Tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET, the Chicago Blackhawks (46-21-15, 107 points regular-season) and St. Louis Blues (52-23-7, 111 points) take the ice at Scottrade Center in St. Louis for Game 1 of their best-of-seven Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 1 series. The game can be live streamed for free here. Chicago fans can hear all of the action on WGN 720 while St. Louis fans can do the same on KMOX 1120.
St. Louis dealt with massive injuries down the stretch and lost their final six games of the season while Chicago also dealt with injuries and settled for the No. 3 seed in the Central Division bracket. The Blues won three of the five meetings this season with the Blackhawks earning victories in the final two.
Despite the losing streak to close the season, the Blues are confident hosting the best-of-seven series.
"I think we're OK," defenseman Jay Bouwmeester said via NHL.com. "There's a certain way we have to play, obviously, and just lately maybe we've gotten away from that a little bit. The last two games against [the Blackhawks] weren't our best effort, for sure. I think we just have to go back and remind ourselves what we did to have success and go from there."
The Blackhawks, meanwhile, are trying to avoid over-thinking what should be a physical series.
"Sometimes you go into these series and you think a little too much about the physical play or what's going to happen and it throws you off," said Patrick Kane per NHL.com. "We've just got to go out there, play hockey, play the way we know how to play and not worry about all that other stuff, whether it happens after the whistle or during the play."
Kane ranked third on the team in the regular-season in goals (29) and assists (40) and second in points (69) while Patrick Sharp paced the team with 34 goals and 78 points while adding 44 assists and Jonathan Toews found the twine 28 times while adding 40 helpers for 68 points.
Alexander Steen led the Blues in the regular-season with 33 goals and 62 points while David Backes was third on the team with 57 points off of 27 tallies and 30 helpers and Jaden Schwartz ranked fourth with 56 points by finding the twine 25 times and adding 31 assists. T.J. Oshie was second on the team in points (60), but will miss Game 1 due to an upper-body injury.
in net, St. Louis will have Ryan Miller man the crease as he went 10-8-1 since being acquired from Buffalo with a 2.47 goals-against average and 9.03 save percentage while Chicago will turn to Corey Crawford, who looks to lead them to another Stanley Cup and went 32-16-10 with a 2.26 GAA and a .917 save percentage this season.
The Central Division bracket heats up when the Blackhawks and Blues clash once the lights come up tonight on this Stanley Cup Playoffs Game 1 matchup at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
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