Blackhawks at Blues
The St. Louis Blues' bid for a seventh straight playoff appearance has been put in peril after they followed a season-high six-game winning streak by yielding 14 goals over three consecutive losses. The Blues aim to get back on track Wednesday when they play the opener of a home-and-home series against the visiting Chicago Blackhawks.
St. Louis remains undaunted despite its most recent skid, as it resides just one point behind Colorado with a game in hand for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. "We understand where we're at and we know what we have to do to win. We've done it last week, the last couple of weeks, and it's going to be a good couple tests against Chicago (Wednesday, Friday) and then Colorado (Saturday) to finish it out," defenseman Colton Parayko said after Monday's 4-2 setback to Washington. Chicago hasn't done St. Louis any favors of late, as it dropped a pair of lopsided losses to the Avalanche as part of its 2-5-2 stretch over the last three weeks. Rookie Alex DeBrincat, who had a hat trick in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Blues on March 18, is tied with former Hart Trophy winner Patrick Kane with a team-leading 27 goals.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network
ABOUT THE BLACKHAWKS (32-37-10): Captain Jonathan Toews will miss his sixth consecutive contest with an upper-body injury despite practicing for the second straight day on Tuesday. "Just not cleared to play," coach Joel Quenneville said of the 29-year-old Toews, who initially said he felt "great" following Monday's practice. J-F Berube, who was recalled from Rockford of the American Hockey League on Thursday, will get the nod in net despite getting pierced for 21 goals in his last five outings with the Blackhawks.
ABOUT THE BLUES (43-30-6): Vladimir Tarasenko, who has a team-leading 32 goals, scored for the fifth time in six outings on Monday and had a goal and an assist to accompany Jaden Schwartz's hat trick in St. Louis' 5-2 win over Chicago on Oct. 18. Captain Alex Pietrangelo, who has set career-high totals in goals (15) and points (53), scored a goal and set up three others in the latter meeting with the Blackhawks. Two of Pietrangelo's assists in that contest came on the power play, which is a woeful 1-for-15 in its last seven games.
OVERTIME
1. St. Louis G Jake Allen won both outings against Chicago this season to improve his career mark versus the club to 8-4-1 with a .919 save percentage.
2. The Blackhawks' 29th-ranked power play has scored just five goals in the last 14 contests.
3. St. Louis C Kyle Brodziak scored and set up a goal in the season series versus Chicago and has five assists in his past six games overall.