Chicago Blackhawks at St. Louis Blues Preview & Game Thread

  

Chicago Blackhawks (32-37-10)
at
St. Louis Blues (43-30-6)

TIME: 7:00PM Central/8:00PM Eastern
RADIO: WGN 720
TV: NBCSCH

PROJECTED GOALIES:

Chicago:
Jean-Francois Berube (2-5-1 W-L | 3.93 GAA | 0.891 SV% | 0 SO)

St. Louis:
Jake Allen (27-23-3 W-L | 2.72 GAA | 0.907 SV% | 1 SO)

PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS:

Chicago:
Brandon Saad – Nick Schmaltz – Patrick Kane
Dylan Sikura – Victor Ejdsell – Alex DeBrincat
Tomas Jurco – Artem Anisimov – Andreas Martinsen
Patrick Sharp – David Kampf – Vinnie Hinostroza

Duncan Keith – Brent Seabrook
Erik Gustafsson – Connor Murphy
Jordan Oesterle – Jan Rutta/Blake Hillman

St. Louis:
Jaden Schwartz – Brayden Schenn – Vladimir Tarasenko
Patrik Berglund – Kyle Brodziak – Alex Steen
Dmitrij Jaskin – Vladimir Sobotka – Tage Thompson
Ivan Barbashev – Oskar Sundqvist – Chris Thorburn

Joel Edmundson – Alex Pietrangelo
Vince Dunn – Colton Parayko
Chris Butler – Robert Bortuzzo

STATISTICAL COMPARISONS:

Power Play:
Chicago 15.8% (29th)
St. Louis 15.3% (30th)

Penalty Kill:
Chicago 78.9% (20th)
St. Louis 80.0% (18th)

Corsi FOR % (5-on-5):
Chicago 52.74% (4th)
St. Louis 51.64% (8th)

Faceoffs:
Chicago 49.5% (18th)
St. Louis 50.5% (11th)

SUMMARY:

The pain of this miserable season is close to being over. Before it is over, though, the Blackhawks will play a home-and-home series against the St. Louis Blues and finish their season saturday against the Winnipeg Jets. They will be doing so with the goaltending battery of JF Berube and Jeff Glass (of the Jeff Glass Experience).

Last night, John and I mentioned some of the young players that are worth getting a look at in Victor Ejdsell, Dylan Sikura and Blake Hillman. That would be the hidden blessing behind this painful season. Instead of having to guess what these young players can or will do in the NHL, we get to witness a sample size and judge for ourselves.

The Blues, on the other hand, are fighting to take the last wild card spot and currently sit on the outside. Four points against the Blackhawks could help them quite a bit, so the Hawks can actually play spoiler. How sweet that would be.

Join our discussion below and look out for a recap following the game or tomorrow.

Follow me on Twitter @PuckinHostile

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About Jeff Osborn

Jeff has covered the Blackhawks since 2009 with his former website www.puckinhostile.com and podcast The Puckin Hostile Shoutcast until 2017, when he moved over to The Rink. After a short hiatus to cover the inaugural Seattle Kraken season, he came back to Blackhawks coverage and started "The Net Perspective" podcast to discuss goaltending and goaltender development.

     

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