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Tonight the Blues will be looking to build on their 4-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks in the winter classic (more on that later) when they take on the Carolina Hurricanes and newly acquired Ty Rattie at the Scottrade at 7pm CST.
The Hurricanes have gone 5-1-1 on the road since December 1st, reversing their road woes as they started the year 0-9-5 away from Carolina. Lately, the Hurricanes have been cold, losing two in a row and three of their last four. Comparatively, the Blues have alternated wins and losses over the last six games.
Carolina is a bottom half of the league team, averaging 19th in points per game even though they are 7th in overall SAT% and SAT% Close. They hold the league’s best penalty kill, three spots better than the Blues and are very strong in limiting shots, having the 4th best shots against per game, besting the Blues by 1 spot.
Tonight, recently claimed Ty Rattie looks to be playing on a line with Jeff Skinner and Victor Rask, quite the upgrade from any line he was on in St. Louis and from the press box where he has been for most games this season. Rattie didn’t appear to complain while being relegated to the press box and most seem happy for him to be getting a chance to see what he can do, even if they don’t want his success to start until tomorrow.
Yesterday I speculated that perhaps the Blues were doing Rattie a favor putting him on waivers, giving him a chance to be claimed and play. When talking about Rattie, coach Ken Hitchcock commented that “he’s got to get a chance to play, and if he wasn’t going to play here on a regular basis, then give him a chance to play somewhere else.” Sounds like my speculation may have held at least a little water.
Cam Ward is expected to be in net for the Hurricanes. Ward has a 2.28 GAA and a 91.5% save percentage this season, besting Jake Allen’s 2.62 and 90.5%. Both goalies have been strong against the other’s team, both posting a 93.9% save percentage while Allen has a 1.70 GAA and Ward has 1.95 GAA.
Much of the Blues roster is battling illness. So much so, that Hitchcock quipped that he was hoping to have 20 ready for the game tonight. Nail Yakupov was so sick that he didn’t even make it to Busch Stadium for any of the festivities. Carl Gunnarsson is dealing with a lower body injury and not expected to play and Robert Bortuzzo is still unavailable.
From what I can tell, the lines look to start like this tonight:
Schwartz – Lehtera – Tarasenko
Steen – Stastny –Perron
Fabbri – Berglund – Jaskin
Upshall – Brodziak – Reaves
Edmundson – Pietrangelo
Hunt – Shattenkirk
Bouwmeester – Parayko
Allen
Winter Classic recap
Simply put, the Blues were the better team on Monday. More and better scoring chances, more shots, more hits, more control of the play, etc. It may not have been dominating but it was controlling with the lone Blackhawks goal coming off a shot that knuckled and bounced off the ice, a shot that Jake Allen still got most of before going in just under the bar off his cuff.
Maybe the game was destined to slant toward the Blues given it was their first outdoor game vs being old hat for the Hawks or because the weather slowed the ice down or for any other reason you can think. For me, the takeaways from the game were fairly simple. The Blues gave up a fluke early goal in a big game and on a big stage and didn’t fold. They showed resolve, stuck to the game plan and won the game. Time will tell if this is part of the team taking another step in growing into a team that can make the Stanley Cup finals.
The bigger takeaways for me were related to the overall experience. Those ranged from taking pride in seeing the city perform well even given the marginal and uncertain weather and schedules to sheer mass of Blues fans at and around the event, to Blues fans actually truly dominating attendance unlike a normal Blackhawks game at the Scottrade. Even better was seeing the lasting memories and experiences shared by family and friends. We were lucky to get to experience this with a parent who is life-long Cardinals fan and couldn’t get over the transformation of Busch and a parent who is a life-long Blues fan and never would have imagined an event like this. As a result, we got to experience a special, priceless family moment. Something we will all remember for the rest of our lives. We also got the chance to meet a former hockeybuzz blogger.
One of the things that may not have translated well on television was the involvement of the crowd before one of Tarasenko’s goals. The crowd spontaneously started a let’s go Blues chant a little before the Blues got control of the puck in their own end and broke out. The chant seemed to grow louder as they got control and headed back up ice before it stopped as the Blues got close to the Hawks net, almost pausing as if the crowd was holding its breath before they erupted in cheer with the goal. If he would have shot wide, I suspect we would have heard a collective groan instead of the cheer. Because of the microphone positioning, I doubt it was picked up well on television but feeling it in the stadium was unreal.
You can find some of the photos we took here:
I’ll be uploading more photos in the coming days.
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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