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*****UPDATE****
Coach Yeo has put the lines in a blender. They are supposedly going to start like this:
Forwards
Alexander Steen – Paul Stastny - Vladimir Tarasenko
Jaden Schwartz - Brayden Schenn - Beau Bennett
Vladimir Sobotka - Oskar Sundqvist – Dmitrij Jaskin
Scottie Upshall - Kyle Brodziak – Chris Thorburn
Defense
Carl Gunnarsson - Alex Pietrangelo
Joel Edmundson - Colton Parayko
Vince Dunn - Robert Bortuzzo
Goalie
Jake Allen
**************
The Blues got soundly defeated on Saturday night by what should have been a road weary Islanders, losing 5-2 after going down 4-0. This game is a great example of why you can’t always trust the fancy stats. The xGF had the Blues winning by 1.25 goals and in control of the adjusted Corsi. One thing is certain, the Blues were never in control of the game.
The Blues failed to bury extremely high quality chances and continually got burned in coverage after those failures. Paul Stastny had a rough night as he had failures to convert into an open net (hit the post) and a mostly open net (failed to lift the puck and hit Greiss) turned quickly back the other way and into goals for the Islanders. He also needed some stiches and maybe more after taking a high-stick from John Tavares.
Colton Parayko also struggled all game long. Just one example was his poor coverage on a 2 on 1 where he took neither the shooter nor the passing lane that turned into a goal for the Islanders.
Joel Edmundson, Parayko, Stastny, Alexander Steen, and Vladimir Sobotka were a combined -17. The struggles of that line and poor goaltending by Jake Allen let the game get out of hand very quickly out of hand. Allen seemed to struggle throughout the 1st period with rebound control and play reads. I was surprised he wasn’t taken out either after the 3rd goal or in between the 1st and 2nd period.
The team and players just need to forget about the game and move on. Even with the poor performance, they still sit atop the Western Conference with 3 more points than the nearest team. Hopefully the upcoming Canadian road trip will be the cure for their lackluster play last week.
The Blues will be Calgary serving as the opponent for the Flames’ final game of their 7 game home stand. The Flames are 4-2 so far during the home stand. With tonight’s game, the Flames will have played as many or more home games as any team in the NHL not named the New York Rangers. The Flames will be seeking to avenge their 5-2 loss to the Blues in St. Louis about 3 weeks ago.
The Flames are 25th in goals per game and 15th in goals against per game while only 26th in the face off circle. The Flames have struggled like the Blues on special teams and sit 19th on the power play (Blues are 23rd) and 27th on the penalty kill (Blues are 20th).
Johnny “Hockey” Gaudreau is having quite a season with 22 points in 16 games. Sean Monahan is also going well averaging a point a game and scoring 4 game winning goals. Mike Smith has been doing well in his first season in Calgary, posting a 2.55 goals against average and a 92.4% save percentage. Jaromir Jagr has only played 7 games and has 4 points so far this season.
Gaudreau has 9 points in 10 games against the Blues but is -4 and no game winning goals. Monahan has 7 points in 13 games and is -9 but does have 2 game winning goals. Jagr has 28 points in 33 games without a game winning goal against the Blues (1 of only 3 teams he has faced and not scored a game winning goal- Detroit and San Jose). Matthew Tkachuk has 3 points in 3 games against the Blues. Smith has struggled against the Blues posting an 88.5% save percentage and a 3.52 goals against average. TJ Brodie has also struggled against the Blues contributing only 2 assists while being a -14 in 16 games against the Blues.
For the Blues, I would expect Jake Allen to get the start even though he didn’t have his best game against the Islanders and has been poor against the Flames, posting a 2.86 goals against average and an 89.3% save percentage. Another Blue who struggled mightily Saturday, Parayko, has been great against the Flames with 7 points in 7 games. Hopefully this will be the game that gets him going this season.
Vladimir Tarasenko has been good against the Flames with 14 points in 15 games while Steen has 24 points in 29 games and Schwartz has 12 points in 15 games but Stastny leads the pack with 57 points in 49 games.
It will be interesting to see if coach Mike Yeo changes the lineup at all tonight.
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.
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