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The Blues will be hosting the Dallas Stars tonight at 7pm CST at the Scottrade after getting soundly beat by the Hurricanes at home on Thursday night. They will be hoping to keep their coin flip streak alive tonight. The Blues once dominant home record is sliding as they have only gone 2-3-1 at the Scottrade in their last 6 games. In the last 8 regular season games in this series, the Blues are 6-2.
Dallas is 2nd to last in the Central division but not far out of a playoff spot. The Stars have struggled mightily on the road this season, going 5-9-2. They only played 3 road games in the last month, going 1-2 in those games. It won’t be any easier tonight for them as Jamie Benn will miss the game. Benn has enjoyed a lot of success against the Blues with 29 points in 30 games.
The Stars road struggles are at least partly due to having the worst penalty kill success rate of any road team, just below 70%. Of course, the Stars are 4th worst overall at 76% anyway. They have been a bit better on the power play though still in the bottom half at 17%. Interestingly, the Stars have the 2nd worst road save percentage at 87.5%, barely ahead of the Blues road worst 87%. Both teams have been poor overall in save percentage with the Blues last at 894.% and the Stars 4th to last at 90%.
Tyler Seguin leads the Stars in goals and points this season with 14 and 39 respectively. He also has enjoyed success against the Blues posting 17 points in 19 games. Jason Spezza has also been good against the Blues with 15 points in 20 games.
Kari Lehtonen is expected to start tonight. He has a 92.4% save percentage and 2.09 goals against average against the Blues.
For the Blues, a lot of players have enjoyed historic success against the Stars. Paul Stastny has 18 goals and 41 points in only 40 games while Vladimir Tarasenko has 9 goals and 14 points in 17 games. Kevin Shattenkirk has 22 points in 25 games and Alex Pietrangelo has 23 points in 28 games.
Carter Hutton who has a 91.9% save percentage and 2.49 goals against average against the Stars will get the start (Allen is on essentially paternity leave). The rest of the Blues lineup is in flux due to illness.
As to Thursday’s game against the Hurricanes, the Hurricanes controlled the game and soundly beat the Blues in what appeared to be a let down type game after the Winter Classic win. Give the Hurricanes credit in playing a strong road game and controlling most of the game. Simply put, they were the better team.
Jammer’s Nine NHL Nuggets
1) The Florida Panthers are wearing FLL stickers on their Tuuks tonight. See the Panthers twitter feed for photos.
2) Even with their 5-0 loss to the Capitals, the Blue Jackets have a league best +47 goal differential.
3) Colorado and Arizona are the worst teams in the league by a wide margin (5 wins or more).
4) Washington is in a wild card position in the East. They would be 1st or 2nd in other division.
5) Brent Burns needs to check his rearview mirror. Victor Hedman is only 1 point behind him.
6) Patrik Laine and Auston Matthews are tied for the rookie lead in goals with 21.
7) Zach Werenski has almost 50% more points than the next rookie defenseman.
8) Devan Dubynk is outdueling Sergei Bobrovsky in every category but wins but will they both lose the Vezina to Carey Price who trails them in every category.
9) Jimmy Howard can’t get any help. He has the 2nd best save percentage and a sub 2 goals against and is only winning 1/3 of his starts.
Some Winter Classic Photos
You can find some of the photos we took 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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