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On Sunday the Blues won their 4th game in a row and gave them points in 5 straight games. The win was a 3-2 overtime victory against the bottom dwelling Buffalo Sabres and came with the Blues missing Jaden Schwartz and Alex Pietrangelo and having played and traveled the day before.
The Blues got a 1st period goal from Brayden Schenn and a 2nd period goal from Paul Stastny before giving up 2 third period goals to send the game into overtime, the 2nd coming with the Sabres goalie pulled. Vladimir Tarasenko won the game in overtime when Sabres goalie Robin Lehner’s poke check attempt put the puck into his own net. You can watch the highlights
here.
The Blues now sit tied for the Tampa Bay Lightning for the most points in the NHL with 44 though the Lightning have a slightly higher points per game average. The similarities don’t stop there. Both teams are in the top 6 in goals per game and top 5 in goals against per game. The two teams have 4 of the top 9 point producers in the NHL and 5 of the top 13. They also have 2 of the top 9 defensemen in points.
The Lighting have the edge in special teams as they rank 1st on the power play and 8th on the penalty kill. They also have the edge in net where Andrei Vasilevskiy has a 93% saver percentage and a 2.18 goals against average and the most wins in the NHL.
The Lightning also have a 4 game winning streak and are starting a 4 game road trip where they have gone 8-4-1 this season.
Vasilevskiy has been perfect against the Blues, going 2-0 with a 90.9% save percentage. Steven Stamkos is having an MVP type season and has 11 points in 11 games against the Blues. Nikita Kucherov has 5 points in 7 games against the Blues while Victor Hedman has 7 points in 12 games.
Blues fans who are not very familiar with the Lightning should pay particular attention to Vasilevskiy’s athleticism, Kucherov’s shot release and perhaps defenseman Mikhail Sergachev (#98) who may not be as known to them.
Jake Allen has the same save percentage against the Lightning as Vasilevskiy has against the Blues but is only 2-2. Tarasenko and Stastny have had success against the Lighting with 11 point in 11 game and 14 points in 15 games, respectively. Alexander Steen has 17 points in 25 games while Schenn has 12 in 18 games.
As announced earlier today, Alex Pietrangelo has been put on injured reserve and Jordan Schmaltz recalled. Around lunch time reports surfaced that Jay Bouwmeester will likely sit tonight and Schmaltz will be in due to a nagging injury. Given the injuries, the game sure seems to be aligning for the Lightning. Both Pietrangelo and Bouwmeester are reported to be day to day injuries.
With the injuries, here is my best guess at the lines:
Forwards
Alexander Steen - Brayden Schenn - Dmitrij Jaskin
Vladimir Sobotka – Paul Stastny - Vladimir Tarasenko
Ivan Barbashev – Patrik Berglund – Magnus Paajarvi
Scottie Upshall – Oskar Sundqvist – Kyle Brodziak
Defense
Joel Edmundson - Colton Parayko
Carl Gunnarsson - Robert Bortuzzo
Vince Dunn – Jordan Schmaltz
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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