Boston's road trip went backwards. Before St. Louis, the Bruins were 9-3-1, ranked 4th in the league in goals per game and 2nd in goals against, and led the Atlantic by 3 points. Then they lost 2-1 in Carolina and 4-1 to a Blues team that had been shut out in back-to-back games. Marco Sturm also changed his defense for that game: Connor Clifton came back after a 19-game absence and joined Mason Lohrei on the third pair, and Frederic Brunet was scratched for what Sturm called a reset.
The schedule is even. Both teams played Thursday night on the road, so Chicago comes in from Detroit and Boston from St. Louis, each with a day off before an early Saturday start. Neither team has a rest edge, and an early puck drop on a short turnaround tends to reward the deeper lineup. Boston is the deeper lineup. Jeremy Swayman was 7-2-1 with a .921 save percentage going into St. Louis, but Boston hasn't named a starter for Saturday and could go either way on the quick turnaround.
The real question is whether Boston's last 2 games were a slump or just 2 bad nights. For most of October the Bruins scored plenty and kept goals out, and Chicago's defense without Byram is an easy place to get back on track. If the Bruins keep missing chances, though, the Blackhawks are a team that wins by staying close, holding it to 1 or 2 goals and letting Bedard decide it late.
There's nothing on the board for this one yet. What's on the ice: an Atlantic leader that has gone quiet on offense, against a 4-9 team built almost entirely around one player. Watch how Boston handles Bedard. If he's held in check, it's hard to find where else Chicago scores.