After easily dispatching of one divisional foe on Friday night, the Blackhawks have a chance to do so again when they head to Missouri to face the St. Louis Blues on Saturday for the team’s final game ahead of a two-week layoff for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
The first and only meeting between these two teams so far this season was the Winter Classic, perhaps the lowest point of this Blackhawks season. That win for St. Louis was the start of a few weeks of good fortune for the Blues, who won six of 10 over three weeks. It’s all plummeted south since then, however, as St. Louis has just one win in the last seven games, most recently losing 3-2 to the Florida Panthers at home on Thursday night. The Blues are now eight points out of the final wild card spot in the West with three teams to surpass in the standings and only about 30 games to make all that happen, which seems like an incredibly steep summit to reach.
There’s still a decent young core here, with Jordan Kyrou leading the team at 44 points (23 G, 21 A) in 55 games, Robert Thomas at 39 (12 G, 27 A) in 44 and Dylan Holloway at 39 (16 G, 23 A) in 55. All three of those players are in their early to mid-20s and will be at or near their primes as the rest of the decade unfolds. It’s fair to question if that’s enough top-end talent, though, in a division that features Nathan MacKinnon and a conference that features Connor McDavid — with a similar concern among the team being assembled in Chicago right now, too.
The St. Louis blue line will be another problem because it’s virtually all on the wrong side of 30, save for offer-sheet acquisition Phillip Broberg. Torey Krug could be back next season but he’ll be 34 then and will be coming off of missing an entire season due to ankle surgery, which won’t encourage anyone. Over at The Athletic, the Blues’ prospect pool was ranked 14th in the NHL and only two of the top five players ranked there were defensemen, so how St. Louis restocks that portion of the cupboard over the next handful of seasons is worth keeping an eye on.
The goaltending position is another thing to keep an eye on, as youngster Joel Hofer’s numbers (10-7-1 record, .903 save percentage, 2.88 goals-against average) aren’t necessarily spectacular but they are a little better than alleged starter Jordan Binnington (14-9-4, .899, 2.83). The latter is signed for two more seasons at $6 million annually, so St. Louis has to hope he can get back to form quickly. They did seem to make a fairly smart move in nabbing coach Jim Montgomery midseason but there will be plenty of work to do with the skaters on the ice of the Blues hope to be a playoff team again.
Here were the St. Louis lines at Friday’s practice:
Blues during practice today:
— Matthew DeFranks (@MDeFranks) February 7, 2025
Neighbours-Thomas-Buchnevich
Holloway-Schenn-Kyrou
Joseph-Sundqvist-Bolduc
Toropchenko-Faksa-Walker
Fowler-Parayko
Broberg-Faulk
Suter-Leddy
Binnington
Hofer
No Tucker (upper body) or Texier (sick).
As for the Hawks, hard to envision too much of a lineup change after one of the team’s better outings of the season. Yeah, Nashville is bad and playing worse recently, but the Hawks have often put together some of their worst performances against the teams closer to it in the standings, saving the better nights for the teams near the top of the league — one of the most maddening developments of the last few seasons. This game offers another opponent near Chicago’s weight class, although we’re all painfully aware of what happened when these two teams met at Wrigley Field about one month prior.
Less of that, more of what we saw last night against Nashville, please. Here’s that lineup from the Predators’ game, with one expectation being a switch in net:
#Blackhawks lineup vs. Nashville:
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) February 8, 2025
Slaggert-Bedard-Donato
Teravainen-Nazar-Mikheyev
Kurashev-Foligno-Bertuzzi
Maroon-Reichel-Smith
Martinez-Jones
Vlasic-Murphy
Del Mastro-Brodie
Mrazek
Söderblom
Extra: Allan
Never a bad time to beat the Blues.
Let’s go Hawks.
Blackhawks — Statistic — Blues
44.33% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 48.23% (23rd)
43.54% (31st) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 48.09% (25th)
2.65 (t-27th) — Goals per game — 2.65 (t-27th)
3.41 (30th) — Goals against per game — 3.02 (17th)
45.3% (t-30th) — Faceoffs — 50.5% (t-14th)
24.8% (8th) — Power play — 19.4% (22nd)
81.8% (9th) — Penalty kill — 71.1% (t-30th)
(All stats from this season)
How to watch
When: 6 p.m. CT
Where: Enterprise Center, St. Louis
TV: CHSN
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720