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The Blues will take on their long time rival Chicago Black Hawks tonight, fresh off a five day break. THe Blackhawks have been on fire lately, winning three games in a row and 8 of their last 10. They sit 14 points ahead of the Blues and seem desitined to finish first or second in the division.
The Blues also have been playing better, winning 7 of their last 10 games but have a two game losing streak, both one goal losses with the last game being lost in the last five seconds of the game. Those two losses were a lost opportunity for the Blues and allowed Nashville to leap frog the Blues into third place in the division with their 5-2 win over the Capitals last night. The Blues are now in the last wild card spot though they have played 2 less games than Calgary who sits one point ahead of them.
This marks only the third home game of the month for the Blackhawks. While good at home this season (19-8-4), the Blackhawks are only 1-3 in their last four home games. The Blackhawks penalty kill was once an albtaross at leass than 70% but has improved to 76.7% but is still tied for 4th worst in the league. The Blues on the other hand are 5th. The Blues also hold the advantage on the power play, ranking 8th while Chicago is 17th. The Blackhawks average 2.97 goals per game, 7th best while the Blues average 2.82, 11th. Both teams are in the top 7 in shooting percentage. The real differnece lies in the team save percentage where Chicago is 5th and the Blues are 28th.
As one would expect, Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin lead the Hawks in scoring. Early season leader Artem Anisimov cooled off in January only registering 5 points in 13 games but has had a resurgence in February with 8 points in 9 games. Marian Hossa is having a strong season with 21 goals. Ryan Hartman is also playing well, chipping in 15 goals. Duncan Keith leads the rear guards with 41 points in 61 games.
Both Scott Darling and Corey Crawford are in the top 13 in save percentage among goalies with at least 22 games. Darling is 2nd at 92.8% while Crawford has a strong 91.7%. Both goalies have two shutouts.The Blues will see Darling as Crawford is sick. It sounds like Lars Johansson may be the backup in an emergency goalie situation.
The Blues hope Patrik Berglund will continue his strong play not only for the game but for the next five years as they signed him to a five year $19.25 million extension. In doing so, the Blues locked up one of the best centers who would have been UFAs in July.
Blues beat writer Jeremy Rutherford had some interesting quotes from Kevin Shattenkirk. When asked about fan reaction and frustration to him not signing a long term contract that would up the trade return Shattenkirk said "I don't hold it against them. I can totally understand. That's why our fans are so great. [It] is because they believe in this team. They have a lot of passion about the team. There's a lot of things that go beyond those details that have come out, and people don't know that and they will never know that. That's something from my standpoint, I have to swallow my pride a little bit, take a deep breath and realize that they're acting out of passion and I totally understand that. It's the same group of people that come and cheer me on at a home game. I have every bit or respect and adoration from them and I know that they're doing it out of love for the Blues." I bring it up because I thought it was refreshing to see an athlete deal with the situation in a fairly forthcoming and respectful way. There were a lot more quotes but you get the idea. Also, kudos to JR for actually discussing it with him. Apparently, the Tampa Bay deal was nixed a number of weeks ago and he has long put it behind him.
For the game tonight Jake Allen will be in goal and Ivan Barbashev is still recovering in the AHL from a minor upper body injury. It appears Jaskin is in and Yakupov is out. Paajarvi is in off course as well.
Recently, I was involved in a conversation with former player who was named to the NHL Top 100. He's a multiple cup winning, hockey hall of famer with a large pile of accolades in his career yet is still one of the most humble alumni I have ever met and truly a fan of the game itself. During the conversation, he was congratulated on being selected in the top 100 and he responded "I'm just glad it wasn't the top 99" implying that he was 100th on the list.
It’s a great day for hockey.
Fellow Hockeybuzz bloggers
Nashville Predator's Paul McCann,
Winnipeg Jet's Peter Tessier and
Minnesota Wild's Dan Wallace have generously agreed to a friendly charity wager. We were hoping to do the whole division but don't have it fully represented yet. The blogger whose team finishes the highest the standings at the end of the year gets to pick a charity to whom the others donate in their name.
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