The Blues will host the New York Rangers tonight at 7pm at the Scottrade Center. The Blues look to keep their 2016-17 record perfect while avenging last year’s regular season series sweep by the Rangers.
The Rangers are also looking to stay perfect for 2016-17 after defeating the New York Islanders 5-3. Interestingly, not a single Rangers’ forward played more than 18 minutes, nor less than 10 minutes 45 seconds. Rangers’ goalie Henrik Lundqvist had an off opening night in the victory, only saving 89% of the shots.
I expect the Rangers lineup to look as follows:
Miller – Hayes -Nash
Vesey – Stepan - Zuccarello
Kreider - Zibanejad – Buchnevich
Grabner – Pirri - Fast
McDonagh - Girardi
Staal - Holden
Skjei - Clendening
Lundqvist
Coach Ken Hitchcock already has stated that Carter Hutton will get the start in net. Hutton is 1-0 against the Rangers with a 1.00 GAA and a 96.6% save percentage. As to the rest of the lineup, my best guess is that the lineup won’t change from Thursday night and it will be as follows:
Fabbri – Stastny – Steen
Perron – Lehtera- Tarasenko
Paajarvi-Berglund-Yakupov
Upshall-Brodziak-Reaves
Bouwmeester-Pietrangelo
Gunnarsson-Shattenkirk
Edmundson-Parayko
In taking a look back at Thursday’s home opener, a few things stood out. Nail Yakupov had a wonderful first home game as a St. Louis Blues player in limited ice time, scoring a goal and adding a wonderful assist. His speed is extremely noticeable. It will be interesting to see how he progresses as the weeks come.
Speaking of Yakupov, he had some interesting comments after the game. He said “it was really tough this week because it’s not that easy. Doesn’t matter what team you’re on. I know the Blues are a really good team, really good guys that are really friendly. It’s a really good family here. When you’ve been away for a long time, live in different country, different city and different friends, you pretty much have nothing outside. It’s really good here[the rink], but as soon as you go outside after practice, you’re just alone. You’re lonely and those kind of things get into your brain and in your mind and you have to fight that. I’m fighting and now it’s going to be much easier. I’m happy to get two points tonight and it’s going to be much easier for me to sleep tonight”. I appreciate the candor and honest quote and wish him well in getting to know the city and get more comfortable here in addition to success on the ice.
Other notes from the game-
- Jake Allen got beat to the glove side on a number of occasions with one shot ringing off the post and a few others whistling just wide.
- Both goalies made desperations saves that were made with their leg pads only because the shooter didn’t get the puck up off the ice.
- Carl Gunnarsson only played 11:35 and was a -1 but I thought he played more engaged and active than normal. He didn’t play in the last 6 minutes of the game.
- Colton Parayko again made a defensive lapse that led to a goal against but still played a strong game and was active in the offensive zone.
- Ryan Suter and Alex Pietrangelo combined to play almost 57 minutes of the game.
- Jay Bouwmeester had five of the Blues seventeen blocked shots.
- Patrik Berglund struggled in the faceoff circle, winning only 38%.
- Kyle Brodziak struggled even more, winning only 17%.
- The Blues had 8 takeaways and only 3 give aways.
What a game between Washington and Pittsburgh Thursday night. Braden Holtby got run by Kuhnhackl as you can see
here
As you might expect, the Capitals were none to please but take a look at Justin Williams here. I think someone needs to teach him how to throw a punch. He looks like he is swinging an imaginary purse at him. As you can see
here.
Later in the game Williams did prove he could wrestle as you can see
here.
It’s a great day for hockey.
ETA - 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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