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It’s NHL Winter Classic time! Get set for one of the most exhilarating regular-season games in an outdoor hockey environment at Wrigley Field, Chicago, as the St. Louis Blues take on the Chicago Blackhawks. Both teams have a lot to prove with the hope of climbing the ladder in the division. The Blues have the upper hand in points, but the Blackhawks will play this one at home, so get ready as we dissect the upcoming highly anticipated NHL Winter Classic picks with the game taking place on Tuesday, December 31.
The Blackhawks are the last-place team in the Western Conference and will look to turn their luck around in what has been a completely horrendous 2024 season. The Blackhawks haven’t emerged victorious from a match in their last four with their last win on December 19 against the Seattle Kraken. Since then, they have lost 6-4 to the Calgary Flames, 4-3 to the Minnesota Wild, 6-2 to the Buffalo Sabres and most recently 5-1 against the Dallas Stars. Even the San Jose Sharks (39 games played) in the Pacific Division on a seven-game losing streak have more points (28) than the struggling Blackhawks (26). While Chicago can still turn it around and pull away from last place this season, their -29 goal differential tells a different story. However, they will have defenseman Seth Jones returning to the ice for this one after missing 16 games.
Apart from a horrendously forgettable season by the Chicago Blackhawks, the St. Louis Blues haven’t had the easiest time either. In their last 10 games, they have gone 4-4-2, which is nothing to boast about. Since December 19, the Blues have emerged victorious only twice out of five games, which were 4-0 against the Red Wings on December 23 and 7-4 against the Predators on December 27. In that period they lost to the Lightning 3-1, the Panthers 2-1 and most recently the Sabres 4-2 on December 29.
The only hold the Blues have over the Blackhawks is a 12-point lead. They do however, have a much better (yet still poor) goal differential of -15, although it doesn’t help to have injured Nick Leddy and Torey Krug out of commission for several weeks now, along with a tentative Radek Taksa who may be included in this upcoming game. There still is more hope for the Blues though, as players like Jordan Kyrou sit at 15 goals and will look to add to the tally.
It’s a tough matchup to consider a clear winner, with the Blackhawks playing in a home environment after having a forgettable season and the Blues also struggling to pull away from the bottom of the ladder. However, there are two things to consider in this game.
The first is that if Chicago fails to win this game, they lose virtually any realistic chance of making it out of last place in the Western Conference. The second thing to consider is that while St. Louis is also struggling on defense, they do have a reliable goalscorer in Jordan Kyrou to help them pull away on the scoreboard. Kyrou has been solid this season and should find a way to break through the Blackhawks’ poor defense.
Liam has been a major sports fan and soccer player for over a decade, with a particular focus on major top-level soccer leagues, including the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and MLS. He has written numerous promotional articles for various top sportsbooks and continues to publish historical and factual sports articles covering the NFL, MLS, NHL, MLB, EPL and more.