{"id":395659,"date":"2026-01-07T14:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/395659\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T14:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:30:10","slug":"blues-and-hawks-for-a-classic-central-division-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/395659\/","title":{"rendered":"Blues and Hawks for a Classic Central Division Matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to another NHL Predictions here at Last Word On Hockey! Everyday, we provide analysis, insights, and predictions for every NHL game. Tonight, the St. Louis Blues<\/a> embark on a quick three game road trip with a stop in against the Chicago Blackhawks<\/a> against their most historic rival.<\/p>\n

NHL Predictions: St. Louis Blues vs. Chicago Blackhawks<\/p>\n

Time: 9:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)<\/p>\n

How to Watch<\/a> TV: TNT, truTV, HBO MAX<\/p>\n

2025-2026 Season Series: 1-1-0<\/p>\n

On December 31st 2024, the Chicago Blackhawks hosted the St. Louis Blues at Wrigley Field which resulted in a humiliating 6-2 defeat. Now just over a year later, they host the Blues again, but this time indoors and with a huge two points up for grabs.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

To be fair, the two teams have met twice this season, both times in St. Louis. Chicago had revenge on their mind and reignited this age-old rivalry with a whopping 8-2 victory in October. A much closer game ensued in December, where the Blues were 3-2 victors. This also happens to be the game in which Connor Bedard<\/a> sustained his shoulder injury<\/a>. In the 11 games that Bedard has missed, Chicago has struggled. Not including that loss to St. Louis, the Blackhawks dropped seven of eight. The turn of the new year has been better for Chicago. They enter tonight as winners of three straight and with points in five of their last six games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2026 is already looking like a better year for the Blues. With only two games played, the Blues have secured four critical points to keep pace in the wild Western Conference playoff picture. The Blues are just three points from a Wildcard position with the Blackhawks one behind them. By the time the final whistle blows tonight, there could be as many as five teams tied for the final two playoff spots in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

New Year, New Blues<\/p>\n

The Blues have 14 games remaining before the Olympic Break. Just a few weeks ago, trade speculation ran amok around the entire league about which Blues players would end up where. Through all that trial and turmoil, the team played\u2026mediocre enough to continue lurking around the two wild card spots out west. Let\u2019s all be honest for a moment as well. Nobody is going to catch Colorado, Dallas, or probably even Minnesota at this point. <\/p>\n

St. Louis proved in 2019 that it doesn\u2019t matter where you were in the standings during the first part of the year; it\u2019s just about getting into the playoffs. This three game swing that the Blues are starting feels incredibly important to the trajectory of the season. Three games against teams that are within arms reach in the standings. If they continue fine tuning the details of their game, just like coach Montgomery has asked<\/a> of them going into the new year, they could be right in the thick of the race when we return from break. <\/p>\n

This resurgence of team camaraderie for the Blues has been generated by their fourth line. Specifically, Alexey Toropchenko<\/a>. Toropchenko has a goal and two helpers, all while giving a fantastic postgame interview<\/a> for everyone in St. Louis.<\/p>\n

Revenge Match<\/p>\n

Every player in the locker room of the Blackhawks knows it was Brayden Schenn<\/a> that got tangled up with Bedard on a faceoff late in the game in December. Bedard hasn\u2019t played since that shift, and the teams haven\u2019t met since that time.<\/p>\n

Years ago, the gloves and sticks would go flying at the sight of the team across the ice. Even with the Winter Classic last year between these two, the fire and the animosity just hasn\u2019t felt like it\u2019s there. Maybe it\u2019s the Bedard injury that\u2019s going to light that spark. <\/p>\n

Lately, Chicago has been grinding out these last three victories of theirs. All by one goal with two coming in OT or a shootout. At this point in the season, a win is a win. Chicago has a chance to leapfrog St. Louis in the standings and push the Blues farther down towards the draft lottery. Maybe that\u2019s the spark that the St. Louis market needs to reignite the hate. While unlikely to meet in the playoffs this year, it is a good possibility that one of these teams keeps the other from the post season\u2026 <\/p>\n

Prediction:<\/p>\n

Some fans would argue that the last great Blues \u2018superstar\u2019 was Brett Hull<\/a>. Sure the likes of Vladimir Tarasenko<\/a> and Jordan Kyrou<\/a> have worn the note, but neither have come close to the production the Hull provided. The wins and the points seem to always come from the depth. The third and fourth line players that score massive, franchise changing goals (Pat Maroon<\/a>, 2019 Second Round Game 7)\u2026 Mathieu Joseph<\/a>, rookie Otto Stenberg<\/a>, and waiver pick-up Jonatan Berggren<\/a> have fit that role well for the Blues of late and are the exact type of grit one might want in a rivalry game. <\/p>\n

With all that said, St. Louis has struggled with giving up goals early into periods (and games specifically) all year long. This is something that the Blackhawks can capitalize on quickly, especially if the home crowd is energized. Tyler Bertuzzi<\/a> is coming off of a hat trick against the Vegas Golden Nights with multiple assists from Andre Burakovsky<\/a>. Both of these players have no reason to slow down tonight\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prediction: St. Louis wins 4-3 (OT).<\/p>\n

Prop Bets:<\/p>\n

The books have a current over\/under of 5.5 goals scored in the game. Since we are taking the Blues with a 4-3 Overtime win, we are taking the over at -110. Blackhawks forward Tyler Bertuzzi<\/a> is a +200 to score over 0.5 goals, so we will take that. For St. Louis, we are going to reach a bit. We\u2019re going to take the new Swedish Olympian Philip Broberg to score more than 0.5 goals at +1100!<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Please play responsibly, check for your local rules and age restrictions; some jurisdictions require ages 21+. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome back to another NHL Predictions here at Last Word On Hockey! Everyday, we provide analysis, insights, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5120],"tags":[71,30639,5,4,534,84,33535,5285,5284],"class_list":{"0":"post-395659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-blues","8":"tag-blues","9":"tag-chicago-blackhawks-predictions","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-st-louis","13":"tag-st-louis-blues","14":"tag-st-louis-blues-predictions","15":"tag-stlouis","16":"tag-stlouisblues"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115854307761018136","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}