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Islander Recap
As most of you know, the Blues lost 3-2 in Brooklyn last night. I didn’t get to see any of the game, only the “highlights” from the NHL network. Last night’s goals against seemed to reinforce some things that I have been observing about Allen this season. In addition to rebound control issues, I have thought that Allen is having trouble finding the puck in traffic and staying big while in the butterfly.
Here is Allen in the butterfly on the Islanders’ first goal
Compare that to Carey Price on this play:
Notice how much more net Price is covering because he is more upright. Think of it like this, Allen looks a lot like a greater than symbol while Price looks more like a capital C than a less than symbol.
Look at Allen’s position on the third goal, again, he is lower in the butterfly, taking up less net.
I hope this becomes a teaching point for goalie coach Jim Corsi.
Another good teaching opportunity will be for Robby Fabbri on the 2nd Islanders goal. Take a look at the player positions before Tavares has even turned around to face the net
Fabbri stays in no-man’s land in the slot while Tavares has all day to turn around, shoot and score. He needs to start recognizing that the Blues were outnumbering the Islanders at that point, that Edmundson had the other forward and that he should go to deliver a hit, take the puck, etc. from Tavares.
Devils Preview
The Blues will be hoping to hand the Devils their first home regulation loss tonight as the Devils are 8-0-2 at home this season. Both teams are coming off losses and travel last night with the Devils losing 5-2 in Montreal.
Much like the Blues, the Devils penalty kill has been very good. Both teams are in the top 6 in the NHL. Both teams have given up similar goals against per game (a 0.03 difference) and scored at similar rates (0.16 goals per game difference). The Devils are allowing a lot more shots though, 4th worst in the NHL at 32.2 per game.
In net, it sounds like the Blues will try Jake Allen again in net with coach Ken Hitchcock implying that they want to make sure Allen is part of the road turnaround. I wonder if the plan would be any different if Carter Hutton’s road numbers were better. It also sounds like Brad Hunt will play on defense tonight.
Unlike the Blues, the Devils will be sending Keith Kinkaid out in net since Corey Schneider played last night in Montreal.
The Devils don’t yet have a player with 10 goals though Taylor Hall and Michael Cammalleri have 8 and 9 respectively and both have missed a number of games. Damon Severson leads their rear guards with 15 points but is a team 2nd worst -10.
No NHL nuggets today. Sorry.
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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