Blues, Blackhawks get playoffs started early

Possible opponents in the first round, Central Division rivals the Blues and Blackhawks met at United Center with home ice at stake.

Jeremy Layton | Apr 8, 2016

Blues, Blackhawks get playoffs started early /

CHICAGO — The Blues and Blackhawks knew that Thursday night’s showdown was a likely preview of their meeting in the upcoming Stanley Cup playoffs. With just two games remaining in the regular season, St. Louis needed a win or overtime loss to secure home ice in the potential first-round series, whereas a win by Chicago in regulation would pull the Hawks within a point of their rival in the standings and give them a chance to open at home. Each team still had a shot to pass the Dallas Stars atop the Central Division, but the odds favor a St. Louis vs. Chicago first round battle in some form.

“We’ve planned accordingly, and we will try to win today’s game with that in mind,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said before the game.

As there so often is in early April, a playoff atmosphere engulfed Chicago's United Center as the game offered a thrilling and intense matchup between frenetic offense (17 goals in three previous games for Chicago) and elite goaltending (three shutouts in six games for the Blues’ Brian Elliott). Something had to give as each team traded shots and hits until the final whistle.

Both Elliott and Chicago's Scott Darling were terrific, stopping 24 and 33 shots, respectively with Elliott thwarting Andrew Ladd on a penalty shot with 4:48 to go in the third period and the Blackhawks leading 1-0. Each team killed two penalties, with Chicago extending its run of perfection to 19 for 19 on the PK in its past seven games. And in keeping with the teams' black and blue tradition, St. Louis's Ryan Reaves and Chicago's Brandon Mashinter exchanged blows, resulting in two fighting penalties and a five-minute 4-on-4 in the second.

Ranking the NHL's Best Rivalries

Ranking the NHL's 10 Best Rivalries

10. Oilers vs. Flames

The 35-year-long Battle of Alberta typically brings out the best in both sides. And even as both sides are in the midst of long rebuilds, this rivalry is on the verge of returning to its past glories. The arrival of exciting young talent like Edmonton's Connor McDavid and Calgary's Sam Bennett, former linemates as kids growing up in Toronto, might even escalate it to the levels of Gretzky and Fuhr vs. Fleury and Vernon.

9. Canadiens vs. Maple Leafs

The granddaddy of all NHL rivalries never goes out of style. While today's meetings lack the frisson of the good ol' days when the Rocket was up against Tim Horton or Wendel battled Big Bird, there's still something magical about the Leafs and the Habs on a Saturday night. “You know what it means,” said Montreal's P.K. Subban. “You never want to lose to those guys. Ever.”

8. Kings vs. Sharks

It might not boast the history of other rivalries on this list but this one has grown quickly, nourished by the traditional NoCal/SoCal hate and three playoff battles in four years, including San Jose's epic seven-game meltdown in 2014. Both sides like to play it heavy, so tensions tend to rise rapidly when these two get together.

7. Blackhawks vs. Blues

It might not match the fever pitch of the early '90s when brawls like the St. Patrick's Day Massacre often occurred, but this rivalry that was born and bred in the old Norris Division has taken on new, delicious urgency. Both sides can play it any way you want, and that ability to dominate with skill or physical presence makes for a thrilling head-to-head matchup. It says something that Hawks captain Jonathan Toews has been in just four fights in the past five seasons, and two of them have been against his Blues counterpart, David Backes.

6. Ducks vs. Kings

Two teams that share a market, a heavy style of play and the ability to win it all. No wonder they don't like each other. As the two SoCal teams have established themselves among the NHL's best, the Freeway Face-off has become one of the top rivalries in the game. The Ducks have dominated in the regular season, winning 11 of the past 14 games, but the Kings claimed their only playoff meeting, a bruising seven-game set that paved the way to their 2014 Cup. It seems inevitable that they'll meet up again this spring.

5. Blackhawks vs. Kings

“I wouldn’t say it’s a rivalry in terms of bitter,” Kings coach Darryl Sutter said of his team's unique connection with the Hawks. “It’s a rivalry because of respect.” That mutual admiration is understandable. The two Western foes have combined to claim five of the past six Stanley Cups, with two of those journeys seeing one team take out the other along the way. The epic seven-game tilt won by the Kings in 2014 might have been the finest and most intense playoff series in two decades.

4. Bruins vs. Canadiens

No rivalry in NHL history has provided more signature moments—think “too many men,” Ken Dryden's debut or Glen Wesley's comeback clincher in 1989—than Boston-Montreal. Among the more recent: the devastating hit that Zdeno Chara laid on Max Pacioretty back in 2012 that led to 911 calls in Montreal and a plea for criminal charges to be filed against the Bruins captain. Both sides can have fun with it as well, though. Chara and Pacioretty both were used to taunt opposing fans in McDonald's commercials during the past year.

3. Capitals vs. Penguins

For years, this rivalry has been viewed as a referendum on the superiority of the game's two brightest stars, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. That head-to-head battle produced one of the greatest playoff moments in recent memory: the dual hat trick game that opened the 2009 Eastern semi-final. Now, though, it takes on broader importance as both sides see the other as the roadblock that stands between them and a berth in the 2016 Stanley Cup Final.

2. Islanders vs. Rangers

Even as it loses the suburb-city dynamic that powered it for nearly nearly half a century, the rivalry between New York's two teams shows no signs of diminishing. “I think there’s genuinely some hatred between the two teams,” Isles forward Cal Clutterbuck said earlier this season. “It's never just another game when they're in the building,” said Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist. The hostility that defines their regular-season battles makes it easy to forget they haven't met in the playoffs in more than two decades.

1. Flyers vs. Penguins

It's more than just in-state convenience that's fanned the flames of hatred between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It's the head-to-head showdown between two of the best players in the game. There's a genuine animosity that exists between Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux, one that was fully realized in the opening shift of Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern quarter-Final when the Flyers captain destroyed Crosby five seconds in and then gave Philly a 1-0 lead with a post-in snipe 27 seconds later. “I don't like him, and he doesn't like me,” Crosby said later, keeping the fires burning.

It wasn’t until 12:40 into the second period that Jonathan Toews finally broke the scoreless tie, converting a pass from Patrick Kane by sending it past Elliott’s left kneepad. It seemed the Hawks would walk away with a 1-0 win, but Vladimir Tarasenko beat Darling for the equalizer with just over a minute left in regulation. Then, with 1:23 left in overtime, Tarasenko scored his second goal of the game and 39th of the season to seal the Blues' 2-1 victory.

St. Louis has now won eight of its past nine, and continues to play excellent hockey down the stretch despite injuries to captain David Backes, goalie Jake Allen and forwards Robby Fabbri and Steve Ott. They remain tied with the Stars atop the division and can claim the Central outright if they get past Washington on Saturday, although Dallas owns the tiebreaker and must also lose to squander the title. No matter what, the Blues are guaranteed home ice for their first-round playoff series, and if they win the division, they will face Minnesota instead of Chicago, a considerable break given St. Louis's history of postseason disappointment and the ability of the defending Cup champions to elevate their play in the tournament.

The Blues have started a first round series at home in each of the past two years and lost both, once at the hands of the Blackhawks. It’s almost enough to question whether home ice is truly an advantage for this team. But St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock insisted that it is, and refuted the claim that the Blues don’t really need it.

“That’s what every coach says when he doesn’t have it,” he said. “You downplay it, but it might be the little advantage you need. I just think home ice validates all the work you put in, and you want to have it.”

Ducks, Stars, Blues facing crucial goaltending decisions

As for the Blackhawks, they are now five points out of the division lead and guaranteed to play Game 1 of the first round in either St. Louis or Dallas. But they’ve still won five of their last seven, certainly an improvement over the 6-9-3 stretch they endured prior to it. It’s true that they haven’t beaten a Western Conference playoff team since their victory over the Stars on February 6, but they’ve also dealt with injuries and roster turnover, and Quenneville was still pleased with the way his team played in a close game.

“We’re missing five guys right now, in a game where I thought we played pretty good,” Quenneville said. “I thought we did some good things in a lot of ways, a lot of areas.”

The Hawks played without starting goalie Corey Crawford and forwards ArtemAnisimov, Marian Hossa and Andrew Shaw. Defenseman Duncan Keith is still suspended. But there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic. Darling has played well in Crawford’s absence. Toews is looking like himself again, with a goal in each of his last three games. Patrick Kane and ArtemiPanarin are playing at a cheat code level, now having 19 combined points in their past four games. The Breadman has played especially well of late, so well that Kane, who has a Calder Trophy on resumé, laughed off comparisons between their rookie seasons.

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“His is far and away better than mine,” Kane said. “He’s come into this league and been an impact player right away, and has a presence on the ice every time he’s out there … he’s probably way more of a threat than I was during my first season in the league.”

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Injuries will be a factor for both of these teams going forward. St. Louis is just as banged up as Chicago; they’ll be without Backes and Allen for the remainder of the regular season, and they’re still waiting for Fabbri to return. Luckily, Elliott is playing like the best goaltender in the league right now, and they won’t need Allen if Elliott stays healthy. The veteran showed again on Thursday night that he can singlehandedly win a game against a potent offense, which is a recipe for success in the playoffs.

The field is not yet set, but if Dallas can put Nashville away on Saturday, these two teams will be back at it next week at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. If Thursday’s game is any indicator, the hockey world will be in for a treat.

Published Apr 8, 2016

JEREMY LAYTON