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Game 2: Panthers @ Blues + Pick the Goal Scorer (Updated)

October 5, 2013, 11:38 AM ET [13 Comments]
Jeff Quirin
St Louis Blues Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
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For the first time in a long time, since March 2012, the St. Louis Blues square off against an Eastern Conference opponent for a regular season matchup. They welcome the Florida Panthers to the Scottrade Center Saturday night.

Fresh off a strong opening night performance and a 4-2 victory against another Bible Belt team, the Nashville Predators, the Blues are not facing a club with a similar composition though their locations are within the same region.

The Panthers have a polarized mix of young talent and well traveled veterans.

Highlighting the youthful end of their lineup are three lottery picks, Erik Gudbranson (3rd overall, 2010), Jonathan Huberdeau (3rd overall, 2011),and Alexsander Barkov (2nd overall, 2013). Joining them are a pair of 22 year olds. Up front is Drew Shore (44th overall, 2009), a WCHA scoring star at the University of Denver, and in the back is Dmitry Kulikov (14th overall, 2009).

At the opposite end of the spectrum are the likes of Ed Jovanovski (though he is currently on IR), Brian Campbell, and Scott Gomez. All 33+ years of age and spending time with more than just two franchises.

Three former Blues players also wear the red for Panthers head coach Kevin Dineen. Defnseman Mike Weaver, best known for his penalty kill proficiency in the Andy Murray era, and forward Brad Boyes, best known for a dramatic drop in goal scoring due to "his stick". Ryan Whitney, a defenseman who was with this note this preseason on a PTO, signed in Florida after not making past Ken Hitchcock's final cut.

The Blues' head coach elaborated slightly on the key aspects of this contest in particular.

“I know Dallas is fast but they got outskated (by Florida) and that was really surprising to me. Then when you look at the (Panthers’) personnel and the way they’ve built their team, their forwards are quick. They transition the puck really quickly and they’ve got speed. Controlling their speed is going to be the challenge for us.”


Hitch should know all about the problems presented by speed in legs and through the puck as his system is built around it.

Nashville was able to get sustained pressure off of an effective forecheck that started off forcing the Blues defensemen to turn and chase the puck. While the Predators are far from slow up front, they don't possess the skating and transition ability, at least on paper, that the Panthers bring.

The key to counter for St. Louis will be possession and puck management. Florida is not known to be a very good team on the draw. They won just 45.8% of draws in their opener against Dallas and finished 20th overall last season winning only 49.4% of draws. Another night strong in the circle should reduce the effectiveness of the Panthers speed.

Jaroslav Halak gets the start in goal for the Blues. He stopped 28 of 30 shots in the win over Nashville. For his career against the Panthers he is 7-1-0 with a 1.86 GAA, .940 save %, and 1 shutout.

Tim thomas is the starter for Florida. He stopped 25 of 27 Dallas shots in his regular season debut. Against the Blues Thomas is 1-1-2 with a 2.66 GAA and has a .913 save %.

Injury FYIs

At the end of game Thursday Alex Steen took a stick up high from Preds defenseman Victor Bartley. It resulted in a 4 minute double minor with about 3 minutes and change left. It efectively ended the game. It also caused Steen to miss practice Friday, due to a dentist visit, but is expected to play Saturday.

On IR for Florida is their captain, Jovanovski, and young power forward Nick Bjugstad.

Projected Lineup

Steen - Backes - Oshie
Morrow - Roy - Stewart
Schwartz - Berglund - Tarasenko

Bouwmeester - Pietrangelo
Leopold - Shattenkirk
Jackman - Polak


Hitch's Pregame Talk

Lots of good info from Hitch about personnel management going forward. Specifically on the Halak/Elliott tandem, Shattenkirk, and Morrow.




Pick the Goal Scorer

The Pick the Goal Scorer contest is back!

The concept is pretty straight forward. Add a comment to this post of who you think will score the first goal for the Blues. Correct guesses will be tallied up and at the end of the season the person(s) with the most correct guesses will get a Blues themed prize.


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Additional Reading

Recapping the Blues 4-2 win over Nashville + Must See Play of the Game

Protesting the Blues...?

Litter Box Cats: Get to know the Panthers a little better before the game.

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