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Blues look to keep perfect road trip in Montreal and condolences

February 11, 2017, 11:25 AM ET [22 Comments]
Jason Millen
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The Blues continued their perfect road trip on Thursday, besting the Maple Leafs 2-1 in overtime. Much like Tuesday night, the Blues did much better in the advanced statistics with 9 skaters at or better than 50% 5v5 corsi % and only Alexander Steen and Vladimir Tarasenko below 43%. Kenny Agostino appeared to play another strong game with a 65.71 5v5 corsi %.and another 3 shots while increasing his minutes to just over 14. Jake Allen again made 30 save, the same number as Tuesday.

Patrik Berglund opened the scoring on a play made by Jaden Schwartz. Schwartz made a pass to Magnus Paajarvi in the slot while lying on the ice in the corner. Paajarvi had his shot blocked but the block went right to Berglund who shot back to his right, just inside the post for the goal.

In an ongoing trend this season, the Blues gave up a goal with just over a minute left in the second period. The Blues were in good position to defend but Alexander Steen lost his man, allowing Morgan Reilly to easily score on the rebound. Colton Parayko tied up William Nylander but Steen let Reilly go.

In Overtime, it was the Vladimir Tarasenko show. Jori Lehtera and Kevin Shattenkirk got the puck to Tarasenko at the red line and he did the rest, weaving through the Leafs and scoring on a shot from the right slot.

The win moved the Blues into third place in the Central but wasn’t without cost for the Blues as Paul Stastny went down with a lower body injury though it is believed to be day to day and not week to week.

The quote of the night Thursday night went to Tarasenko who said “I think every guy who criticizes our goalies can put the equipment on and go practice with us [cracks a smile] and you we’ll see what kind of saves they gonna make.” As a goalie, this quote put a big smile on my face. This is just another example of why Tarasenko is such a good teammate and why Blues fans are so lucky to have him on their team. He does a lot of the little things that great teammates do whether it’s offering encouragement to a goalie when he gives up a goal, whether it’s getting overly excited when another player scores, or making statements like that one. He went on to add that “our goalies is unreal, Jake and Carter are playing real [well] and you know a lot of wins we get this year are just because of goalies”. Some Blues fans might point out the cynical flip side of that statement and respond true, but how many games did you lose because of the goalies?

The Blues head west to Montreal to take on the Montreal Canadiens tonight. The Canadiens lead the Atlantic division and are 18-6-4 at home this season but are only 2-2-2 in their last six home games. Part of their success is because the Canadiens have the 2nd best save percentage and 4th highest shooting percentage at home. Overall, the Canadiens are 8th in goals per game and goals against per game and the 5th best power play.

For the Canadiens, Max Pacioretty is having a very strong season with 27 goals and 48 points in 56 games. Shea Weber leads their defensemen with 12 goals and 31 points in 56 games. Rumors of Alex Galchenyuk being on the trading block exist even though he has 12 goals and 29 points in 35 games.

The Blues will again be fortunate to face Al Montoya in net instead of Carey Price. Additionally, it sounds like Pacioretty is sick and will not play. Let’s see if the Blues can take advantage of it tonight.

I would assume you will see Nail Yakupov back in the lineup with Stastny out. I also expect Allen to get the start in net.

Our condolences to the Ilitch family and the Detroit Red Wings
As many of you know, long time Detroit Red Wing and Tigers owner Mike Ilitch passed away. You wouldn’t necessarily think so but Mr. Ilitch had a lot of impact on many St. Louis kids lives. The impact ranged from the numerous days of Little Caesar’s (Pizza! Pizza!) kid parties, to seeing the long tenure of Sparky Anderson, to helping bring Russian hockey players to the NHL, to building multiple Stanley Cup champions, to stealing Dominick Hasek (at least in some Blues’ fans minds), to getting Stanley Cups to Brett Hull and Brendan Shanahan. As much as I despised the Detroit Red Wings as a kid, I had nothing but respect for Mr. Ilitch.

From the stories I have seen today, Mr. Ilitch touched Detroit kids in wonderful ways. Look at two letters that were shared on twitter:
Letter 1
Letter 2

Mr. Ilitch, you will be missed.

It’s a great but sad 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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