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On Sunday, the Blues fell short to the Washington Capitals in overtime. In this blogger’s opinion, at least earning a point was critical. The 4-3 loss was disappointing in some respects but fortunate in others.
Brett Connolly opened the scoring about 2/3 into the 1st period with a power play goal on a beautiful redirection of an Alex Ovechkin shot. Carter Hutton had zero chance to make a save on the play.
Less than 2 minutes into the 2nd period, the Blues evened up the score. The Blues were fortunate on the play as Joel Edmundson losses the puck on a 3 on 3 but the puck slides to Ivan Barbashev who spots Tarasenko as the trailer on the play. Tarasenko is uncovered in the middle of the ice and beats Braden Holtby with a shot from between the circles. Watch it
here.
Less than 4 minutes later, the Blues would take the lead on a power play goal from Alexander Steen though the goal was originally credited to Brayden Schenn. The goal was the result of a strong passing play between Tarasenko, Alex Pietrangelo and Schenn. Tarasenko makes a behind the back pass to Pietrangelo who feeds Schenn for the one timer that Steen deflects into net. Watch it
here.
The lead would hold up until about 8 minutes into the third period with the Capitals evening the game on a power play goal after a Jay Bouwmeester tripping penalty. The goal was vintage Alex Ovechkin with a one timer from the left circle. It’s amazing how many of his goals have been scored on exactly this type of play. On the play, Colton Parayko moves out to the block the shot but only serves to screen Hutton who has little to no chance on the play.
Less than 3 minutes later, former Blue Lars Eller puts the Capitals on top as he put a bad angle rebound in off the TJ Oshie initial shot. Hutton tried to put the original shot rebound deep into the corner but it went right to Eller. In a way, the Capitals were fortunate as I doubt the coaching staff would teach Eller to be in that position on that particular play. Regardless, Hutton looked like he still could have made the save but misjudged the shot, likely because of how far he had to move in the process.
Carl Gunnarsson tied the game 5 minutes later with a really poor shot that happened to deflect in off a Capitals player. A very lucky bounce to get the Blues back even. Watch it
here.
In the final minute of overtime, Colton Parayko loses his stick and the puck on a slash a Tarasenko executes a poor line chance, springing Niklas Backstrom for the breakaway and the game winning goal. All in all, the game was a much better performance for the Blues than the day before in Philadelphia.
Tonight the Blues will host the Florida Panthers before their week long break. The Panthers have lost 3 in a row but are 5-4-1 in their last 10. They have struggled on the road at 7-12-3.
The Panthers are 23rd in goals per game and 25th in goals against per game and give up a league worst 35.4 shots per game. They are 27th in power play efficiency, one spot better than the Blues and in the bottom 3rd of the league on the penalty kill.
Jonathan Huberdeau, Vincent Trochek and Aleksander Barkov key their offense as they have combined for 43 goals and 114 points in 41 games. Keith Yandle, not Aaron Ekblad, is leading their defense with 22 points. Ekblad only has 12 points. James Reimer has taken over goalie duties for the injured Roberto Luongo and has posted a 91.2% save percentage.
It sounds like Jake Allen will get the start tonight in net. Allen has struggled against the Panthers, going 1-3 with an 89% save percentage. Alexander Steen has also struggled against them, posting only 4 points in 21 games. For perspective, outside of the Blues (only 2 games against), his next lowest is 12 points.
On the positive front, Paul Stastny has 8 goals and 16 points in 15 games while Tarasenko has 9 points in 9 games and Parayko has 4 points in 5 games.
As to the lines today, I expect them to start like this:
Forwards
Ivan Barbashev - Paul Stastny – Vladimir Tarasenko
Vladimir Sobotka - Brayden Schenn – Tage Thompson
Patrik Berglund – Kyle Brodziak - Alexander Steen
Scottie Upshall – Oskar Sundqvist – Magnus Paajarvi
Defense
Jay Bouwmeester - Alex Pietrangelo
Joel Edmundson - Colton Parayko
Carl Gunnarsson - Robert Bortuzzo
Goalie
Jake Allen
In other new, Jaden Schwartz is out of his walking boot and Zach Sanford continues to progress further in skating drills. Vince Dunn has been activated off IR and should be back after the break.
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 will donate in their name.
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