Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie The Blues rebounded from an embarrassing loss by soundly defeating the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday by a score of 3-0.
Carter Hutton was strong yet again, stopping all 25 Senators’ shots but the bigger story was the Blues controlling the game, outshooting the Senators 41-25 even with the Senators having an extra power play chance.
I didn’t get to watch much of the game but the box score seemed to have a few things of note. - Vladimir Sobotka, Vladimir Tarasenko and Brayden Schenn all scored. - One defenseman had an assist on each goal, suggesting the D were active. - Only 1 Blues forward played more than 17:45 even though they only had 11 dressed. - All but 1 Blues forward played less than 12:45. - Carl Gunnarsson only played 8:11 and Vince Dunn 11:17 though the team dressed 7 defensemen. - Joel Edmundson was tied for 2nd among all Blues with 4 shots on goal. - The Blues won 59% of the face offs.
Tonight the Blues will host the Colorado Avalanche in their last game before the all-star break. The Avalanche are 9-1 in their last 10 games and have surged into the final wild card spot in the Western conference and could surge into the top 3 of the Central division if the Avalanche win their games in hand.
The surge was aided by the fact that 9 of their last 12 and 12 of their last 17 games have been at home. The Avalanche have played 26 of their 47 games at home. On the road, the Avalanche are a paltry 9-10-2.
The Avalanche have been scoring a lot this season, ranking 4th in goals per game. Their goal prevention has been average, ranked 17th. Their special teams have been good, ranking 2nd on the penalty kill and 11th on the power play.
It sounds like Jonathan Bernier will get the start again in net. He has a 90.6% save percentage and a 3.00 goals against average against the Blues. So far this season Bernier has stopped 92% of the shots he has faced, well above his career average.
Nathan MacKinnon has been on fire with 8 goals and 17 points in his last 10 games, giving him 60 points in 47 games and vaulting him into 2nd place in the NHL scoring race. He is only 1 point behind Nikita Kucherov but does have a game in hand. MacKinnon has 11 points in 18 games against the Blues.
Alexander Kerfoot will be facing the Blues for the 2nd time. He made quite the impression his first time, scoring 2 goals and adding an assist. Kerfoot has 31 points in 44 games this season as a rookie. Youn player Mikko Rantanen is putting together quite a season with 47 points so far though 37 of them have come on home ice. Rantanen has also been on fire with 5 goals and 14 points in his last 9 games.
Tyson Barrie is out with a fractured right hand.
Given the previous game’s shutout, it shouldn’t really shock anyone that Carter Hutton will get the start again. Hutton has a 90.3% save percentage and a 2.88 goals against average versus the Avalanche in his career.
Vladimir Tarasenko leads the way against the Avalanche with 18 points in 22 games. Paul Stastny has 9 points in 13 games while Jaden Schwartz has 11 points in 18 games.
And yes, Jaden Schwartz is expected back in the lineup, playing alongside Alexander Steen and Brayden Schenn. With Schwartz back, the Blues put Magnus Paajarvi on waivers.
My guess at the lines tonight looks like this:
Forwards Ivan Barbashev - Paul Stastny – Vladimir Tarasenko Jaden Schwartz - Brayden Schenn – Alexander Steen Vladimir Sobotka - Patrik Berglund – Tage Thompson Scottie Upshall – Kyle Brodziak – Dmitrij Jaskin
Defense Joel Edmundson - Alex Pietrangelo Jay Bouwmeester - Colton Parayko Vince Dunn - Robert Bortuzzo
Goalie Carter Hutton
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.