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********Update********
Nikita Soshnikov is confirmed out (upper body injury). Soshnikov's last shift ended with about 7:30 left in the 3rd period. Considering this also was the case for Chris Thorburn and Oskar Sundqvist, nobody thought much of it.
Vladimir Tarasenko is in.
Even though Carter Hutton and Scottie Upshall have been skating, both are out until at least Tuesday.
Tonight's potential lines:
Forwards
Jaden Schwartz - Brayden Schenn - Vladimir Tarasenko
Patrik Berglund - Kyle Brodziak - Alexander Steen
Dmitrij Jaskin - Vladimir Sobotka - Tage Thompson
Ivan Barbashev - Oskar Sundqvist - Chris Thorburn
Defense
Carl Gunnarsson - Alex Pietrangelo
Vince Dunn - Colton Parayko
Joel Edmundson - Robert Bortuzzo
Goalie
Jake Allen
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The Blues continued to inch their way toward the playoffs on Wednesday night, winning their third overtime game in a row with all three games being 3rd period come from behind victories.
The Bruins got a very lucky break midway through the period when Alex Pietrangelo’s short-handed clearing attempt hit referee Brad Watson, ricocheting right to the wheelhouse of newcomer Ryan Donato who blasted the shot past Jake Allen for the power play goal. Allen had little chance on the play.
Through the rest of the 1st and 2nd periods, both Allen and Anton Khudobin performed extremely well, keeping the game scoreless. Other than a couple of shots in the 1st period, Allen was very strong with rebound control and prevention. Allen only has 5 starts in 2018 with a 91% save percentage and 2 of those were against the Bruins.
While the Blues felt the referees negatively impacted the game in the 1st period, the Bruins likely felt similarly in the 2nd period. With about 6 minutes left in the 2nd period, Brayden Schenn delivered a questionable check on David Krejci. Schenn received a 2 minute minor for charging, a call that didn’t seem to fit the play in my opinion.
I wish the officials were made available after the game for questions. I wonder if they may have been a bit hamstrung by the rulebook. The officials could have assessed a major for charging though, in my opinion, it really wasn’t a charge. The correct call to me was for an illegal check to the head. Some Blues fans might argue that this penalty doesn’t apply given Schenn “attempted to hit squarely through the opponent’s body” and “the head was not ‘picked’ as a result of poor timing or poor angle of approach” but the question is did Schenn have “unnecessary extension of the body upward or outward”.
What fans may not realize is that, in one of the craziest rules, referees cannot assess a major penalty for an illegal check to the head as there is “no provision for a major penalty for this rule” but they can assess a match penalty that would remove the player from the game. The maximum power play available under the illegal check to the head penalty is two minutes. Did this factor into what they called? I’m guessing not since they called it charging rather than an illegal check to the head.
I have seen some Bruins fans mention the Backes hit and suspension in relation to this hit but that seems a poor analogy to me. The penalty on Backes was interference with the puck being long gone and the player having no reasonable expectation of being hit. Under the interference rules, a major can be called “based on the degree of violence”. Regardless, the Blues were able to kill the power play, setting the stage for the 3rd period comeback.
Midway through the 3rd period, Jaden Schwartz would get the equalizer. Schwartz had a number of quality chances with Khudobin pinching one shot off between his arm and body and making two other quality stops than I can remember before beating him high blocker with a beautifully placed shot.
The Blues almost won the game with seconds left but a scrambling Khudobin stopped Ivan Barbashev’s rebound attempt, spoiling a Blues regulation win. No matter though, Schwartz would take the puck end to end or the overtime game winning goal, adding to the Blues ROW total.
Some game notes:
- Dunn played almost 20 minutes
- Oskar Sundqvist had a team low 6:42 of ice time
- Brodziak was 75% in the dot
- The Blues outhit the Bruins 46–24
Even with this win, the Blues still face an uphill battle into the playoffs as the rest of the league isn’t helping their chances out much lately with the Ducks beating the Flames and the Kings beating the Avalanche and the Sharks beat Vegas in overtime. With the activity, the Blues are on pace for 95.5 points, the Ducks 96.6, the Kings 97.3 and the Avalanche 97.5. With a win tonight, the Blues pace would move to 96.4. As far as games to keep tabs on tonight, the Jets host the Ducks and to a lesser extent the Stars host the Bruins.
Tonight the Blues will be hosting the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks beat the Blackhawks in Chicago last night 5-2. The Canucks are 2-7-1 in their last 10 games. Before the win in Chicago, the Canucks had lost 5 road games in a row and 7 of their last 8.
The Canucks have had trouble scoring, ranking 27th in goals per game even though they are 8th on the power play. They are worse defensively, ranking 28th in goals against per game.
Based on Jacob Markstrom playing last night, expect to see former Blues player Anders Nilsson tonight. Nilsson has struggled against the Blues, posting only an 84.2% save percentage and a 4.41 goals against average.
Jake Allen will be in net again, looking to keep his streak going against the Canucks. He is 2-0 this year with a 92.6% save percentage and a 1.96 goals against average. It also isn’t unreasonable to think Allen will start tomorrow in Columbus.
It sounds like Vladimir Tarasenko may get back into the linenup tonight. He practiced this morning and even took reps on the 1st power play unit though I hope they leave Vince Dunn on the 1st unit and slide Alexander Steen to the 2nd unit. Carter Hutton and Scottie Upshall also practiced. Nikita Soshnikov did not.
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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