St. Louis Blues Look to Set the Tone in Game 1 of Series vs. Chicago Blackhawks
The St. Louis Blues begin their fifth straight playoff run on Wednesday night against the Chicago Blackhawks.
On Wednesday night, the St. Louis Blues will begin their 2015-16 playoff run, once again seeking a Stanley Cup victory as they participate in the postseason for the fifth straight year. The Blues will be seeking a Game 1 victory over the archrival Blackhawks, against whom they’ve had mixed luck during the regular season.
The Blues won the season series 3-2, but all three of their victories came in overtime. They averaged just 1.75 goals per game against Chicago in their last four meetings, with their only really impressive scoring output coming in a bizarre 6-5 comeback, overtime victory that will go down in history as the “Roar Bacon” game. Considering these recent trends, it’s safe to assume that the Blues will need a great goaltending performance from Brian Elliott and major efficiency from their forward corps in order to contend with the Hawks. It may help that Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford will be starting in his first game since March 14 as he returns from an upper-body injury.
It will be the third playoff meeting between the two teams since the 2001-02 season, all of which have come in the postseason’s first round. The Blues beat the Blackhawks in five games during the 01-02 quarterfinals, but blew a 2-0 series lead in 2013-14 and ended up losing four straight to drop a series to the Hawks.
That series was the second of what has been three straight first-round series losses, following one in 2012-13 to the Los Angeles Kings and another last spring to the Minnesota Wild. Obviously, improvements in effort, consistency, and efficiency will be necessary for the Blues to break that streak and help cement the status of coach Ken Hitchcock and GM Doug Armstrong heading into next season.
Check out the next couple slides to see what both teams’ lineups are expected to look like on Wednesday evening:
Next: Blues Lineup