Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie The St. Louis Blues have started the season 3-0, just like they did last season. Blues fans have to be happy when they look at the standings and they see the Blues leading the division and tied for the best record in the league. They also have to be concerned that they gave up a 2 goal third period lead for the second time in three games.
On Saturday, the Blues held onto the lead they built in the first period in defeating the Stars 4-2 even though they got outshot almost 2 to 1. The Blues got 2 more goals for defensemen, meaning four different defensemen scored in the first two games, continuing their aggressive, play pushing style.
As I mentioned earlier, Jake Allen was very good in this game, especially after the 10 minute mark or so, making an excellent glove save on Jamie Benn. Also impressive was Brayden Schenn who contributed 2 assists.
Vince Dunn and Tage Thompson both made some good plays and experienced some growing pains though more Thompson than Dunn. After the game, coach Mike Yeo commented that even though they made have had some coachable moments “you don’t want to paralyze them. You don’t want them being afraid of making a play, of trying to make a difference.…
Vladimir Tarasenko was better than the score sheet showed Saturday night with his play directly leading to the Carl Gunnarsson goal even though he did not get an assist. The other Vladimir (Sobotoka) also had a strong game with an assist and winning 75% of his draws.
Joel Edmundson looked more like the playoff Joel Edmundson from last spring and Dmitrij Jaskin played a strong game providing 8 hits. Even though Jaskin played well, Yeo put Magnus Paajarvi in his place in the latter part of the game, perhaps to try and get the struggling Paajarvi going.
Of course, other than perhaps Allen, Jaden Schwartz seemed like the best Blues player contributing a goal and an assist and being all over the ice. The advanced statistics aligned with this though as he was the team and game leader in adjusted corsi.
On Monday afternoon, the Blues blew another two goal, third period lead before eventually winning the game, defeating the Islanders 3-2 in a shootout. By all accounts the real star of the game was Allen who stopped 40 of 42 shots and both shootout attempts.
According to Corsica.hockey, Allen is tied for 4th in high danger save percentage among goalies with at least 60 minutes of play. He is 17th in mid danger and 26th in low danger and 9th overall. Allen is 5th in goals saved above average. Interestingly, Kari Lehtonen is last. Of course it is still very early.
When you look at those numbers more closely, Blues fans should get concerned as Allen has faced 10 high danger shots per game which falls in line with teams like Winnipeg, Colorado, Montreal, Toronto, and Calgary, teams that are not known for their defense and goal prevention and some known for their losing ways over the last few years. Vladimir Tarasenko was a close runner up to Allen as he had both Blues goals and 4 shots on goal.
Wade Megan and Ivan Barbashev slid into the lineup against the Islanders with Oskar Sundqvist and Chris Thornburn joining Nate Proesser in the press box. Megan and Barbashev combined for less than 18 minutes and 2 shots on goal. Megan won 50% of his draw while Barbashev won 60% of his. Megan had the team’s worst adjusted corsi while Barbashev had the best.
As Jay Bouwmeester gets healthy, it will be interesting to see if he replace Robert Bortuzzo, Carl Gunnarsson or Vince Dunn. If Bortuzzo continues to take bad penalties, it likely could be Bortuzzo. As a side note, Bortuzzo was fined the maximum allowable for his double minor cross checking penalty.
As Alexander Steen gets healthy, I think you will see him replace Tage Thompson or Magnus Paajarvi.
Advanced statistics are only one of three in getting the Blues’ results correct. They showed the Blues beating Dallas but according to Corsica.hockey, the adjusted corsi of the Blues vs Islanders had the Islanders winning by almost 2 goals. Just more evidence that multiple sources of information need to be considered when drawing conclusions.
On a side not, I wonder what the Vegas parlay odds would have been to pick the Blues, Kings, Golden Knights, Red Wings, Maple Leafs, Hurricanes and Devils all to be undefeated as we sit this afternoon. A $2 bet would have paid off more than I make in a month, assuming Vegas would have even set odds on something like this (which they wouldn’t likely do).
Tonight the Blues will be at Madison Square Garden to take on the Rangers. Because of the three games in four days, the Blues had the morning off so I’m not sure what the lines will look like. I’d expect Prosser may get his first action of the season, perhaps for Bortuzzo. It will be interesting to see who sits among the forwards.
The Blues are tied for 7th in power play efficiency and 12th on the penalty kill. The Rangers are 3rd best on the power play but 2nd to last on the penalty kill.
Alex Pietrangelo leads all NHL defensemen in points.
The NHL did a team history on the Blues. You can watch 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 will donate in their name.