Blues @ Hawks 9/26/15 on WGN and NHLN & TSN

[Robb_K]

The Blues play The Blackhawks tonight at United Center, with a rookie-laden lineup, vs. Hawks' best. Toews, Kane, Hossa, Keith & Co. will play against The Blues without Tarasenko, Stastny, Steen, Pietrangelo and Shattenkirk.

Should be interesting to see if Edmundson, Parayko, Lindbohm, Barbashev, Jaškin and Fabbri take up the challenge.

[Robb_K]

Here are the official lineups:

BLUES:
Forwards: David Backes, Ivan Barbashev, Kyle Brodziak, Troy Brouwer, Robby Fabbri, Scott Gomez, Dmitrij Jaskin, Steve Ott, Magnus Paajarvi, Ty Rattie, Scottie Upshall, Jeremy Welsh

Defencemen: Jay Bouwmeester, Chris Butler, Joel Edmundson, Carl Gunnarsson, Petteri Lindbohm, Colton Parayko

Goalies: Jake Allen, Pheonix Copley

BLACKHAWKS:

Forwards: Andrew Shaw, Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa, Ryan Garbutt, Artem Anisimov, Patrick Kane, Bryan Bickell, Vincent Hinostroza, Ryan Hartman, Brandon Mashinter, Kyle Baun

Defencemen: Duncan Keith, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Trevor van Riemsdyk, Tanner Kero, Cameron Schilling*

Goaltender: Corey Crawford

*Clearly, this "unofficial list" left off 2 defencemen.
It will make a difference if they are veterans like Seabrook. or players fighting for a spot on Rockford's roster. But, in any case, The prospect-laden Blues' lineup will have to excel against the almost regular season Hawks' lineup.

[ViPeRx007]

Televised preseason? WHAT?

May have to watch this....

[cprice12]

The NHL Network will air this game tape delayed Sunday morning at 5am our time.
This game is also on Y98 FM tonight.

But...I'm sure you can find an illegal stream tonight for the live game.

Sucks we're without a number of our best players for this one and the Hawks have their stars dressed...but we'll see how it goes.

I'm sure it will be the opposite when they come here on the 1st.

[Robb_K]

The NHL Network will air this game tape delayed Sunday morning at 5am our time.
This game is also on Y98 FM tonight.

But...I'm sure you can find an illegal stream tonight for the live game.

Sucks we're without a number of our best players for this one and the Hawks have their stars dressed...but we'll see how it goes.

I'm sure it will be the opposite when they come here on the 1st.

I doubt that The Blues will play all of their projected starters in the home game, They have too many young players to look at, plus Gomez and Upshall. Backes, Brodziak, Bouwmeester and Gunnersson, who will play in this game, will surely not play on The 1st.

Luckily (or unluckily-depending upon how one looks at it), The Blues' young kids might play better than at least 3 of those 4 veterans.

[Robb_K]

Gomez was centering the 1st Line. Rattie and Backes are on.
Rattie passed beautifully to an open Edmundson, who popped it in!

Blues lead 1-0!

[Robb_K]

Blues lead 1-0 at the end of The 1st.

Edmundson, Parayko, Brouwer, Fabbri and Allen have all looked good.

[dern17]

Pretty power play goal!

[Robb_K]

I like the way Brouwer uses the hitting game to make room for himself for initiating offensive plays. That will help on the PP and in the playoffs. With Backes doing that, and Parayko and Edmundson adding that (once they are regulars), The Blues will be a tougher team to play. Yet, with their upcoming younger and faster team, they'll not be big and slow, but big and with at least average, if not a little better than average team speed.

[Robb_K]

And now The Blues get called for another penalty. Allen has played well so far. The young, undermanned Blues are really energised. I like how they're playing so far.

Just as I type this, Hossa scores a PP goal, tying the game up 1-1.

Then, another Blues' defensive breakdown, and a Hawk's shot hits the post. The Blues better settle down.

[Robb_K]

Great play by Fabbri, Backes, Brouwer and Parayko resulted in a nice chance. Excellent save by Crawford.

[Robb_K]

Blues now on the power play! Dirty play Mashinter making a chop block undercutting Parayko.

[Robb_K]

Blues made a good kill off of that penalty.

Rattie had a nice effort taking a clearing pass and driving.

Parayko is looking very good. Edmundson very steady. I'm feeling very good about the future of The Blues' defence.

[Robb_K]

Another good save by Allen on a hard wrister by Hjalmersson.

[Robb_K]

Blues should have scored on that 3 on 1! Nice play by Jaskin on the previous rush. Allen made yet another excellent save.

[Robb_K]

Yet another good stop by Allen. He's looked very sharp tonight. He had absolutely no chance on that screened PP goal.

[Robb_K]

The Blackhawks score on The PP again, Keith beats Allen, who was screened. Blues trail 3-1.

Blues lose 1-3 with a prospect laden team vs. Chicgo's best. Both teams were a bit sloppy. But I was glad to get to see the progress of Edmundson, Parayko, Fabbri, Barbashev, Rattie and Allen.

[Robb_K]

Brouwer scores the OT goal!!!

Great pass by Fabbri had Brouwer wide open. He made no mistake. A lot of posters said that adding another big player like Brouwer would slow this team even more. But he looked nice and fast on that play.

I've really liked what I've seen from Brouwer so far.

[Robb_K]

Bouwmeester was the anchor of the defence, without Pietrangelo and Shattenkirk. I'm happy to see him skating well again like his pre-injury days. Both Fabbri and Rattie played better than in their previous 2 games. Jaškin looked good again. This should be his breakout season. With his new speed and smooth skating and his accelerated "beastiness", he's going to help this team a lot.

Edmundson and Parayko really impressed me. Brouwer had some rust problems, and had some calls against him, but he scored a goal, and made some nice hits that helped get space that ultimately created scoring chances, and he set screens on the pp. I think he will help this team. Allen looked good. All 3 goals were screened, and on 2 of the 3 he really had no chance. The 3rd would have been a super save by the very best goalies (he had very little chance).

[glen a richter]

It sounds a lot like Edmundson is making a pretty strong push for some role at the NHL level. I know the conventional wisdom is that Gunnar (and maybe Bouw) won't be traded until the deadline, if they're traded at all, but let's be honest for a moment... if you could trade one (or both) for a boost on offense and have Edmundson (at least) and maybe Parayko also, how could you not?

Figure Bouw stays because he can't be worse than last season, and as ECBM pointed out, the dude is at a nadir and you won't get shit for him at this point, but Gunnar most of us could live without.


Pie, Shatty, Bouw, Lindbohm, Edmundson (or Parayko), Borts top 6 doesn't look half bad to me.