Now with three straight wins in their back pocket, the Hawks are at the United Center once again to host the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night.
Many of the issues plaguing the Blues when these two teams met one month ago in St. Louis remain. They have the worst offense in the league (dead last at 2.49 goals per game) and aren’t much better on defense (3.35 goals against per game, 27th in the league). The power play and penalty kill are ranked in the 20s along with their shot attempt share (46.87 percent, 28th) and expected goal share (48.20 percent, 25th). The Blues did win that December game 3-2, an evening most remembered for being the night Connor Bedard went down with an injury which still has him sidelined. St. Louis has been mostly average in the month since with a 5-4-1 record, most recently winning back-to-back home games over the Vegas Golden Knights and Montreal Canadiens, respectively. That latter game was on Saturday night, so the Blues should be well rested ahead of this one.
Injuries have sent Dylan Holloway and old friend Pius Suter to the shelf in December, which means an already lackluster offense is even less potent. Robert Thomas (30 points in 39 games ) and Pavel Buchnevich (23 in 43) are the leading scorers up front, with Justin Faulk (21 in 43) as the main offensive thrust from the blue line. St. Louis has just three players over 20 points (the aforementioned trio) but does have 11 others in double digits, so it’s a points-by-committee approach, albeit in a severely limited fashion. In net, Jordan Binnington still sucks this season (8-10-6 record, .875 save percentage, 3.40 goals-against average), although he is coming off a 26-save shutout of the Canadiens. Perhaps that was just a market correction after he allowed 10 goals on 60 shots in his prior two games.
Nothing to report from a St. Louis morning (afternoon?) skate just yet, but expectations here are for Binnington to start over backup Joel Hofer, despite the latter’s numbers being significantly better this season. Here was the rest of the Blues lineup from Tuesday’s practice:
#stlblues practice lines (1/6):
— Lou Korac (@lkorac10) January 6, 2026
Neighbours-Thomas-Kyrou
Buchnevich-Schenn-Snuggerud
Stenberg-Dvorsky-Berggren
Toropchenko-Sundqvist-Walker
* Fabbri-Bjugstad-Joseph
Broberg-Parayko
Tucker-Faulk
Fowler-Mailloux
* Kessel
Binnington
Hofer
As for the Hawks, with us now past the halfway point of the season, its not unreasonable to begin framing games through the lenses of postseason aspirations, as Chicago’s recent trio of consecutive victories means it is very much alive in the chase for a wild card spot. That does remain a steep hill to climb, though, with Chicago at 41 points in 42 games, the second wild card spot currently belonging to a San Jose team with 45 points in 42 games and four other teams between those two book ends. St. Louis is one of those teams, with 42 points in 43 games, so a regulation win this evening would move Chicago ahead. This is the time of the year when securing two points without surrendering any to a conference opponent becomes paramount. If the Hawks can keep themselves afloat until the Olympic break next month, we’ll be in for an interesting sprint to the finish line come late February.
And the next month of games could include Connor Bedard, as the Hawks young phenom was on the ice at the morning skate as a full participant. While coach Jeff Blashill maintained that Bedard will not play in this game, that now feels like an imminent happening … perhaps as soon as Friday’s home game against Washington. The Chicago lineup at the morning skate was identical to Sunday’s game, with Spencer Knight in the starter’s crease:
Blackhawks lines in practice are the same as they've been:
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) January 6, 2026
Bertuzzi-Greene-Burakovsky
Donato-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Teravainen-Moore-Lardis
Dach-Foligno-Slaggert
Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Levshunov
Grzelcyk-Murphy
A game in January with legitimate playoff implications for the Hawks? Feels like it’s been forever since we’ve had one of those. Might as well win it.
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Blues
47.53% (26th) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 46.87% (28th)
45.09% (30th) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 48.20% (25th)
2.76 (t-26th) — Goals per game — 2.49 (32nd)
3.12 (17th) — Goals against per game — 3.35 (27th)
46.4% (30th) — Faceoffs — 50.8% (14th)
21.2% (12th) — Power play — 17.3% (24th)
83.8% (4th) — Penalty kill — 78.4% (20th)
(All stats from this season)
How to watch
When: 8:30 p.m. CT (Puck drop has been closer to 8:50 for these national broadcasts)
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: TNT
Webstream: HBO Max
Radio: WGN 720