Blues host Blackhawks with Central title up for grabs
The Chicago Blackhawks' league-best power play has been especially dangerous of late.
The St. Louis Blues are one of the NHL's top penalty killing teams, though they have yet to shut down Chicago this season.
How those units match up will be a focal point of Wednesday night's meeting in St. Louis between clubs vying for the Central Division title.
Chicago (41-21-5), St. Louis and Dallas are in contention for the Central crown. The Blues (38-20-9) won it last season, although it meant little after a first-round loss to Minnesota.
Still, the division title and top seed in the Western Conference are targets for these teams separated by two points. The Blackhawks can take a major step toward reaching those goals in this two-game trip that includes Friday's game against the Stars.
"We've got a lot of division games coming up," captain Jonathan Toews said. "Those aren't going to be easy ones. It'll be good preparation for the end of the year. We don't want to look too far ahead."
Chicago's power play is clicking at 24.1 percent on the season, and the club has gone 6 for 12 in the last four games and 14 for 28 in nine.
"It comes with confidence," Toews said. "If you have a stretch where pucks are going in, it just adds to the rest of your power play, what you do with the puck, your break-outs, your entries, retrieving pucks off of initial shots that maybe don't go in in their zone."
Patrick Kane has seven power-play points and Brent Seabrook, Artemi Panarin and Duncan Keith each have six within the last nine contests. Keith and Artem Anisimov scored with the man advantage in Sunday's 4-1 home win over Detroit.
Kane added his eighth goal in 13 games to increase his NHL-best point total to a career-high 89. He has 13 points in a nine-game overall run against St. Louis, including three postseason games.
The Blues are killing off 86.6 percent of penalties, though the Blackhawks have gone 3 for 11 on the power play against them in 2015-16; Kane scored twice and Andrew Shaw once. Chicago went 2-0-1 in those games.
St. Louis returns home on a three-game win streak, capping a 3-1-0 trip with Sunday's 4-2 victory over the Wild. Jori Lehtera and Ryan Reaves scored first-period goals as the Blues never looked back after a strong start.
"This is the playoff stretch right now," Reaves said. "We're playing a lot of teams that we're in the mix with and tied with and chasing, so these are points we've really got to steal and start getting some separation."
While the Blackhawks have the West's top goal scorer in Kane with 38, the Blues' Vladimir Tarasenko is not far behind with 30. He has three goals and an assist against Chicago this season.
Each team will likely start a goalie who has won three straight outings, with the Blues expected to go with Jake Allen and the Blackhawks Corey Crawford.
Chicago winger Marian Hossa practiced Tuesday and might return after missing the last eight games with a lower-body injury.
