Follow me on twitter
After dropping a same old Blues type loss to the Predators on Wednesday by a score of 2-1, the Blues will head to Dallas to take on the Stars and former coach Ken Hitchcock tonight.
The Predators game saw a few of the better Blues forwards fail to convert glorious chances (see Brayden Schenn in the third period), saw the Blues goaltender play well but still get outplayed, and saw them lose a close game. Does that sound familiar to anyone? This team misses Robby Fabbri and Jaden Schwartz a lot.
Kyle Brodziak was your best player in the game against the Predators and was rewarded with some late ice time in the close game.
The Stars will be looking to avenge their 3-0 loss against the Blues in St. Louis earlier this month. After winning the last 2 games before the Christmas break, the Stars lost their post-Christmas game, 4-2 to the Wild.
The Stars sit in a wild card spot, mostly because of their 12-4-1 home record. They only have 10 points in their last 10 games, going 4-4-2. Dallas is averaging the same number of goals for and goals against per game, 2.87. This ranks 15th and 18th in the league. Their power play is 11th while their penalty kill is 17th. Unlike most Ken Hitchcock teams, the Stars give up more shots per game than they generate.
As you would expect, Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, Alexander Radulov, and John Klingberg key their offense. Benn and Seguin have combined for 33 goals and 67 points in 38 games. Klingberg leads all NHL defensemen with 31 points. Radulov is fourth with 12 goals and 29 points. The fall off is large after those 4, dropping to Radek Faksa with 17 points.
Against the Blues, Benn has fared well with 29 points in 32 games with Seguin lagging a bit with 17 points in 22 games and Jason Spezza on his heels with 17 points in 23 games. Klingberg has also done well with 7 points in 13 games.
Ben Bishop and Kari Lehtonen have similar save percentages, 91.0% and 90.7% respectively, and similar goals against averages at 2.67 and 2.59, respectively.
The Blues penalty kill has been surging, moving up to a tie for 9th in the league. Their power play is still struggling, 24th in the league.
As you would expect Jake Allen will get the start against the divisional opponent tonight. Expect Carter Hutton to get tomorrow night’s start against the Hurricanes.
Jay Bouwmeester and Sammy Blais skated today but are still out tonight.
I expect the Blues lines to start like this but they may very well end up in the blender:
Forwards
Ivan Barbashev - Brayden Schenn - Vladimir Tarasenko
Alexander Steen – Paul Stastny – Tage Thompson
Vladimir Sobotka – Patrik Berglund – Dmitrij Jaskin
Scottie Upshall – Kyle Brodziak – Chris Thorburn
Defense
Joel Edmundson – Alex Pietrangelo
Carl Gunnarsson - Colton Parayko
Vince Dunn - Robert Bortuzzo
Goalie
Jake Allen
Barbashev won’t get a better chance to show what he can do than tonight.
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.
St Louis Blues Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»