Preview/Game Thread: Blues at Blackhawks

  

St. Louis Blues (1-1-1) at Chicago Blackhawks (2-0-2)

7:30pm Central

United Center

TV/Radio: NBCSCH, FS-MW/WGN

 

Goalies:

Chicago

Cam Ward (.867 save%, 4.41 GAA)

St. Louis

Jake Allen (.854 save%, 4.28 GAA)

 

Team statistics:

Power play

Chicago (6.7%)

St. Louis (25.0%)

Penalty kill

Chicago (69.2%)

St. Louis (90.0%)

Shots for/against per game

Chicago (33.5, 33.8)

St. Louis (34.7, 29.7)

Shooting%

Chicago (13.4%)

St. Louis (9.6%)

Faceoff%

Chicago (48.6%)

St. Louis (53.5%)

Avg. height/weight:

Chicago:

6’1”, 195

St. Louis

6’1” 204

 

Lineups:

Chicago

Debrincat – Toews – Kahun

Fortin – Schmaltz – Kane

Kunitz – Anisimov – Hayden

Kampf – Kruger – Saad

Keith – Jokiharju

Gustafsson – Seabrook

Manning – Davidson

St. Louis:

Maroon – O’Reilly – Tarasenko

Schwartz – Schenn – Perron

Steen – Bozak – Kyrou

Barbashev – Thomas – Blais

Edmundson – Pietrangelo

Bouwmeester – Parayko

Jerabek – Bortuzzo

 

Analysis:

Coming off a late game collapse in Minnesota, the Chicago Blackhawks look to bounce back against the St. Louis Blues at the United Center tonight. Last week, the Blackhawks beat the Blues 4-3 on the road.

The top line of Jonathan Toews, Alex DeBrincat and Dominik Kahun appear to be the only line clicking on all cylinders. All three, along with Patrick Kane, need to stay hot as the bottom lines try to bring scoring balance to the lineup.

Duncan Keith is celebrating his 1000th game in a Blackhawks’ uniform. Keith, paired with rookie Henri Jokiharju, has pushed possession well from the backend. However, too many prime scoring chances against continue to haunt the defensive unit.

For the fifth straight game, Cam Ward will start between the pipes, which begs the question, how much faith does the coaching staff have in Anton Forsberg? Although another theory is that the team is hesitant either to play Forsberg through a hand injury, or put him on waivers and potentially lose him to another club. Jake Allen looks to avenge his loss from last week for the Blues.

Comment below in our live game thread tonight!

And look for the internet’s most robust recap of the game later tonight or early tomorrow on the-rink.com. 

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