Blackhawks Gameday: 3 things to watch versus St. Louis Blues

Chicago Blackhawks @ St. Louis Blues
6 pm CT
Enterprise Center – St. Louis, MO
TV: CHSN (in market)/ESPN+ (out of market)
Radio: WGN 720 AM

The Chicago Blackhawks play their first of back-to-back games this weekend at the St. Louis Blues. They will send another group to take on the Minnesota Wild tomorrow evening. The Blackhawks lost 3-2 to the Detroit Red Wings in their preseason opener on Tuesday. After a couple of days of practice that included a lot of special teams and systems work, the performance should be better tonight.

“Going into the game, I was a little bit concerned about how tired we were going to be, based on not having taken a day off before that,” head coach Jeff Blashill said. “I thought the second and third periods we were slow to pucks, and I would say we were slow to pucks probably for two reasons: we were thinking a lot, which makes you slow, and we were a little bit tired. And the game, whatever, gets away from you a little bit.

“In the first period, when we had legs, we did some good stuff. It’s a step, and it gave us an opportunity to watch some videos in certain areas and practice them today. That’s what you want the exhibition games for. I never put too much weight, especially in the early ones. As you get closer to real hockey, they become more important.”

Better Defensive Effort

The Blackhawks had a terrible defensive game, from top to bottom, in Detroit. At 5-on-5, the Red Wings held considerable advantages in shot attempts (46-23), shots on goal (32-14), scoring chances (22-11), and high-danger scoring chances. No matter how you cut it, it was a lousy performance.

With the Blackhawks dressing a few more players we’ll see on opening night, the defensive structure should be better. With the combination of more veterans on the ice and a couple more days of working on Blashill’s system, the performance without the puck needs to improve.

“We’re going to have to do a really good job in these practices to get them to a point where they can just go play and not think,” Blashill said on Thursday. “One of the things we try to do in practice is do routing drills. It’s just working on getting to the routes and being able to play as a five-man unit without having to think.”

Need More Discipline

Last season, the Blackhawks took 705 penalty minutes, the 12th-most in the NHL. They were called for five penalties versus the Red Wings on Tuesday. Three of those five minors were avoidable; a hooking, holding, and interference call that were all products of the guilty party not moving his feet. Hopefully, they can avoid such penalties and take fewer trips to the penalty box.

The Blackhawks should have a good penalty-kill unit this season. A healthy Jason Dickinson is always a good thing. Speedy and responsible forwards like Ilya Mikheyev, Frank Nazar, and Sam Lafferty could make them a dangerous group. Last season, the Blackhawks finished 14th with a 79.4% kill rate. That should improve thanks to better personnel, including in the crease, and a more aggressive mindset instilled by Blashill. But a key to having sustained success on the penalty kill is limiting your shorthanded time with better discipline.

First Look at Spencer Knight

Spencer Knight was acquired last March from the Florida Panthers to be the Blackhawks’ franchise goaltender. Just before training camp, he signed a three-year, $17.5 million contract extension that has him locked up through the 2029-30 season.

“We traded for Spencer for a reason,” general manager Kyle Davidson said. “He’s a big part, a very big deal for us. Part of that is because we believe in his potential to be a top-flight starter in this league. getting him under contract for the next few years gives him and us some runway to kind of further establish ourselves. Put him in a position to be the No. 1 guy and give him some runway in that role and kind of make sure we revisit things in a couple of years and make sure he’s here for a really long time.”

This season is the first in Knight’s young career where he is a bona fide No. 1 goaltender. While the results of tonight’s game don’t matter, Knight getting his year off on the right foot would be good to see. He is expected to play the entire game tonight.

Probable Blackhawks Lines

Forwards

Colton Dach-Ryan Green-Oliver Moore
Nick Lardis-Jackson Cates-Lukas Reichel
Ilya Mikheyev-Jason Dickinson-Sam Lafferty
Dominic Toninato-Martin Misiak-Gavin Hayes

Defensemen

Ethan Del Mastro-Connor Murphy
Kevin Korchinski-Nolan Allan
Matt Grzelcyk-Louis Crevier

Goaltenders

Spencer Knight
Stanislav Berezhnoy

Probable Blues Lines

Forwards

Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Jimmy Snuggerud
Jake Nieghbours-Brayden Schenn-Mathieu Joseph
Juraj Pekarcik-Dalibor Dvorsky-Justin Carbonneau
Nathan Walker-Oskar Sundqvist-Matt Luff