Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie The Blues continued to be streaky under Mike Yeo on Saturday night, winning their 4th game in a row by beating the New York Islanders. The game itself has its own Jeykll and Hyde type situation with Carter Hutton standing tall in the first two periods, stopping 17 of 18 shots. The Blues were outplayed in the first period but Hutton held the fort, allowing the Blues to leave the period with a 1-0 lead. Even though the second period seemed fairly even in play, the Blues were able to extend their lead to 4-1.
The third period was a bit of an adventure for Hutton, giving up 2 goals on only 6 shots. Hutton seemed to whiff on Anthony Beauvillier’s shot only a couple of minutes into the period. He got caught overplaying significantly to his right, allowing a shot from Nick Leddy at the point to find the net. I’m not sure why he was moving so far to his right but he left Leddy a lot of net to hit. In the end, it didn’t matter as the Blues still got the much needed win. The win brought them to within striking distance of Nashville with the Predators having a two point lead with an extra game played.
The 4-3 win was the 5th straight home game decided by one goal and was yet another example of how Tarasenko has one of the most deadly shots in the NHL.
The Blues start their five game west coast trip tonight when they visit the Kings. The Kings are in the middle of a seven game home stand, winning 3 of the first 4 and going 4-1-2 in their last 7 games overall.
The Kings are currently on the outside looking in but they have a real opportunity to catch the Oilers and the Blues. The Kings are 7 points behind the Oilers but have a game in hand and play the Oilers 3 more times this season.
The Kings are one of the stingiest teams in the NHL, giving up the 5th lowest goals per game, allowing the least shots per game and being tied for 3rd best in penalty killing. The Kings problems are more related to their scoring where they sit 23rd in goals per game.
Jeff Carter leads the Kings in scoring with 31 goals and 59 points in 67 games. Drew Doughty and Alec Martinez are 4th and 5th in points with 37 and 35, respectively. Other than Carter, only Tanner Pearson (22) has more than 12 goals.
Jonathan Quick is expected to get the start in net. Quick has won 3 starts in a row giving up 2 goals in each game. He has a career 91.9% save percentage against the Blues.
Interestingly, the Kings have the worst home save percentage in the league this season at 89.4% though they do have the 4th best home power play
For the Blues, it appears that Paul Stastny and Colton Parayko will rejoin the lineup while Jori Lehtera is expected to be scratched. Vladimir Tarsaenko’s two goals on Saturday game him 32 on the year. Jaden Schwartz has been playing some strong hockey lately with five assists in his last four games. With the returning players, expect the lines to start out like this tonight: Schwartz – Stastny – Tarasenko Steen – Berglund - Perron Jaskin – Barbashev – Paajarvi Upshall – Brodziak – Reaves Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo Edmundson - Parayko Gunnarsson – Bortuzzo Allen
Don’t look now but Brian Elliott has run his season save percentage up to 91% and has posted back to back shutouts. He has a 96.3% save percentage in his last 7 games and has won 9 games in a row.
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.