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2/6, GDT: Blues vs. Red Wings - Redden turns 1000

February 7, 2013, 4:02 PM ET [39 Comments]
Chip McCleary
St Louis Blues Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
TONIGHT'S GAME

Detroit (4-4-1, 9 points – 11th, Western Conference) at St. Louis (6-3-0, 12 points – 5th, Western Conference)
Game Time: 7:00pm Central
Scottrade Center, St. Louis, MO


***

TALE OF THE TAPE

Season series: series tied 1-1-0
-- January 19, at St. Louis: St. Louis 6, Detroit 0
-- February 1, at Detroit: Detroit 5, St. Louis 3

Goals scored per game: Blues 3rd (3.44 GPG), Red Wings T-18th (2.44 GPG)

Goals allowed per game: Blues T-18th (2.78 GPG), Red Wings 24th (3.11 GPG)

Shots per game: Blues T-6th (31.3 SPG), Red Wings 9th (30.1 SPG)

Shots allowed per game: Blues 1st (21.3 SPG), Red Wings 13th (28.6 SPG)

Shooting percentage: Blues 5th (11.0%), Red Wings 24th (8.1%)

Save percentage: Blues 29th (.870 SV%), Red Wings 23rd (.891 SV%)

Power Play: Blues 1st (12-for-36, 33.3%, 1 SHGA-EN), Red Wings 26th (6-for-49, 12.2%, 2 SHGA)

Penalty Kill: Blues T-24th (28-for-38, 73.2%, 1 SHG), Red Wings 28th (30-for-43, 69.2%, 1 SHG)


***

PROJECTED BLUES LINES

FORWARDS
Perron – Backes – Oshie
McDonald – Steen – Stewart
Schwartz – Berglund – Tarasenko
Sobotka – Nichol – Reaves

DEFENSE
Redden – Pietrangelo
Jackman – Shattenkirk
Russell – Polak

GOALIES
Elliott
Allen

Scratches: Cole, Langenbrunner, D’Agostini.
Injuries: Halak (groin, IR)

Langebrunner will go back to the press box – and that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who watched Tuesday night. Schwartz will be back in. Reaves will also be back in to counter Tootoo, which means D’Agostini is out. Elliott will get the start again, and will need to rebound from a(nother) poor performance - and with the Red Wings in town, getting 2 points will be even more critical tonight.

***

FROM THE OTHER BENCH

FORWARDS
Franzen – Zetterberg – Brunner
Filppula – Datsyuk – Bertuzzi
Cleary – Abdelkader – Tatar
Miller – Emmerton – Tootoo

DEFENSE
Kronwall – Lashoff
Quincey – Ericsson
Kindl – White

GOALIES
Mrazek
Howard

Scratches: Huskins, Eaves, Gustafsson
Injuries: Colaiacovo (dislocated shoulder, IR); Mursak (collarbone, IR); B. Smith (shoulder, IR); Samuelsson (groin, IR); Helm (back, IR).

The Red Wings will give Petr Mrazek his first NHL start. A 5th round pick in the 2010 draft, Mrazek was 16-7-1 with a 2.26 GAA at Grand Rapids before getting the call-up in place of Jonas Gustafsson, who is out with a pulled groin. Mrazek was promoted while 2007 1st-round pick Thomas McCollum was assigned back to Grand Rapids; the fact that Mrazek is getting the start tonight probably says a lot about the ongoing struggles that McCollum has had.

***

LAST GAME

-- Some group of players dressed in Blues uniforms showed up Tuesday night and got waxed by Nashville 6-1 at Scottrade. Alex Pietrangelo had the lone goal for the Blues on the PP, as Brian Elliott gave up 4 goals on 11 shots before giving way to rookie Jake Allen, who surrendered a goal on the first NHL shot he faced and later gave up another goal on 8 shots total.

-- The Red Wings fell back to .500 on the season with a 4-1 loss to Calgary at Joe Louis Arena. Johan Franzen picked up the only Detroit goal on the PP, but Jimmy Howard stopped only 19 of 23 Calgary shots in defeat.

***

PREVIEW

-- Needless to say, Blues fans will be looking for payback after the defeat in Detroit. Throw on the fact that captain David Backes was given a bogus match penalty that led to a Red Wings PP goal to put them up 4-3, and the Blues getting waxed 2 nights ago, and you have what starts to look like a “must win” game for the Blues.
-- Did you hear that Wade Redden plays in his 1000th NHL game tonight? Not sure if anyone else has mentioned it or not. He becomes the 280th member of the 1000-game club. The last player to register his 1000th NHL game while a member of the Blues: Keith Tkachuk, on December 1, 2007.
-- One thing the Blues need to do tonight: stay out of the penalty box. They’ve spent 6:38 more on the PK than the PP, and their inability to effectively defend down low has resulted in a PK that has been generous to opposing teams – even if they’ve been in a slump (Nashville was 0-for-17 before getting a pair of goals on the PP).
-- That said, while Detroit has spent 18:49 more on the PP they’re also very inefficient with the man-advantage; they score a PP goal every 14:02 this season. It’s only that good because of a pair of goals 5-on-3; in “normal” PP time, the Red Wings are 4-for-44.
-- On the flip side, when Detroit has had to kill penalties this year they’ve been terrible at it. With a Blues PP that scores every 4:52 (tops in the league), they also can’t afford to spend time in the penalty box.
-- The Red Wings scoring has been concentrated among 6 players: Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Franzen, Kronwall, Brunner, and Filppula. The entire rest of the Red Wings roster is a combined 5-6-11.
-- Detroit has only been outshot in one game this year: that was the season opener, when the Blues blitzed them 36-14.
-- Coincidentally, the Blues have only been outshot in one game this year; the game 5 days ago, when the Red Wings outshot them 31-26.


***

Coming tonight: a recap of the game, and a brief look ahead to Saturday’s game vs. a red-hot Anaheim squad.

GO BLUES!
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