For the final time before the holiday break, the Chicago Blackhawks will take to the ice and this time it’ll be on the road against the St. Louis Blues.
A funny thing’s been happening when Chicago wins games this season: it sorta breaks their opponents. Sometimes, it results in a postgame locker-room tirade, as it did against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday. Other times, it leads to a coach getting fired, as it did about two weeks ago when Craig Berube received his walking papers from St. Louis while the Blues were mired in a four-game losing streak. Drew Bannister is behind the bench now and has the expected hot start with the Blues winning three of four since he was hired. But that always seems to happens when a new coach arrives, so there’s no telling if this is a harbinger of long-term success or not.
These two teams met back on Dec. 9 at the United Center, with Chicago grabbing a 3-0 lead and keeping St. Louis firmly in the rearview mirror for a 3-1 victory to even the season series between the divisional rivals. While the Blues did control possession over the latter portions of game, that was largely due to the big lead the Blackhawks had built and Petr Mrazek made 39 saves to ensure Chicago remained in front. The Blackhawks promptly lost four straight after that game, coming back up for air with Tuesday’s win over Colorado.
While the Blues have had better success of late, they did have some off-ice drama with Jordan Kyrou drawing the ire of fans for his comments after Berube’s dismissal and then having a strong reaction to it when discussing them postgame. On the ice, St. Louis remains three points behind the Arizona Coyotes for the final playoff spot in the West, which is a margin that could be closed come April. The question is how St. Louis will get there, because it hasn’t done things particularly well this season. The Blues don’t score a lot, give up more goals than most, are not especially proficient on either special-teams unit and have a pair of goaltenders who aren’t stealing too many games. They’re just kinda …
Really a shame, isn’t it?
Anyway, here’s their expected lineup:
As for the Hawks, this schedule is shaping up for the game to be a dud. On the road for a second game in as many days before the holiday break with the opponent having a day to rest? Yeah, it’s not ideal. Perhaps the Blackhawks make a show of it anyway, or we’ll all be diving into the egg nog by the first intermission.
LBR has your recap, so this will be my final post prior to Christmas. A Merry Christmas to all who celebrate and Happy Holidays to everyone. Hope the time is well spent, however you spend it.
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Blues
44.40% (31st) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 46.46% (27th)
42.56% (31st) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 45.47% (30th)
2.34 (31st) — Goals per game — 2.88 (25th)
3.59 (29th) — Goals against per game — 3.28 (20th)
45.9% (31st) — Faceoffs — 49.1% (21st)
11.76% (29th) — Power play — 9.89% (32nd)
75.25% (26th) — Penalty kill — 79.55% (18th)
How to watch
When: 7 p.m. CT
Where: Enterprise Center, St. Louis
TV: NBC Sports Chicago Plus
Webstream: Hulu/ESPN+
Radio: WGN AM 720