x

Already member? Login first!

Comments / New

The Children Sing: Blackhawks 8, Blues 3

A stomping of the St. A lashing of the Louis. A beatdown of the Blues.

Posted on by Dave Melton
Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

In one of the more enjoyable outings in recent memory, the Blackhawks kicked the St. Louis Blues’ collective ass all over the Enterprise Center on Wednesday night, erupting in the second period en route to an 8-3 drubbing of their divisional foes.

The game started with a series of comedic goalie gaffes, starting with this one from Joel Hofer that gift-wrapped a goal for Ilya Mikheyev:

Blues G Joel Hofer gift wraps a goal for the Blackhawks

[image or embed]

— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 9:07 PM

St. Louis tied the game a few minutes later when a quick flurry of prime St. Louis shots on goal ended with Jake Neighbours firing one over a sprawling Arvid Soderblom:

St. Louis goal! Scored by Jake Neighbours with 15:31 remaining in the 1st period. Assisted by Colton Parayko and Pavel Buchnevich. St. Louis: 1 Chicago: 1 #CHIvsSTL #stlblues #Blackhawks

[image or embed]

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 9:06 PM

Then Hofer did it again, this time with Lukas Reichel as the beneficiary:

Chicago goal! Scored by Lukas Reichel with 14:37 remaining in the 1st period. Assisted by Matt Grzelcyk. St. Louis: 1 Chicago: 2 #CHIvsSTL #stlblues #Blackhawks

[image or embed]

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 9:09 PM

Soderblom surrendered a softy of his own later in the first, sending the game into the first intermission tied at two after this Dylan Holloway goal:

St. Louis goal! Scored by Dylan Holloway with 05:06 remaining in the 1st period. Assisted by Jordan Kyrou. St. Louis: 2 Chicago: 2 #CHIvsSTL #stlblues #Blackhawks

[image or embed]

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 9:23 PM

The Blackhawks took over the in the second period. First, Connor Bedard’s forecheck led to a prime scoring chance for Alex Vlasic, with his shot tipped past Hofer by Reichel:

Chicago goal! Scored by Lukas Reichel with 17:11 remaining in the 2nd period. Assisted by Alex Vlasic and Connor Bedard. St. Louis: 2 Chicago: 3 #CHIvsSTL #stlblues #Blackhawks

[image or embed]

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 9:55 PM

It became a 4-2 Chicago lead following this brilliant rush to the net from Frank Nazar, kickstarted by a neat play from Tyler Bertuzzi on the boards to spring Nazar forward:

Chicago goal! Scored by Frank Nazar with 15:28 remaining in the 2nd period. Assisted by Tyler Bertuzzi and Wyatt Kaiser. St. Louis: 2 Chicago: 4 #CHIvsSTL #stlblues #Blackhawks

[image or embed]

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 10:01 PM

Jordan Binnington took over in the St. Louis net but was just as comically inept as Hofer, surrendering this softy to Jason Dickinson, putting Chicago up 5-2:

Chicago goal! Scored by Jason Dickinson with 11:08 remaining in the 2nd period. Assisted by Alex Vlasic. St. Louis: 2 Chicago: 5 #CHIvsSTL #stlblues #Blackhawks

[image or embed]

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 10:08 PM

Were the Blackhawks done scoring? Hell no! Early in the third, the Blues decided to let Ryan Donato have a handful of whacks at a loose puck right near the St. Louis net and Donato eventually hammered it home:

Chicago goal! Scored by Ryan Donato with 18:43 remaining in the 3rd period. Assisted by Alex Vlasic and Ilya Mikheyev. St. Louis: 2 Chicago: 6 #CHIvsSTL #stlblues #Blackhawks

[image or embed]

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 10:51 PM

A few minutes later, the Blackhawks made quick work of a power play with this goal from Teuvo:

Chicago goal! Scored by Teuvo Teravainen with 14:57 remaining in the 3rd period. Assisted by Connor Bedard and Sam Rinzel. St. Louis: 2 Chicago: 7 #CHIvsSTL #stlblues #Blackhawks

[image or embed]

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 11:01 PM

Tyler Tucker scored for St. Louis at some point in the third but who gives a shit? Soon after that, Ryan Greene scored the first NHL goal of his career and we do give a shit about that:

Chicago goal! Scored by Ryan Greene with 07:39 remaining in the 3rd period. Assisted by Lukas Reichel and Connor Bedard. St. Louis: 3 Chicago: 8 #CHIvsSTL #stlblues #Blackhawks

[image or embed]

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 11:22 PM

Eight goals. EIGHT! Count ’em!

Notes

Let’s start with another look at the Nazar goal because, in a night full of great moments, that’s probably the top of the list:

The road to stardom is still long but it’s really starting to feel like we’ll spend this season watching Nazar go from a player with potential to the player we’re all hoping he’ll become. And he’s still just 21 years old.

Can’t think of anything more on brand for the Blues than Neighbours getting embarrassed by Nazar on the way to that goal, taking it out on Nazar with a cheap shot after the puck went into the net and then ending up in the box for the next two minutes. Bravo.

Also found it interesting that a general question about beating a rival like the Blues prompted a reference to last year’s Winter Classic from Nazar during this postgame interview on TNT. Skip ahead to the 3:20 mark:

Yeah, the St. Louis goalies were hilariously awful in this game. But this was about more than just the Blues goalies being terrible: Chicago absolutely took this game over during the second period. In 16:58 of 5-on-5 time during the second, the Hawks owned advantages of 25-14 in shot attempts, 11-8 in shots on goal, 13-8 in scoring chances and 6-4 in high-danger chances, all adding up to a whopping 77.81 percent share of the expected goals (know many times I’ve written that but with the numbers in favor of the opponents?!). Plus, they scored three times without allowing any. Dreadful goaltending helped, but the Blackhawks controlled the other parts of the ice as well, which gave them the opportunity to take advantage of it all.

A three-point game for Lukas Reichel! This game had everything! Just leave the kid in the lineup and see if this is the start of something. What harm could it possibly do?

One early development this season that was noticeable again in this game is that Connor Bedard has decided he’s not here for anyone else’s shit:

The playmaking side of Bedard’s game continues to stand out so far this season, too. He worked fast in finding Vlasic open in a dangerous part of the ice before that second Reichel goal, he made an incredible cross-ice pass ahead of Teuvo’s PPG and he also helped set up Greene’s goal with a pass just inside the blue line to Reichel which helped create the scoring chance. The goal scoring is going to be there as well — hopefully — but more tools in the arsenal won’t hurt.

We’ve raved a lot about Wyatt Kaiser around these parts during the first week of the season and this clip below is a sample of the things he’s done pretty consistently through this extremely small sample to start the season:

Forgive the low quality but … Kaiser's been an absolute menace on defense like this a lot.

[image or embed]

— Second City Hockey (@secondcityhockey.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 9:16 PM

Want to bring up something from Tuesday’s post that’s going to be relevant here:

No, this is about a game where the Blackhawks have their own sustained periods of possession in the offensive zone, generating the chances and shots that ultimately result in the game-winning goal they’ve been flirting with for dozens of shifts. This is about a game where the Blackhawks don’t just survive until the end, they dictate the terms of the play on the ice to their opponents and control the play in a way we just haven’t seen out of this team in years.

I think this game qualifies as one of those outings. Now, this is a very young team which will be prone to violent swings in terms of their overall quality, so it’s entirely possible that they lay an egg on Friday night against Vancouver or that we don’t see them play as well for a few weeks as they did tonight. It’s also unlikely that this team is going anywhere noteworthy during this seaosn. But this game offers a little sample at what could happen with this team if it puts it all together in the seasons ahead. Miles to go before we sleep and all that, but it’s nice to have somewhere to start.

And here’s one final note for all the long-time guys out there:

HE'S COMING OUT OF THE DUGOUT… HE APPEARS TO BE SIGNALING FOR THE SEQUINED CHAPS… youtu.be/IaXMKhNE57s?…

[image or embed]

— Sam Fels But Who's Buyin'? (@felsgate.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 10:56 PM

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Lukas Reichel (CHI) — 2 goals, 1 assist
  2. Ilya Mikheyev (CHI) — 1 goal, 1 assist
  3. Connor Bedard (CHI) — 3 assists

What’s Next

The Blackhawks return to the United Center on Friday night to host the Vancouver Canucks at 7:30 p.m.

LOGIN SIGN UP

Talking Points