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With the Blues playoff clinching 4-0 shutout of the Vancouver Canucks last night, they continue to hold the most wins (8) of any NHL team in their last ten games. The team and Brian Elliott have a three game shutout streak. They will need to continue playing well when they travel to the Verizon Center to take on the NHL’s best team, the Washington Capitals, at 6pm CST tonight.

For those of you who haven’t been following old foe Barry Trotz’s Capitals this season, they are a juggernaut. The Capitals are the NHL’s best points per game team at 1.52. The Blues are tied for second, far behind at 1.29. The Capitals have the best goal differential, almost twice as much as the second place Tampa Bay Lightning. To give some perspective, their positive goal differential is 1/3 more than the absolute value of the league’s worst goal differential. Alex Ovechkin leads the league in goals while Braden Holtby leads in wins. The Capitals have the league’s 2nd best power play and 4th best penalty kill. They are second in the NHL in goals scored per game and goals against, trailing only the Dallas Stars and Los Angeles Kings, respectively.

With the Blues facing the Capitals and given Holtby’s playoff performance last season and soon to be record setting regular season (attempting to break Martin Brodeur’s record for wins in a season), I must give a well deserved hat tip to Capitals’ goalie coach Mitch Korn. Korn is a goalie teaching genius with whom I have enjoyed many conversations, much learning, and some grueling workouts. The signs of his guidance can be seen in Braden Holtby’s improved play.

The Capitals also played last night, winning 1-0 in overtime in New Jersey last night thanks to John Carlson and Braden Holtby. Carlson got the game winning goal in his first game back in over a month. As you would expect, Ovechkin has enjoyed the most success of any Capital against the Blues with 19 goals and 24 assists in 40 games. TJ Oshie has benefitted this season from playing with Ovechkin, scoring 23 goals and adding 22 assists. While this may be his highest goal scoring season, most of that is due to his increased power play time (over 30 seconds more per game) and the players around him. Of course Oshie is still unlikely to beat his career best points in a season as he is still 9 short of that mark. Oshie is questionable for tonight’s game. He didn’t play last night and is battling the flu.

Given that Holtby started last night, expect Capitals backup Philipp Grubauer to get the start tonight. Like Jake Allen, Grubauer will be making his first start against his opponent tonight. Allen expects that the rest allowed him to reset and right his game. In Allen’s previous 3 outings, he gave up 13 goals, sporting a GAA over 5 and an 84% save percentage.

The Blues have been getting very strong production from the Robby Fabbri, Paul Stastny, and Troy Brouwer line. They have combined for 8 goals and 19 assists in their last 8 games. The David Backes, Patrik Berglund, and Dmitrij Jaskin line has been generating a lot of shots and chances but not finishing a lot. It will be interesting to see if Alexander Steen slots onto this line for Jaskin when he is healthy.

As reported and seen yesterday, Jay Bouwmeester is out with an upper body injury and will miss his second consecutive game. Even though Petteri Lindbohm was recalled from Chicago, don’t expect to see him in the lineup tonight.

My guess for the Blues lines are as follows:
Schwartz –Lehtera – Tarasenko
Jaskin - Berglund – Backes
Fabbri – Stastny -Brouwer
Upshall – Brodziak – Reaves
Shattenkirk – Pietrangelo
Gunnarson - Parayko
Edmundson – Bortuzzo
Allen

I haven’t seen it talked about yet but the Blues scheduling is terrible over the last 13 games of the season, probably the toughest in the league when adding in travel. In that stretch, 8 of the 13 are on the road, 3 are on consecutive days with all 3 including travel and 2 of those being long travel, and only having 2 of the home games in a row. Blues fans and management hope the team uses this to bond and rally together, becoming wizards as pinball in and out of cities during the last month of the season.

Notes from around the league:
- Brian Elliott again leads the NHL in GAA and save percentage ( 1.95 GAA and 93.4%).
- Fabbri is 7th in rookie points per game and 5th in goals scored with only 13:18 ice time per game.
- If the Predators beat the Blue Jackets and the Blackhawks lose in Calgary, they will be tied in points.
- Big game today when the Avalanche host the wild in a battle for the last wild card spot.
- Could the Bruins and Red Wings be battling it out for the last playoff spot?
- The Bruins, Red Wings and Islanders are sliding in the playoff race, only winning 13 of their last 30.
- The Ducks have cooled off, going 4-4-2 and losing 6-5 to the Maple Leafs.
- Tough break for Anton Stralman and the Lightning last night, losing him to a non-displaced fracture of his left fibula and no I am not posting the Theismann-esque video.

It’s a great day for hockey.

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