x

Already member? Login first!

Comments / New

Meet Me in St. Louis: Blackhawks vs. Blues

One team’s soaring up the standings, the other very much is not. Guess which one is the Hawks!

Posted on by L_B_R
Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

It’s a tale of two teams going in opposite directions: the Chicago Blackhawks, in the midst of a six-game losing streak, are in St. Louis Saturday afternoon to take on the Blues, who are riding a four-game winning streak.

Not only are the Blues on a solid winning streak at the moment, they’ve been very good in their last 10, going 7-2-1 in that span. The recent surge in performance has put the Blues right in the middle of the Western Conference wild-card race, as they currently own the second and final spot. The Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames both have a points percentage of .551, though, which is a very slight edge on the Blues’ .550. This means if the Blues have hope to make the playoffs this season, they must continue to win as many games to close out the season as possible, starting with the Blackhawks on Saturday.

The Blues’ shot metrics, which are mediocre for the season, have been much better in their last 10 games: not only has St. Louis seen a solid improvement to owning 51.85 percent of the shot attempts, which is good for 11th in the league in that span, more impressively they’ve been the top team in expected goals share, owning a whopping 58.35 percent. Some of that is due to the team generating high-quality chances (2.66 expected goals per 60, 10th), but more because they’ve been suppressing dangerous chances (1.9 per 60 against, 1st).

The Blues have actually been better for even longer, showing small progress once they hired a legitimate NHL coach in Jim Montgomery back in November, and really hit their stride around the start of February.

Special teams have also been interesting for the Blues as of late: they’ve scored eight goals on the power play in 26 opportunities (30.9 percent) and one shorthanded goal and, while they allowed six goals against during 21 penalty kills (71.5 percent), all those came early in the sample and they’ve killed 12 in a row.

During this 10-game surge, four of the top six most productive players are 25 or younger: Dyaln Holloway (5 G, 8 A), Jake Neighbours (4 G, 5 A), Robert Thomas (1 G, 7 A), and Zack Bolduc (5 G, 2 A). Alexey Toropchenko (2 G, 4 A), also just 25, just missed being a top-six forward for points in this span. Jordan Kyrou (5 G, 7 A), Brayden Schenn (4 G, 5 A), and Pavel Buchnevich (2 G, 4 A) round out the top-nine forward group. On the back end, both Justin Faulk (1 G, 6 A) and Cam Fowler (7 A) have also contributed.

No word on lineups or the starting goalie given the earlier start, but here’s what St. Louis ran out in its last game:

As mentioned above, the Blackhawks are heading in the opposite direction as the Blues, having lost six straight and gone just 3-5-2 in their last 10. The Blackhawks at least had a better showing in their latest loss, a 3-1 defeat by the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday, when Chicago played well in the final 40 minutes after a shoddy first period. Connor Bedard scored the lone Blackhawks goal and Spencer Knight made 32 saves on 34 shots for an impressive .938 save percentage. It was less frustrating than usual, which I think we’ll all take at this point in the season.

The worst thing about the Kings game was Colton Dach being injured, though apparently it wasn’t as bad as initially suspected. It looked like he might have broken something, but instead he hyperextended his elbow. Dach being listed day-to-day rather than week-to-week hopefully means it was minor and he’ll be back before the end of the season (which is less than five weeks away, crazy).

As for the lines, it’s not surprising the Blackhawks are mixed it up again against the Blues. What is interesting is that the defense pairing look to be staying the same.

These lines feel very “throw it against the wall and hope something sticks” in formation. Ilya Mikheyev has been moved up to play with Frank Nazar and Connor Bedard, where I assume Anders Sorensen is hoping the additional speed will help the line get going. Mikheyev has done well with playmaker Teuvo Teravainen this season, so maybe Nazar and Bedard can continue that trend.

After that is where it’s more confusing. Jason Dickinson is on a line with Teravainen, which has worked in the past, but then there is Nick Foligno, who seems out of place with them. One of the best offensive players, Ryan Donato, is now centering Tyler Bertuzzi and Joe Veleno, one guy who is extremely streaky offensively and the other who can’t really produce in general, respectively. Finally, Lukas Reichel is with Landon Slaggert, which could be interesting, but then Pat Maroon is there as a bit of an anchor in terms of literal foot speed. I’d love to see Reichel and Slaggert with a faster player, but at least Maroon has made up for his shortcomings with his brains most of the season.

The D pairings are interesting because Alex Vlasic and Artyom Levshunov both had less-than-stellar games on Thursday when away from each other, but they’re not being reunited. I don’t mind it too much because some level of consistency is needed.

Since Knight played the last two games, this time it really is Arvid Soderblom’s turn to be starter:

The Blackhawks could play spoiler to the Blues on Saturday, though it’ll be an uphill battle. Not only are the Blues on their aforementioned surge right now, they’ve also won the two other games against the Blackhawks this season. The last game was was back in early February when the Blackhawks failed to hold the lead twice, were outshot 40-21, and ultimately fell 6-5 in a 10-round shootout. Maybe Saturday will have a better result for the Blackhawks.

Tale of the Tape

Blackhawks — Statistic — Blues
43.90% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 48.92% (20th)
42.98% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 50.26% (16th)
2.67 (28th) — Goals per game — 2.94 (18th)
3.54 (30th) — Goals against per game — 2.93 (16th)
45.2% (31st) — Faceoffs — 51.3% (11th)
24.8% (8th) — Power play — 21.4% (19th)
81.3% (11th) — Penalty kill — 72.6% (29th)
(All stats from this season)

How to watch

When: 2 p.m. CT
Where: Enterprise Center, St. Louis
TV: CHSN+
Webstream: ESPN+, Hulu
Radio: WGN 720

LOGIN SIGN UP

Talking Points