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Blues fans saw a familiar result last night when the Blues lost a close game to the Nashville Predators. It was reminiscent of their playoff series last year where the Predators won 4 of 6 close games. The Predators successfully bottled up the Blues and frustrated their zone entries most of the night. The game also was reminiscent of a playoff game in the way it was refereed with a lot of interference and obstruction let go. Much like last years, the Blues were not able to adjust as effectively. They also seemed to have more struggles hitting the net last night than most games this season. Of course, the Predators played a strong road game and came away with 2 points.
The game was won a goal less than 3 minutes in on a beautifully placed one timer by Ryan Johansen, only his 3rd goal of the season. Austin Watson added an empty net goal after another Blues point player (this time Tarasenko) couldn’t control a face-off win. The Blues were beat on face-offs most of the night but what hurt more was that when they made key wins, the receiving Blues player failed to control the bouncing puck. Speaking of bouncing pucks, the ice appears to continue to get worse this season with players falling and bouncing pucks continue to progress with more frequency.
For the Blues, I though Carter Hutton played a very strong game having no real chance to stop the only goal against him. Chris Thorburn also had some strong moments in the game, helping to save a goal, some good forechecking, etc. Thorburn’s line combined for around 35 minutes, more than it usually gets. I also thought Vince Dunn did well is over 18 minutes of ice time.
Tonight the Blues will host the Wild who are coming off a home 3-2 shootout win over the Avalanche last night with Jason Zucker and Nino Neiderreiter scoring goals and Alex Stalock backstopping them to the win.
The Wild have a 2 game winning streak and are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games. They are 5-5-1 on the road this season. They are 13th in goals per game and 8th in goals against per game. Their special teams have been good, ranking 8th on the power play and 3rd on the penalty kill. On the road they have not been as good. They are 10th in goals for, 16th in goals against, 8th on the power play and 15th in the penalty kill.
Expect Devan Dubnyk to get the start tonight. Dubnyk has a 3.22 goals against average and an 89% save percentage against the Blues in his career. So far this season he has a 2.66 goals against average and a 91.5% save percentage. He is 17th overall in save percentage as compared to Jake Allen who is 20th..
Eric Staal leads the Wild with 20 points in 22 games. Mikael Granlund has 15 points in 17 games. Not many of the Wild players have enjoyed a lot of success against the Blues. Mikko Koive has 32 points in 46 games and Ryan Suter has 31 in 63 games.
For the Blues, Allen will get the start and Samuel Blais will get into the lineup for the injured Magnus Paajarvi who got hurt blocking a shot last night. Allen has been strong against the Wild, posting a 2.09 goals against average and a 92.3% save percentage. For the Blues, Brayden Schenn has fared well against the Wild with 9 points in 9 games. Jaden Schwartz has 14 points in 18 games and Vladimir Tarasenko has 15 points in 18 games.
With Blais in, I expect the lines to look like this:
Forwards
Jaden Schwartz - Brayden Schenn - Vladimir Tarasenko
Vladimir Sobotka – Paul Stastny - Alexander Steen
Dmitrij Jaskin – Oskar Sundqvist – Samuel Blais
Scottie Upshall - Kyle Brodziak – Chris Thorburn
Defense
Joel Edmundson - Alex Pietrangelo
Jay Bouwmeester - 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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