The defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks are in the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season, and are looking for their fourth title in the last seven years.
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The Chicago Blackhawks play the St Louis Blues in Game One of the Western Conference First Round on Wednesday, start time at 9:30 PM ET, at Scottrade Center.
Throughout the Chicago Blackhawks 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs run, Blackhawks great and WGN Radio color analyst Troy Murray will continue to answer Blackhawks fans’ questions.
Chicago Blackhawks’ Jonathan Toews, center, is checked by St. Louis Blues’ Carl Gunnarsson, of Sweden, and goalie Brian Elliott, left, during the first period in Game 1 of an NHL hockey first-round Stanley Cup playoff series W… Still, the Blackhawks gained seven points out of a possible 10.
The last time the Islanders won a playoff series, the Panthers weren’t even a team. “We’re facing as good a team as there is in the league right out of the gate”. Both teams generated some solid scoring chances, but neither could solve the opposing goalie. They are certainly very top-heavy in that department, with Nicklas Hjalmarsson and Duncan Keith really being their only consistently strong performers.
St. Louis is 49-24-9 on the season, 24-13-4 at home and 40-32 with the under. The team has an off-day on Sunday and will begin playoff preparations Monday morning.
TJ Oshie-David Backes-Alexandar Steen is a playoff push with swapping Oshie for Patrick Berglund. They don’t have a ton of scoring depth outside of Tarasenko, and their second and third defensive pairings have plenty of flaws while playing in their own end of the ice, in spite of their offensive zone prowess. The Blues have taken Game 1 in just three of their last eight series (since 2003), losing each of those three matchups. If St. Louis focuses too much on Kane and Panarin, then other Blackhawks players will have more room to step up and score big goals when needed.
It’s not hard to see why so few people think Chicago won’t repeat – other than their 12 game winning streak way back in January, they have not been a dominant hockey team this season. The Blackhawks went down a man first after Viktor Svedberg got beat wide and took a holding call trying to stop the Blues’ rush.
“We had a number of chances, especially on the power play”, Toews said.
“It’s unbelievable once you get in”, said Richards, who has 36 goals and 68 assists in 141 playoff games. “We need to keep getting that traffic in front of him and all the things we talk about when you know you’re up against a good goaltender”.
“We’re as prepared as we’ve ever been, we’ve got as much talent as we’ve ever had, and we’ve been tested through some tough times more than we’ve ever been tested”.
That theme references a lot of elements here in St. Louis, where the only Round 1 matchup between two Top 5 National Hockey League clubs opens Wednesday night. The Blues have had playoff troubles with goaltending before, but Elliott is in position for a breakthrough postseason against the mighty Blackhawks.
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As for the ‘Hawks, they are coming into this series with question marks on the blue line and some rust on Corey Crawford, so don’t expect our boys in red, white and black to be too zealous out of the gate either as they try to establish their groove. Having already pledged to hang up his skates when the season is over, the 35-year old has no reason to hold back.
