St. Louis Blues Vs. Chicago 4.0: Pregame News And Notes

The St. Louis Blues have a chance to avenge themselves tonight. With help elsewhere, their game in Chicago has regained extra significance.

The St. Louis Blues might need to send thank you cards to the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks held on for a 4-2 victory over Colorado, putting the Blues back in the driver’s seat for the final wild card spot.

Now, it is up to St. Louis to get their heads out of their rears, stop talking about being nervous and do their jobs. They have two games remaining. While the Colorado game now becomes the one you put all your eggs in, you would put yourself in a better position with a win in Chicago tonight.

The scenarios have narrowed, but are still confusing. The Blues can actually get in with a loss and a win or a win and an overtime loss. The bottom line is that they have to get something out of the Colorado game. How much will depend on what they do tonight.

What San Jose did is take the edge off. Brayden Schenn talked about the team being nervous in the last Blackhawks game. You can’t have that. You now have a little margin for error, so just go out there and play with confidence. If that is too hard then this team has more issues than any of us thought.

Sadly, the thing that scares me the most is the locker room. There just seems to be something going on in there. Hopefully they can band together at the right time and the right time is tonight.

Know Thy Enemy

Chicago is now 33-37-10 on the season. As we have heard several times, their only focus, other than getting better individually, is spoiling the Blues playoff chances. While they can’t do that officially, they can still put a mountain of pressure on St. Louis.

Chicago is 18-17-5 on home ice, which is a far cry from their usual United Center dominance.

Chicago is still dealing with some key injuries. Jonathan Toews is a gametime decision, though why you would risk his long-term health this late in the season is beyond me.

Like the Blues, the Blackhawks are playing the first of back-to-back games tonight. They will travel to Winnipeg to finish the season tomorrow.

A player to watch out for, if you have not already, is Alex DeBrincat. He is second on the team with 28 goals and 52 points. He plays a similar game to Jordan Kyrou and has a similar frame. Blues fans should be overjoyed if Kyrou can replicate what DeBrincat has done this seasaon.

Blues Tidbits

St. Louis is now 43-31-6 on the season. Unfortunately, they have not won in four games. An OT loss coupled with three straight regulation losses has really put the pressure on them. What really stings is the Blues could have gotten at least a point out of their last two games and got nothing.

More from Analysis

The Blues recalled Ville Husso from San Antonio. Some fans were wondering why you would have three healthy goalies on the roster. They should probably take a look at that statement and reassess. Nothing official has come out, but the likelihood of Carter Hutton being injured again seems very high.

It’s been hit or miss for the Blues in Chicago of late. St. Louis won in Chicago earlier this season. They split the two games in the Windy City last year. On the plus side, the Blues have points in seven of their last 10 in Chicago and points are what they need.

St. Louis has some decent hot streaks going against the Blackhawks according to the team website:

"– Vladimir Tarasenko has more goals against the Blackhawks than any other player in the League since the start of the 2014-15 season. Tarasenko has 16 goals in 22 games. Vegas’ James Neal (11 goals in 26 games) and Nashville’s Filip Forsberg (11 goals in 27 games) are in second and third, respectively.– Tarasenko has 18 points in his last 13 games against the Blackhawks (12 goals, 6 assists)– Patrik Berglund has 5 points in his last 5 games against Chicago.– Alex Pietrangelo has 9 points in his last 9 games against the Blackhawks (four goals, five assists)– Alexander Steen has 11 points in his last 12 games (4 goals, 7 assists)– Brayden Schenn has 6 points in his last 6 games against Chicago (3 goals, 3 assists)"

Projected Lineup:

Forwards

Jaden Schwartz – Brayden Schenn – Vladimir Tarasenko
Patrik Berglund – Kyle Brodziak – Alexander Steen
Dmitrij Jaskin – Vladimir Sobotka – Tage Thompson
Nikita Soshnikov – Ivan Barbashev – Chris Thorburn

Defense

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

Goalie

Carter Hutton

Where To Watch

Television:

Fox Sports Midwest, NBC Sports Chicago

Streaming:

Fox Sports Go, NHL.tv (subscriber fee)

Radio:

KMOX, KMOX.com, Blues app

The puck drops on tonight’s game at 7:30 Central Time.

Prediction

Perhaps I’ve gone more with heart than head in this section lately. However, it is just difficult to read this team.

When you think they’re done, they surge back up. When you put faith back in them, they smash it back down.

Nevertheless, I still believe they will come alive at the right time. Maybe that will be tomorrow, but I think they are capable of getting a point out of this game, at least.

Next: Blues Need To Play Better To Avoid Repeat Locker Room Speeches

So, despite St. Louis having some advantages, I do see this game going the extra frame. It’ll be another back and forth game, but the Blues will get the extra two points with an overtime win.

I’ll say the final score will be 4-3.

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