Watch St. Louis Blues vs Chicago Blackhawks game six this afternoon at 3 P.M. Eastern Standard Time. That’s 2 P.M. for fans watching in Missouri or Illinois. Tonight’s Blackhawks vs Blues promises more of the same chippy, grinding hockey we’ve seen throughout the Blues vs Blackhawks series.
It wasn’t long ago when the St. Louis Blues looked like they were going to skate away with this series and not look back. They were up two games to none and most of us had them penciled in to send the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks packing on their way to play Montreal Canadiens in round two. That was then. That was before games three and four – and especially before game five.
When the series moved to the Blackhawk’s home crowd, Chicago caught fire. They’ve won three straight, even without the services of resident tough guy Brent Seabrook, who was suspended for three games for his dirty hit on David Backes, the Blues’ captain. Of course, it could be argued that the Blackhawks didn’t miss Seabrook nearly as much as the Blues missed their 57-point scoring center iceman.
Backes came back for game five, but it wasn’t enough to lift the Blues over the Blackhawks. The game went into overtime appeared posed to make for a long night until the Blackhawks’ Jonathan Toews skated half the length of the ice on a breakaway and put one into the back of the Blues’ net in the overtime period. The Hawks get Seabrook back for today’s game, giving them that much more oomph as they seek to build on the momentum they’ve built over the last three games. An AP report quotes Blackhawks’ defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson saying this regarding Seabrook’s return to the lineup:
“Seabs is one of the steadiest D-men, I think, in this league and pretty underrated too. What he brings to our team every night is huge.”
For their part, the St. Louis Blues – who have such a long history of blowing series leads in the playoffs that the subject is almost passé – realize that their playoff life is in jeopardy. One more loss and they get the razors out and cut off the playoff beards. Blues coach Ken Hitchcock had this to say about it:
“There was so much shaking of the head coming to the bench, all the chances we had, I saw it get into our head. I don’t think that’s the case. I think we’ve just got to play.”
Will the Blues live to fight another day or will Chicago finish off the Blackhawks vs Blues series this afternoon? Don’t miss any of the action – you can watch the Blues vs Blackhawks game 6 streaming online live here .
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