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The Blues are in Chicago to face the struggling Blackhawks who have lost 8 games in a row (0-6-2). It’s a classic case of the stoppable force versus the moveable object.

Hawks relatively new head coach Jeremy Colliton is still looking for his first win. The Hawks are 3-3-2 at home while the Blues are 1-1-2 on the road. While the Hawks have one more point than the Blues, they have played three more games.

The Hawks have been pretty abysmal in almost every facet of the game. They rank 29th in points percentage, 30th in goals against, 23rd in scoring, 30th on the power play and 27th on the penalty kill. While the Blues haven’t been much better (23rd points percentage), at least they are 4th on scoring, 5th on the power play and 10th on the penalty kill. Of course, the only thing that matters is wins.

Patrick Kane leads the Hawks with 22 points in 17 games while Brandon Saad has been a major disappointment with only 8 points in 16 games. Henri Jokiharju should get some Calder consideration, playing 21:41 a game and having 9 points in 18 games. Marcus Kruger is out injured.

Corey Crawford is 3-6 with a 90.1% save percentage and a 3.07 goals against average.

For the Blues, Ryan O’Reilly looks to keep his 10 game point streak going and add to his impressive 21 points in 15 games. With 2 points tonight, Vladimir Tarasenko would get back on a point per game average.

Jake Allen will get the start in net, looking to better his 3.99 goals against average and his 87.9% save percentage. Allen has been better on the road where he has a 3.17 goals against and a 90.2% save percentage.

Brayden Schenn is still out. Pat Maroon and Jay Bouwmeester will draw back into the lineup which should look like this to start:
Schwartz - O'Reilly - Tarasenko
Fabbri - Bozak - Steen
Sanford - Thomas - Perron
Maroon - Barbashev – Sundqvist
Gunnarsson - Pietrangelo
Dunn - Parayko
Edmundson - Bouwmeester
Allen

Personally, I don’t like these lines but I don’t get paid to coach in the NHL.

While we are looking at the lineup, let’s look at Robert Thomas. Thomas has 4 assists in 11 games while only generating 8 shots while average over 10 minutes per game. Oskar Sundqvist for comparison has 4 points and 3 goals in 7 games while generating 6 shots in similar minutes. What makes this a lot worse is that Thomas starts in the offensive zone 65% of the time. Compare that to Sundqvist who starts in the offensive zone only 39% of the time. Thomas is the most sheltered forward of any forward with at least 3 games. Even so, Thomas has the 2nd worst shot attempt and unblocked shot attempt ratios (only Barbashev is worse in both cases).

While I like Thomas and his potential, he’s performing like a 4th line player. I wish he was AHL eligible as I believe he would be better served in the AHL, playing more minutes.

NHL Champions for Charity
We’ve gotten some traction on the charity wager among the Central Division bloggers. More on that to come.
It’s a great day for hockey.

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