The Blues hope to rebound at home tonight against the once arch rival Detroit Red Wings after Tuesday’s loss to the Calgary Flames at the place formerly known as Scottrade Center. Prior to the game, the Blues will honor Barret Jackman with the ceremonial puck drop.
For those of you relatively new to the game or the Blues, the Red Wings were once a bitter rival of the Blues with the Red Wings eliminating them from the playoffs in 3 consecutive years from 1996 to 1998. You can see highlights of a memorable 1998 playoff game
here.
The biggest part of the current rivalry may be the return of former Blue Steve Ott for his 800th NHL game. Of course, if the Blues spend a lot of time paying attention to Ott tonight, it likely will mean they are not having a lot of success on the scoreboard.
The Red Wings started out the season with two road losses but have won their last 5 games, 4 of which were at home. With a win tonight, they would even their road record at 2-2. The Red Wings have been winning games in spite of giving up the 4th most shots against per game, generating the 8th fewest shots per game in the league, being 28th in SAT% and 25th in USAT%, having the 20th ranked penalty kill and only the 14th ranked power play. Of course this hasn’t stopped them from ranking in the top 10 and ahead of the Blues in goals for and goals against per game. They sound like an advanced stats proponent’s nightmare, lol.
Individually, Thomas Vanek and Mike Green are enjoying a rejuvenation of sorts this season, combining for 7 goals and 8 assists in their 7 games. Darren Helm and Gustav Nyquist have combined for 7 goals and 7 assists in the 7 games as well while surprisingly, Henrik Zetterberg has yet to score and Dylan Larkin only has 3 points. Of course, both Jimmy Howard and Petr Mrazek have played well in net.
The Blues made some changes today, activating Jori Lehtera from injured reserve and placing Magnus Paajarvi on waivers. With Lehtera coming back, the STL line will be reunited but in a different form with Jaden Schwartz starting out as the center and Lehtera shifting to left wing. Another change will be Dmitri Jaskin in for Scottie Upshall on the 4th line.
You may find it interesting to note that Vladimir Tarasenko has 4 goals and 3 assists in 9 games against the Red Wings while his center, Schwartz, has been held pointless in 9 games against them. Even more surprising may be that Patrik Berglund has arguably had the most success against the Red Wings with 11 goals in 32 games. Jake Allen has struggled in his 3 games against the Red Wings posting only an 88% save percentage.
As to the lines, I expect them to look like this to start:
Mrazek
Smith - Sproul
Ericsson – Marchenko
DeKeyser - Green
Miller – Glendenning – Ott
Sheahan – Zetterberg – Tatar
Vanek – Helm – Athanasiou
Larkin – Nielsen – Nyquist
Steen - Stastny - Fabbri
Lehtera - Schwartz - Tarasenko
Perron - Berglund - Yakupov
Jaskin - Brodziak - Reaves
Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo
Gunnarsson – Shattenkirk
Edmundson – Parayko
Allen
Jammer’s 9 NHL Nuggets:
1) Three out of the four worst SAT% (shot attempt %) teams are 11-6-1. Compare that to the best record of 3 of the 4 worst spsv% (shooting plus save %) at 7-10-2.
2) Two of the three best NHL teams are in the Atlantic and are a combined 11-1-1 (Montreal and Tampa Bay).
3) Does defense win games? The Canucks are dead last in the league in scoring but are 4-2-1.
4) The top three points per game players in the NHL are either rookies or 2nd year players though Stamkos and Pearson are also tied for 3rd.
5) Brian Elliott has more shootout saves than every goalie but Corey Crawford has shootout attempts against.
6) Speaking of Crawford, he has a ridiculous 97.3% even strength save percentage. Too bad his PK save percentage is less than 65%.
7) On the opposite end of the spectrum, Jake Allen’s PK save percentage is over 96% but his even strength save percentage is barely over 87%.
8) Don’t look now but Shea Weber is tied for the league lead of points for a defenseman.
9) Don’t look for Richard Panik’s goal pace to continue as he is unlikely to maintain his 54.5% shooting percentage.
Also, good news to report regarding the young fan injured when New York Ranger Ryan McDonagh cleared the puck over the glass on October 15th. Read about it
here.
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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