Chicago Blackhawks: Lots to build on from Blues exhibition

The Chicago Blackhawks played in their one exhibition game against the St. Louis Blues last night.

The Chicago Blackhawks finally got back into action on Wednesday night. It was a decent test against the St. Louis Blues. They are in the round-robin portion of the return to play so they aren’t in life or death mode yet and the Blackhawks absolutely needed to play well. That fact might have an impact on the game but it doesn’t matter. The Blackhawks came out and looked good in their only tune-up before they get going vs the Edmonton Oilers.

The line of Brandon Saad–Jonathan Toews–Dominik Kubalik was very good for Chicago. They are three big bodies ready to go and be impactful against a very quick and skilled Oilers team. They created the first goal of the game for either team in the second period and it was a thing of beauty. The hard work and battle of this line need to be there for the Hawks.

The Blackhawks were very bad in 2019-20 on the power play. They were one of the worst units in the league. At 15.2 percent, they ranked 28th in the league, and only Detroit Red Wings, Anaheim Ducks, and Ottawa Senators were worse. Well, they scored two power-play goals in this one against the Blues.

The Blackhawks didn’t have a bad power play because they don’t have good players. They had a bad power play because they didn’t use the right players in the right spot. For some reason, in 2019-20 Jeremy Colliton didn’t use Dominik Kubalik on the power play with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. Add Kirby Dach (who looks like a man now) to the net mouth, and you have yourself a pretty good power play. This unit scored twice and they need more against the Oilers if they want a chance to win.

Corey Crawford played half the game and was good. He wasn’t as tested as he is going to be once they have the Oilers on the other side but it was good to see him in the net and playing well. It can’t be overstated how important the goalies are to each side’s chances of winning the series.

There is a lot of work to be done but this was a good start. The Blues, despite the fact that this game meant way less to them than it did the Hawks, are a good team and the Hawks were able to capitalize. Some people don’t like Chicago’s chances vs Edmonton but this game could be an indicator of them pulling an upset. You can’t take stock in preseason, post-pause, pre-playoff, practice game against their bitter rival but you can be happy with the way a lot of people played.