in college instead of turning pro, so no immediate reinforcements are on the way. Seems like mediocrity could be settling in with St. Louis for the foreseeable future and, again, that’s just so, so unfortunate.
Neighbours won’t play in this game while day-to-day with an upper-body injury, while the blue line will be without Justin Faulk, who’s probably done for the season with his upper-body injury. In net, backup Joel Hofer will get the start, so starter Jordan Binnington will have to do his whining from the bench:
As for the Blackhawks, a weekend back-to-back against divisional foes yielded split results, with Chicago beating the Dallas Stars despite being soundly outplayed and then losing to the Minnesota Wild in a game that is not worth thinking about ever again. It’s a sprint to the finish line with five games in nine days beginning on Wednesday night, and there isn’t too much to left to be written about another forgettable season for this franchise.
Bedard is currently four points (59 in 63) behind a point-per-game pace for the season, so an avalanche of points from him to end the season would be a fun way to wrap this chapter up and inspire more hope that better days await. He’ll have Lukas Reichel and Philipp Kurashev on his wings in pursuit of that, based on lines from Tuesday’s practice:
And, hey: it’s the Blues. Two points against them are always welcome, so why not go for both?
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Blues
44.20% (31st) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 45.25% (30th)
42.97% (31st) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 44.15% (30th)
2.18 (32nd) — Goals per game — 2.85 (t-24th)
3.47 (29th) — Goals against per game — 3.06 (t-16th)
46.5% (29th) — Faceoffs — 49.9% (17th)
16.5% (t-28h) — Power play — 18.2% (24th)
77.4% (22nd) — Penalty kill — 77.5% (21st)
How to Watch
When: 7 p.m. CT
Where: Enterprise Center, St. Louis
TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Webstream: NBC Sports App
Radio: WGN 720