The Blues and Blackhawks played a spirited game last night in St. Louis with the Hawks winning 2-1 in overtime. The game was one of the best November games you will see in the NHL, hotly contested and played at a high level.
The game started poorly for the Blues with Kevin Shattenkirk taking a bad delay of game penalty (something that would become a theme) and then the officials making a questionable call on Alex Pietrangelo for what usually ends of being a stick check along the wall. The Blues were able to kill the 5 on 3 thanks in large part to a couple of strong saves by Jake Allen.
Midway through the first the Blues got their first power play. Paul Stastny shot a rebound at the empty net but Brent Seabrook got his stick on the shot. It was a great save by Seabrook, preventing a goal that almost always happens in that situation. On the last shift of the period, Corey Crawford made a strong save on a Ryan Reaves deflection, preserving the 0-0 score. Both goalies played well in the 1st period. Allen was again more efficient and precise in his movements.
Early in the second period, Kevin Shattenkirk got caught in no-man’s land between the face-off dot and the goal line, not covering any players and watching. His poor positioning allowed for the puck to go back to the point for a Gustav Forsling shot. Jake Allen did a very poor job with the shot, not corralling the puck nor guiding it to the corner, and allowing Marian Hossa to put in the rebound. Throughout the second period, Allen had some trouble corralling pucks or guiding them to safety but again his movement was more precise and efficient.
In the second half of the 2nd period, the Blues had another glorious power play chance with David Perron feeding Stasnty in the slot with a deft pass. Stastny shot the puck off the edge of Crawford’s glove. Crawford didn’t even react until it had already hit his glove.
A couple of minutes later Allen stopped Kane (who had beaten Shattenkirk) on a partial breakaway. Allen made a few of these stops last night, playing them correctly though it helps when certain options are taken away from the attacking forward. If a goalie only has to defend a couple of options instead of several, it makes their job a lot easier.
Midway through the 3rd period, the Blues got their third power play of the game. The
Blues again got their third glorious power play scoring chance but failed to convert. Stastny fed Vladimir Tarasenko at the far post but Crawford made an amazing read and an even better push, getting his skate on the Tarasenko shot.
The Blues killed their momentum with a dumb too many men on the ice penalty with a little over five minutes left.
Alex Pietrangelo was able to finally tie the game with 2 minutes left, blasting a shot from the high point through traffic and barely in. Less than a minute later, Pietrangelo took a dumb delay of game penalty, one that would eventually contribute to the team losing in overtime a Artemi Panarin would wrist a shot past Allen just as Pietrangelo was stepping back onto the ice.
On the injury front, the Blackhawks lost Artem Anisimov with about 5:30 left in the 2nd period. Carl Gunnarsson had a shift in the first period where he was slow to get up and he labored to the bench though he did play the rest of the game. Coach Ken Hitchcock confirmed that Chris Butler’s call up was precautionary as some of the defensemen were dinged up last night. I wonder if Lindbohm also is dinged as he played less than 10 minutes and I thought had some strong shifts, particularly one where he activated a good, quick low shot and another where he stood up a driving Panarin.
The Blues don’t have much time to regroup as they take on the Nashville Predators tonight in Nashvile. While Coach Ken Hitchcock was playing coy last night in regards to who will start tonight. Carter Hutton will get the start as expected. Remember, Allen only has an 86% save percentage on the road this season with a 3.42 GAA. Historically, Allen is tangibly worse on the road with a 0.77 higher GAA and a .016 worse save percentage. Add in the back to back aspect and starting Hutton is an easy call.
The Predators have been good at home, going 3-1-1 while only earning 11 points in 12 games this season. The Predators power play ranks 3rd in the league while their penalty kill is 5th worst while they are 18th and 19th respectively in goals for per game and goals against per game.
You know the Predators are struggling when Filip Forsberg is without a goal through 12 games and Craig Smith leads the team in goals. He is ahead of Forsberg, Neal, Johansen and Fisher. PK Subban is tied for the team lead in points with 8 and is playing almost 25 minutes a night. Pekka Rinne has a strong 92.2% save percentage.
As to the lineup tonight, Nail Yakupov comes in for Robby Fabbri who will be a healthy scratch.
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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