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If you haven’t already, please check out my thoughts on the Blues recent slide, specific examples of the ongoing bad plays, and my thoughts on some concerning quotes from Friday night
here.
In a move that is going to surprise many, though not yours truly, the Blues are going right back to Jake Allen this morning in Nashville. While Carter Hutton has clearly earned the nod in net today, coach Mike Yeo is likely going with his read of his team. When you look at the quotes after the Friday’s night where a number of players defended Allen and took ownership of not playing well in front of him, it’s easy to see how Yeo would want to go right back to Allen. Yeo is giving his team a chance to put their play where their mouth is. It’s put up or shut up time in many ways.
I wonder how closely general manager Doug Armstrong will be analyzing Allen today. At some point, the reality is that Armstrong has to decide if he thinks Allen can turn into the goalie he envisioned when he offered him the contract extension or if he needs to start pursuing another plan. Will today be that deciding day? Probably not but it I bet he is thinking about this topic a lot more in 2018. Can Allen consistently be the goalie he saw in the playoff series against the Wild or is he the goalie who needs time away from the rink to get his head straight? I don’t envy Armstrong’s position.
I’m not sure the Blues need to win but Allen must have a good game otherwise I think he risks losing the starting job to Carter Hutton for the rest of the season.
It should be no surprise to Blues fans that the lineup will look different this morning. Recently recalled Tage Thompson and Jordan Schmaltz are in as is recently acquired Nikita Soshnikov.
The lines should start like this:
Forwards
Ivan Barbashev - Paul Stastny – Vladimir Tarasenko
Jaden Schwartz - Brayden Schenn – Tage Thompson
Alexander Steen – Patrik Berglund – Nikita Soshnikov
Vladimir Sobotka -Kyle Brodziak – Dmitrij Jaskin
Defense
Carl Gunnarsson - Alex Pietrangelo
Jay Bouwmeester - Colton Parayko
Jordan Schmaltz -Vince Dunn
Goalie
Jake Alen
With Rick Nash being traded last night, the Blues options for forward help are further disappearing. Pat Maroon is still my guess as the Blues target if a hockey trade like Mike Hoffman or Max Pacioretty can’t be made. Depending on how long Joel Edmundson will be out (he is skating now), I wonder how much interest the Blues have in Niklas Hjalmarsson.
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.