St Louis Blues vs Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 1 Preview

St Louis Blues vs Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 1 Preview, Prediction, Team Comparison, X-Factors

Stanley Cup Playoffs final match-up of opening night kicks off on Wednesday at 9:30PM (EST) with the St Louis Blues vs Chicago Blackhawks. The second/third place teams in the Central Division are set to lock horns as the Blues set their sights on knocking off the reining Stanley Cup Champions.

Chicago made several additions down the stretch in hopes of going back-to-back in 2016. They added a familiar face in Andrew Ladd to play alongside Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa. The Blackhawks also added supporting pieces in Tomas Fleischmann, Dale Weise, Christian Ehrhoff, among others.

The Blues on the other hand persevered through key injuries all season long. They began 2015-16 with Patrik Berglund on the IR, ultimately missing the first half. STL also lost Jaden Schwartz and Steve Ott near the beginning. Paul Stastny missed close to a month, and Jake Allen and Brian Elliott seemingly took turns spending time on the IR with both rarely healthy at the same time.

Injury Report (IR – Injured Reserve, DTD – Day-to-Day)

Duncan Keith CHI (SUSP) – He’s not injured, but he will miss game one due to the incident with Charlie Coyle that cost him six games.

Jake Allen STL (DTD) – He was sidelined with a lower-body injury. He is available for game one, and will serve as backup to Brian Elliott.
David Backes STL (DTD) – Returned to practice on Tuesday after dealing with a lower-body injury. He should be available for the opener.
Troy Brouwer STL (unknown) – After missing Monday’s practice, speculation is a maintenance day, and that it shouldn’t affect his status for Wednesday night.
Steve Ott STL (DTD) – He has missed significant time, only playing 21 games in 2015-16. Ott practiced Monday as he continues to recover from a hamstring injury. His status for Wednesday is questionable, but there’s a possibility he plays.

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St Louis Blues vs Chicago Blackhawks: Team Comparison

Goaltending:

Brian Elliott/Jake Allen vs Corey Crawford/Scott Darling

Give Elliott and Allen credit, each were arguably in the conversation for MVP in separate halves of the season. It seems St.Louis will turn to Brian Elliott to start in game one.

The reasoning behind his start makes sense given his unbelievable play of late, but how many times do you have to learn from history? Elliott has proven himself incapable in big moments in the past. Chicago is handing them game one on a platter with Duncan Keith suspended, and instead they’d prefer to give the Blackhawks a golden opportunity.

Jake Allen is the future of St.Louis goaltending, he took major developmental steps in 2015-16, and they need to put confidence in their young goaltender so he too can feel confidence in himself.

There were concerns as the season drew to a close regarding the health of Corey Crawford. Luckily, he is healthy now, and Chicago will need him to have a chance at winning back-to-back Stanley Cups. Crawford is coming off the best regular season of his career, putting up fantastic numbers. He even collected seven shutouts by the end of January, but unfortunately failed to rack up anymore over the last three months.

Advantage: St.Louis Blues*

(*) – This comes with a large asterisk. If St.Louis turns to Jake Allen as they should, allowing Elliott to step up only when Allen falters, the Blues have a solid 1-2 option to collect 16 wins. If Elliott remains the starter, he may have the ability to steal a round or two, but he can’t handle the grind of four grueling playoff rounds without dropping the ball at some point.

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Defense:

Goals may be hard to come by in this series with two solid defensive groups facing off. Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, and Niklas Hjalmarsson are integral pieces to Chicago’s success year-after-year, largely responsible for making the Blackhawks a modern-day dynasty. Those three will do what they do best; shut down the opposition.

If Chicago hopes to go deep, they’ll need other blueliners to step up, such as Trevor van Riemsdyk or Erik Gustafsson.

The one team that can challenge Chicago’s 1-2-3 punch on defense is St.Louis. Alex Pietrangelo, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Jay Bouwmeester will look to shut down the Blackhawks stars, and they’ll need to, or else we could see significant changes in St.Louis this offseason. If the Blues hope to make it out of the first round, they’ll need Colton Parayko and Joel Edmundson to contribute.

Advantage: St.Louis Blues

Chicago has more shutdown talent in their top three, but fail to match the depth of St.Louis. This series may be impacted by those match-ups in the bottom six facing off against the opposition’s bottom pair defenders.

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Offense:

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The Blackhawks constructed the NHL’s top six forward group once they acquired Andrew Ladd at the trade deadline. He joins Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa, while Patrick Kane, Artemi Panarin, and Artem Anisimov serve as the most dangerous line in hockey.

Chicago is also built 12-men deep. They’ve got secondary pieces such as Andrew Shaw, Dale Weise, Tomas Fleischmann, Marcus Kruger, and Andrew Desjardins who play important roles in more limited minutes.

For St.Louis, the “Tarasenk-show” will need to find a way to win the battle against Chicago’s top defensive pairing. The slick Russian sniper is the Blues lone forward who can change the fortune of a single game by himself. STL doesn’t need Alex Steen, Paul Stastny, Jaden Schwartz, or any of their other big forwards to lead the postseason in scoring – they don’t even come close to it in the regular season, yet still manage to challenge for top record every year. Those types of players just need to play their game.

Advantage: Chicago Blackhawks

Boasting arguably the top two lines in all of hockey, Chicago will test the Blues top defenders. They’re also built 12 deep with NHL talent down in AHL Rockford ready to step up. It will be far more difficult for St.Louis to contain all four lines in comparison to what the Blackhawks are dealing with.

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St Louis Blues vs Chicago Blackhawks: X-Factors

Colton Parayko/Joel Edmundson STL – These newcomers will be heavily depended upon to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks. Parayko was a surprise addition in 2015-16 after finishing his college career with Alaska-Anchorage in 2014-15. Not only did the giant defensemen show an ability to produce on the scoresheet (33 points), but also proved himself capable in his own end – he finished the year with a +28 rating. Edmundson recently inked himself a two-year extension after responsible defensive play, but it’s his physicality that may have the greatest impact.

Robby Fabbri STL – He almost made the roster out of training camp as an 18-year old in 2014-15. It was a foregone conclusion that he would be an everyday NHLer this year, and Fabbri didn’t disappoint. He scored 18 goals, adding 19 assists (37 points) with an average ice-time of 13:19 over 72 games. Much like Patrick Kane or Artemi Panarin, Robby Fabbri is a small elusive forward that possesses off-the-chart talent. It’s only year one, so he’s just starting to scratch the surface in terms of his capabilities.

Andrew Shaw CHI – This pending restricted free agent is facing some uncertainty heading into the offseason. One way or another, the Blackhawks will find a way to retain Andrew Shaw. This is a guy built for playoff hockey playing at a high intensity at all times. He can be a physical force that gets under opponent’s skin, but also has enough upside to find the back of net from time-to-time.

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Prediction:

Chicago Wins Series 4-3

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