The St. Louis Blues face their main rival for the final time this season. The only question is whether they will snuff out their playoff hopes or not.
The St. Louis Blues have faced the Chicago Blackhawks countless times over the course of their franchise history. Rarely has there been an opportunity such as we have this evening.
While the Chicago Blackhawks would not be mathematically eliminated from the playoff race with a loss against the Blues, their hopes would be quashed by quite a bit. A win would just prolong the inevitable, so the Blues should be gracious guests and just put their host out of their misery right?
The truth is the Blackhawks chances of making the playoffs are slim. However, only players are slower to realize hope is dead than fans and that is only because players can actually do something about it.
The reality is that Chicago is only six points from a playoff spot – a mere three wins. However, they have five teams to jump over in the process.
That’s not just a matter of winning games, but you need all five of those teams to be losing so you can make up the ground. It’s not statistically impossible, but it is quite improbable.
However, every time the Blackhawks get on a little roll, their fan base fires up the engines on the bandwagon and starts screaming “here we come, ready or not!” Then they lose one or two to put them right back where they started.
As Blues fans, we have been there before, though not in the financial predicament Chicago faces. The lure of the playoffs is undeniable, even when losing and starting a rebuild or retool would be smarter.
How they stack up
The Blues are coming off a loss in their last game, falling to New Jersey 4-2. St. Louis remains in first place, with the Colorado Avalanche having lost their last two games.
The Blues are still 40-18-10, with 90 points on the season. They are also 8-2-0 in their last 10 games.
Chicago has been an odd duck recently. After losing to the Blues in late-February, they actually won four games in a row. Then, they lost to Detroit in their last game, who happens to be the worst team in the NHL.
Chicago sits at 70 points with a record of 31-29-8. That still puts them in last in the Central Division and only ahead of the three California teams.
Nevertheless, as mentioned, they are still technically alive for a playoff spot. It is doable, but it would take a lot of things to happen.
Meanwhile, the Blues are trying to hold off Colorado in the division and the conference. The Pacific teams continue to flip-flop, so they have fallen back to where the Avs are the only main concern.
The Blues have won all three games against Chicago to this point. However, St. Louis has never swept a season series against Chicago. They swept that wonderful playoff round in 1993, but not a regular season.
All the games have been high scoring thus far. The Blues have won by scores of 4-0, 4-3 and 6-5. So, expect a defensive battle in this one? Unlikely, but that’s how these things work sometimes.
Projected lineup
Here is the projected lineup from the team website:
Forwards
Sanford – O’Reilly – Perron
Schwartz – Schenn – Blais
Steen – Thomas – Bozak
MacEachern – Sundqvist – Barbashev
Defense
Gunnarsson – Pietrangelo
Scandella – Parayko
Dunn – Bortuzzo
Goalie
Binnington / Allen
Justin Faulk is a gametime decision, but I have a feeling he wont play.
No major problems with the lines, though it seems weird to switch them after one bad game.
I think they should use Jake Allen, which means it won’t happen.
Prediction
People who read my articles know that I rarely pick against the Blues. It is not just being a homer, but when your team is the best in a conference and one of the best in the league, stats are actually on your side to expect a winner.
However, there just seems to be too much going against this at the moment. While I picked the Blues to win and was tongue in cheek about not letting New Jersey start a streak and end it, there was a part of my brain that figured that would happen.
Similarly, while the Blues are head and shoulders better than Chicago overall, that thing of having never swept them in the regular season is staring me in the face. One might argue the Blues got their bad game out of the way with the 6-5 win back in February. It is still hard to think the Blues will win when fate is against them in this instance.
The Blues won’t look near as bad as they did in New Jersey, but Chicago will come out hard. The Blues fall in this one 4-3.
I’d be happy to be wrong. For some reason, Sunday games against Chicago, on NBC, just don’t play in the Blues favor.
Remember, the game starts at 6:30, so a slightly earlier start.