The Chicago Blackhawks are back in the windy (and very cold) city tonight for their home opener against the St. Louis Blues.  Both teams will drop the puck with a 2 – 0 – 0 record.

Heavy division play in this condensed season means these two teams are going to see a lot of each other, this being the first of five STL/CHI match-ups over the next three months.

CHI/STL 2011-2012:  

Chicago has already bested the defending champion LA Kings and playoff rival Phoenix Coyotes, while St, Louis has made a run at the Central division, shutting out Detroit 6-0 and topping Nashville in the shootout 4-3.  Tonight could be an early confirmation of the much predicted Blues conference dominance this season.

Eyes are on Marian Hossa this evening, hoping he can keep pace with his 2 goals per game, that has him ranked just above St. Louis’ Vladimir Terasenko who has tallied 3 goals for the Blues.

The Blackhawks are rolling four lines deep, both Crawford and Emery have had equal success in goal, and tonight could be the night to prove that Chicago is just as powerful a contender for the cup as the favorited Blues.  We’ve shown we can take on the champions, we’ve taken a win from the team that took out our Hoss, and we can take the division too.

The puck drops at 7:30pm CT on Comcast Sports Net Chicago.

Injury Report: The Blues are at full strength.  The Blackhawks will be short Dan Carcillo, who left Saturday’s game with a lower body injury.  Carcillo is expected to be out a month and has been replaced on the top line with Brendan Saad.