Pre-Gamin’: Blackhawks at Blues (7:00 CT) — Lineups, Broadcast Info, Game Thread

Tonight is the third meeting this season between the Chicago Blackhawks and rival St. Louis Blues, with the Blues having won the first meeting on October 30 (1-0) and the Blackhawks getting the win in the second meeting on November 26 (3-2 OT). St. Louis comes into tonight’s game having lost their last two games, including a 7-4 loss in their last outing on Thursday night where they allowed five third-period goals in a 7-4 loss to the New Jersey Devils. Chicago is coming off a win over the Edmonton Oilers from Wednesday night, but that was just their second win in their last nine games (2-5-2) since January 17. The Blues are currently fourth in the Central Division based on point-percentage (.633) and hold onto the first wildcard spot in the Western Conference.

Broadcast Info

Puck Drop: 7:00 p.m. CT
TV: NBCSCH, ESPN+ (out-of-market)
Radio: WGN 720 AM, TUDN 1200 AM (Spanish)

Expected Lineups

Blackhawks (17-23-7)

Kubalík – Strome – Kane
DeBrincat – Dach – Hagel
Kurashev – Slavin – Lafferty
Borgström – Carpenter – Entwistle

de Haan – S. Jones
McCabe – Murphy
C. Jones – Galvas

Fleury 

Blues (26-14-5)

Schenn – O’Reilly – Kyrou
Buchnevich – Thomas – Tarasenko
Saad – Barbashev – Perron
Kostin – Joshua – Sundqvist

Mikkola – Parayko
Krug – Faulk
Walman – Bortuzzo

Husso

Injury Report

Blackhawks:

Tyler Johnson (Three Months – Neck Surgery)
Kevin Lankinen (Day-to-Day – Hand)
Jonathan Toews (Day-to-Day – Concussion Protocol)
Riley Stillman (IR – Upper Body)
Reese Johnson (IR – Broken Clavicle)
Jujhar Khaira (IR – Back Spasms)

Blues:

Scott Peruunovich (Day-to-Day – Upper Body)
Marco Scandella (Week-to-Week – Lower Body)

What To Watch For

•   Dylan Strome has had the hot-hand for the Blackhawks in recent weeks. He has ten points over his last eight games since January 21, with three multi-point efforts in his last five games played. He also ranks sixth in the NHL in faceoff win-percentage (59.0%) amongst 55 players to take at least 180 faceoffs since January 1.

•   Blues net-minder Ville Husso has been hot for St. Louis since the calendar turned-over to 2022. Since January 1, Husso has made eight appearances with seven starts for the Blues. He is 6-1-0 with a .956 save-percentage and a 1.37 GAA. Husso ranks at the top of the list of 35 goalies to make at least eight appearances since January 1 in both save-percentage and GAA.

•   Special teams will be a focus tonight for the Blackhawks on both ends of the spectrum as they will have to deal with a Blues team that ranks in the top-five of the league both on the powerplay and penalty-kill. St. Louis holds the NHL’s third-best powerplay unit this season with a 27.6% success-rate, while they rank fourth in the league on the penalty-kill with a 84.6% kill-rate. Chicago has found recent success on their powerplay, ranking ninth in the NHL since January 15 with a 26.9% success-rate.

Get Caught Up

Asked about Dylan Strome's recent surge upping his trade value, Derek King joked he "should sit him down a little bit, make him stick around here."

"But I would never do that… If he's here again, great. If not, we'll wish him luck."

— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) February 11, 2022

Patrick Kane: "With Strome, it's pretty obvious, if you give him a chance in a top-six role and on the power play, he's gonna produce. It's just the fact. … I feel like keeping a guy that's that young is probably a better solution. He can be part of the future here."

— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) February 12, 2022

Patrick Kane hopes the new GM, whoever it is, will give veteran players such as him a voice in the process, saying players have a unique perspective on what's working and what's not.

— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) February 12, 2022

Marc-André Fleury and Calvin de Haan Land on TSN’s First “Trade Bait” Listhttps://t.co/e8C7ccBYy4 pic.twitter.com/8BLch0B31Y

— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) February 11, 2022