The Chicago Blackhawks (8-3-3) will begin a two game road trip in St. Louis on Tuesday night against the Central Division rival St. Louis Blues (6-7-0). The Blues off to a slow start fired head coach Davis Payne and replaced him with Stanley Cup winner Ken Hitchcock. Hitchcock’s teams are known for being tough to play against and for a defensive style of play. Chicago is coming off an embarrassing loss at home on Sunday night to the arch rival Vancouver Canucks in which the Hawks allowed 5 power play goals against and failed to score on five power play chances themselves. The Hawks played a terrible game at both ends of the ice and Coach Joel Quenneville mixed up all four lines and all three defense pairings in Monday’s practice. Let’s hope the new combinations give the Hawks a spark as they are now winless in two straight games. Duncan Keith returned to practice and may be in the lineup tomorrow night in St. Louis. This is the first of six meetings against the Blues. The Hawks went 4-2-0 against St. Louis last season but one just 1 of 3 on the road. Alexander Steen leads the Blues with 9 points and also has 6 goals. Patrick Kane leads the way for the Hawks with 15 points and Marian Hossa leads Chicago in goals with 7. Chicago dropped to 22nd in the league in penalty killing after allowing 5 goals to Vancouver. The Hawks power play (outage) is ranked 28th. The Blues power play is actually worse than the Hawks as they sit dead last in the NHL, a perfect opportunity for the Hawks to rebound on the penalty kill. St. Louis comes in just 27th in penalty killing and has allowed 11 power play goals against. The Hawks need to take advantage of that number and get the power play going.
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