The Blackhawks (15-8-3) overall and (7-6-1) on the road head to St. Louis to take on the rival Blues (14-8-3) overall and (8-2-1) on home ice on Saturday night. This is the second of six meetings between the division rivals this season. St. Louis shut out the Hawks 3-0 in St. Louis behind strong goaltending by Jaroslav Halak in Ken Hitchcock’s Blues coaching debut back on November 8th. The Hawks will look to have a better offensive output against one of their biggest rivals. The Hawks will also be looking to shore up the struggling defense core that allowed 4 goals last night to the offensively challenged Islanders and another two power play goals against. The penalty killing and defensive and neutral zone turnovers have been the sour spot of the season for Chicago and need to be addressed in a hurry if the Hawks want to be legitimate Stanley Cup contenders come playoff time. T.J. Oshie, Vladimir Sobotka, and Chris Stewart all tallied for the Blues in the first meeting. The Hawks won just one of three games in St. Louis last season but won all three at United Center for a 4-2-0 mark against the Blues. The Blues come into tonight’s game trailing the Hawks by just two points in the standings. The Hawks come in tied for the Central Division lead with the Red Wings with 33 points apiece. Detroit is 8-2-0 in their last 10 games and St. Louis 7-1-2. The Blues have only once failed to record a point in a game since Hitchcock took over behind the bench. Things are heating up in the division and it will be up to the Hawks to keep up the pace. Jonathan Toews will look to keep up his hot streak that saw him named the league’s 2nd star for the month of November. Toews had a shorthanded goal, an assist, and the only goal in the shootout against the Islanders last night. He comes in leading the Hawks in scoring with 14 goals and 13 assists for 27 points. The 14 goals also leads the team. David Backes leads the Blues with 9 goals and Alexander Steen with 18 points leads St. Louis in scoring.
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