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The Blues will be heading to Arizona tonight to face the Coyotes in a 9:30pm CST start. They will be looking to defeat the Coyotes for the 2nd time in three nights after besting them 4-1 on Monday. The 4-1 score is a bit misleading as many would argue that the Coyotes were the better team through the first period if not the entire first half of the game. Nobody will argue that the Blues were the better team in the 2nd half of the game.
Allen, Jaden Schwartz, Vladimir Tarasenko and Alexander Steen carried the team with Allen stopping 95.5% of the shots, Schwartz having two goals and an assist, Tarasenko with a goal and two assists and Steen adding four assists.
It is great to see Jaden Schwartz getting rewarded for his strong play as of late, netting 4 goals and 2 assists in his last 4 games. Another Blue getting rewarded is Nail Yakupov who has assists in three straight games and will be playing in his 4th game in a row tonight.
Blues coach Mike Yeo is making what I find a bit of an add lineup change, inserting Carter Hutton as the starting goalie tonight. One would assume that Allen will get both Friday and Sunday's. I guess the thought is to have Jake in a normal rhythm for Sunday's game while getting Hutton some game action. Sunday against Nashville could be key to determining who finishes 3rd in the division and who is relegated to wild card status.
Allen has extremely strong numbers against the Coyotes (96.1% save percentage). Hutton on the other hand has struggled with a save percentage below 87% against them. Allen is also better against Friday and Saturday’s opponents, 91.8% versus 88.9% and 90.8% versus 89.7%, but the gap is much narrower in this weekend’s games. Given the history,
I’m really surprised Allen isn’t starting tonight and Saturday.
In addition to changing netminders, Jordan Schmaltz will replace Carl Gunnarsson due to injury. The lineup should look like this:
Schwartz – Steen – Tarasenko
Sanford – Berglund - Perron
Paajarvi – Barbashev – Yakupov
Upshall – Brodziak – Reaves
Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo
Edmundson - Parayko
Bortuzzo – Schmaltz
Hutton
People are saying that the Blues can clinch a playoff spot tonight. That may or may not be possible, depending on what the Kings do tonight. The Kings have the ability to get to 91 points and 40 ROW. The Blues already have ROW and 88 points. As a result, any combination of Blues win and Kings loss, even OT or shootout, and the Blues are in and the Kings are out. A Blues win and a Kings non-ROW and the Blues are 1 point away from clinching.
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 donate in their name.
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