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Tonight the Blues travel to Las Vegas to play their first game against the expansion team while looking to build on their Central Division lead.
The Golden Knights are riding high, sitting 2nd in their division, 2nd in the conference in points per game and 3rd in the league in points per game. The Knights’ story has been great so far this season and I am happy for players like Marc Andre Fleury and David Perron. From his charitable deeds to the stories that members of the Penguins staff have told me about Fleury, to how he handled the goalie rotation in Pittsburgh, it is easy to see why so many people like him.
The Knights have impressed by winning all three of their one goal games, having the 7th best goals against per game and the 11th best goals per game even though they are only 22nd in shots per game. Like the Blues, much of their success is due to their shooting percentage and save percentage where they are ranked 9th and 10th, respectively. The Blues are 10th and 7th respectively.
While the story has been good and fun, I believe that there are a number of signs that should be concerning to Knights fans. Some of the signs are obvious like the concussion injury of Marc Andre Fleury and the corresponding need to rely on Malcolm Subban. Some are a lot more subtle like a very favorable schedule or their poor special teams.
The Knights have the 4th worst power play, the 7th fewest blocked shots in the league, and the 13th worst penalty kill. Their record sure appears to be as much of a function of their opponents as their own play. Of the five teams they have faced, the Coyotes twice, four of the five teams were in the bottom third of the league last year. The only team better was a meager 13th in points per game. Three of the games were against teams in the bottom 20% of the league in shooting percentage and goals per game. Half of their games were against teams that have combined for 1 victory. As the strength of schedule increases, I would expect their record to fall off.
The Blues will be looking to slow down young Alex Tuch who has 3 points in just 2 games and James Neal who has 6 goals and 8 points in 6 games. David Perron has average 0.625 points per game against his former team while only averaging 0.582 over his career. More importantly, the Blues will hope to continue their success against Subban who only stopped 3 of 6 shots before getting pulled the last time he faced the Blues.
The Blues have some of their own concerns brewing as the team is giving up the 7th most shots against per game, is generating the 8th fewest shots per game, is only 21st on the power play, and only 23rd on the penalty kill. More concerning is that they are giving up a league high 13 goals in the third period. They still haven’t found a way to step on an opponent’s throat and close out a game consistently.
On the positive side, Jaden Schwartz has been one of the best players in the league, averaging 1.5 points per game. Alex Pietrangelo is trying to force himself into Norris trophy consideration, trailing only Shayne Gostisbehere in points per game while averaging the third most ice time per game.
The Blues just took the ice for their morning skate and based on it, expect the lines to start like this:
Forwards
Alexander Steen - Paul Stastny - Vladimir Tarasenko
Jaden Schwartz - Brayden Schenn - Sammy Blais
Magnus Paajarvi - Ivan Barbashev – Vladimir Sobotka
Scottie Upshall - Oskar Sundqvist - Kyle Brodziak
Defense
Carl Gunnarsson - Alex Pietrangelo
Joel Edmundson - Colton Parayko
Vince Dunn - Robert Bortuzzo
Goalie
Jake Allen
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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