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Yesterday afternoon the Blues scored a costly 6-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings. The win kept the Blues atop the Western Conference in points per game and helped extend their divisional lead to 3 points. Unfortunately the win came with the loss of Jaden Schwartz for at least a month and a half (more likely at least 2 months) and Alex Pietrangelo who is now day to day.
Schwartz sustained an ankle injury blocking a shot with his right ankle late in the 1st period. It is believed that the Pietranelo injury also is the result of a blocked shot in the 1st period, not too far before Schwartz’s block.
The Blues were extremely efficient in the game scoring 6 even strength goals on only 22 shots. Goals were scored by Schwartz (rebound), Vladimir Sobotka (lasered in off the post), Scottie Upshall (breakaway), Jay Bouwmeester (deflected off Mike Green’s stick), Dmitrij Jaskin (breakaway), and Brayden Schenn (rebound). Schenn and Bouwmeester added assists, giving them 2 points each while Alexander Steen and Pietrangelo both had 2 assists each.
Even with Schwartz out, Samuel Blais still saw less than 10 minutes of ice time. In net, Jake Allen stopped 28 of 29 shots.
The Blues called up Ivan Barbashev for tonight’s home game against the Buffalo Sabres. Remember, tonight is an early start at 6pm CST.
The Sabres have the 2nd worst points per game average of any team, scoring the least of any team in the league while allowing the third most goals per game. They have the 2nd worst power play. The Sabres have lost 5 of their last 6 games and are 4-8-4 on the road.
Their offense is led by Evander Kane and Jack Eichel who have 26 and 23 points respectively while they don’t have a defenseman who has reached 8 points yet. Eichel will be looking for his 1st goal against the Blues in his 4th try. Kane’s totals against the Blues approximate his career averages with 8 points in 13 games. Kyle Okposo has struggled this season, only scoring 4 goals and 12 points in 27 games. He’ll be looking to get back on track against the Blues against whom he has 11 points in 13 games.
Robin Lehner is their number one goalie and has a 90.9% save percentage and a 2.92 goals against this season. Lehner has a 92.5% save percentage against the Blues in his career.
For the Blues, it is expected that Allen will get the start. With Carter Hutton on IR and Allen having been great against the Sabres (94.8% save percentage and 1.38 goals against average), he will get back to back starts.
The Blues have a number of players who have enjoyed success against the Sabres. Vladimir Taraseno has 8 points in 7 games while Alexander Steen has 26 in 32 games, Paul Stastny has 7 in 9 games and Colton Parayko has 2 in 3 games.
It will be interesting to see how Mike Yeo handles the Blues lines tonight and who gobbles up the 20+ minutes on defense. Obviously, Robert Bortuzzo will draw back into the lineup.
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.