The Chicago Blackhawks have had an up-and-down season; Ray Emery has had a similarly chaotic career. Both of them have found a good time to be on the upswing. Emery has taken over in net for Corey Crawford, who has also had a roller-coaster season between the pipes. The youngster is now looking on from the bench as Emery and the Hawks have won their last three games. This is old stuff for No. 30. Emery knew the highs when he set the record for most wins at the start of a career (nine) and led the Ottawa Senators to the Stanley Cup final. He’s known the lows, when no team in the league would take a chance on his mercurial personality and he found himself playing for Atlant Moscow of the KHL in 2008-09. Now he’s riding another crest of a wave, backstopping the Hawks to wins against Toronto, Ottawa and Detroit on their current road trip. They’ve done it without captain Jonathan Toews, who has missed the last seven games with a concussion and will not play in St. Louis. They’ll need all guns firing, because the Blues dominate at the ScottTrade Center. Their 26-4-4 record there ranks them second in the NHL to Detroit, and their 41-18-7 overall mark and 89 points put them just behind Vancouver in the Western Conference and third overall in the league. Moreover, the Blues have just come back from a six-game road jaunt where they took 10 of 12 points, sweeping their season series with San Jose and losing only to the Canucks. They’re 10 points up on Chicago, but even so the NHL betting line has this as a close game. No wonder: Emery has never lost to the Blues, going 3-0-0 with a 1.30 goals-against average against them. Jaroslav Halak is expected to get the start in goal for St. Louis: he has won his last five starts, all on the road, and has also gone a perfect 2-0-0 against Chicago in his career with a 1.63 GAA. These are two teams who are both confident going into this matchup, and whichever squad can manage to seize the momentum early will have a great shot at skating away with a victory. Given their relative positions in the standings, this could also be a first-round playoff preview, and it could play out that way on the ice Tuesday night, too.
Joe LaTengo
Joe LaTengo