TEAM SNAPSHOTS
BLUES The St. Louis Blues will look to rebound after a 4-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday to begin their two-game road trip.
Alex Nedeljkovic turned aside 35 shots for the Red Wings - many of the highlight reel variety - to frustrate the Blues, who fell to 10-7-2 on the season.
"That's one of those games where you have to tip your hat to the goaltender," Blues Head Coach Craig Berube said. "We could have easily had five or six goals tonight - we created enough chances, and we got the shots we needed -- he was just that good."
The Blues will face the Blackhawks at United Center for the first time this season. In the first meeting between the teams this season at Enterprise Center on Oct. 30, Torey Krug scored and Jordan Binnington made 25 saves in a 1-0 shutout victory.
BLACKHAWKS The Chicago Blackhawks had a 2-2 tie with the Calgary Flames, who had points in six straight games, before Matthew Tkachuk scored with 5:35 left in third period Tuesday in an eventual 5-2 victory for Calgary.
Brandon Hagel and Reese Johnson scored for the Blackhawks, while Marc-Andre Fleury made 34 saves.
The loss moved to Chicago to 6-11-2 on the season, but the club is 5-2-0 since replacing Head Coach Jeremy Colliton with Interim Coach Derek King on Nov. 6.
Patrick Kane leads Chicago with 17 points (six goals, 11 assists) in 15 games. Newcomer Seth Jones, who acquired by the Blackhawks in a trade with Columbus in the offseason, ranks second with 15 points (two goals, 13 assists).
HEAD-TO-HEAD Friday's game will be the 321st regular-season meeting between the Blues and Blackhawks. The Blues have won five straight games against Chicago - the longest winning streak against Chicago in team history - and have recorded shutouts in two straight games at United Center (128 minutes, 23 seconds of consecutive shutout hockey).
Kane was the last player to score against the Blues at United Center on April 3, 2019.
Binnington is undefeated against the Blackhawks (3-0-0). If he starts Friday, it will be his first career start at United Center.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Brayden Schenn, who returned to the lineup Wednesday in Detroit after missing nine games with an upper-body injury. Schenn has 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) in 21 career games against Chicago.
BLACKHAWKS Alex DeBrincat, who leads the Blackhawks in goals with 11 this season. The 23-year-old winger has recorded 11 points (six goals, five assists) in 14 career games against the Blues.
BLUE NOTES
The Blues rank sixth overall by averaging 34.3 shots per game this season. Last season, the Blues ranked 23rd with an average of 29 shots per game… David Perron's next point will be the 427th of his Blues career, which will tie Keith Tkachuk for 11th in team history… Ivan Barbashev's next point will be the 100th of his NHL career… Brayden Schenn is two goals away from recording 200.
For the Chicago Blackhawks, it's all about perspective.
They return home Friday to face the St. Louis Blues after going 2-2-0 on a four-game trip.
Considering they were 0-5-1 in away games before this trip, they'll take it.
"You get .500 on the road, coming in to where we started from, they've made strides," said Blackhawks interim coach Derek King, who is 5-2-0 since taking over after Jeremy Colliton was fired following a 1-9-2 start to the season. "Is there some more work to be done? Sure is. We are making good strides and we are in the right direction."
Not even a tough 5-2 loss in Calgary to complete the trip could dim the Blackhawks' view.
The Flames broke a tie with 5:35 remaining when Matthew Tkachuk's centering pass went off the skate of Chicago defenseman Seth Jones, over the shoulder of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and into the net. Calgary added two empty-net goals to close out the victory.
"The consistency of playing a certain way is not there yet, but it's getting there," King said. "I know these guys, going in there after the game they were disappointed. As the season has gone so far, that's a positive that they are upset about it."
Added captain Jonathan Toews: "Either way, we played some good hockey. We want to win all four, so 2-2 or 3-1 ... I think there's some hockey we can build off of going home here."
Fleury made 34 saves and Brandon Hagel and Reese Johnson scored for the Blackhawks. It was Johnson's first NHL goal.
"It's obviously nice to contribute," Johnson said. "I think I want to be able to do that more, get some greasy ones in front of the net, but obviously we want to come out of that with two points."
The Blues are coming off a 4-2 loss Wednesday at Detroit as Red Wings goalie Alex Nedeljkovic made 35 saves.
"We made the plays -- we could have easily had five or six goals, but you just have to take your hat off to (Nedeljkovic)," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "You have games like this, where you throw everything at the net and nothing goes in."
Pavel Buchnevich and David Perron scored for St. Louis, which has lost six of its past eight games (2-5-1).
"I thought we played a really good game," Blues captain Ryan O'Reilly said. "We just didn't get the results we wanted."
The Blues' James Neal was held out with an undisclosed injury but fellow forward Brayden Schenn returned after missing nine games with an upper-body injury.
Schenn was a minus-2 in just more than 15 minutes of playing time.
"He was OK," Berube said. "He wasn't going to be 100 percent after missing that much time, but he'll be fine."
The Blues could certainly use a little puck luck.
"We played a really solid game, but we needed to finish some of our chances," forward Jordan Kyrou said. "We were all over them in the offensive zone, but we needed a couple bounces and (Nedeljkovic) played a great game."
