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Blues vs Predators game day preview |
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Breaking news in the late morning – reports are that the Blues have signed Martin Havlat to a two way contract and sent Ty Rattie back to Chicago in the AHL. Not sure how this works with the max number of contracts as there reports that the Blues already had the maximum number before the signing. Perhaps LTIR also gives relief on this temporarily? I didn’t have time to research the matter today but it may be important to consider in case another move is forced by this.
The Blues look to build on their crazy comeback win in Chicago as they travel to Bridgestone Arena on Saturday to take on the Nashville Predators, hoping to hand them their first home regulation loss.
Last season the Predators won 3 of the 5 games between the two teams while the Blues took all 5 games two years ago. Presumably, the Predators turnaround was due to the emergence of Filip Forsberg who has 4 goals and 4 assists in 6 games against the Blues. Mike Ribiero and James Neal have also enjoyed success combining for 18 goals and 26 assists in 53 games. Pekka Rinne has been strong in net with a 2.14 GAA and a 92.5% save percentage against the Blues.
For the Blues, Vladimir Tarasenko will look to build on his OT game winning goal against Chicago and continue his success against the Predators (7 goals 8 assists in 14 games). David Backes wants to continue his recent scoring ways by adding to his 10 goals and 22 assists in 49 games. Jake Allen will get the start even though he has struggled against the Predators posting a 3.32 GAA and a 84.9% save percentage. I don’t have any real updates on Steve Ott or Brian Elliott though I have not tried to obtain any. I doubt either play Saturday though it sounds like the Blues will have Kevin Shattenkirk back in the lineup.
I’ll try and post some interesting notes in the comments section related to the Chicago game later tonight.
It’s a great day for hockey.
D. Lemieux
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