Follow @stlgoalie The Blues kept their California visit going well with a 4-0 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night.
Good goaltending from Jonathan Quick and Jake Allen kept the game scoreless through the 1st period as the two combined for 21 saves.
The Blues opened the 2nd period strong with Vladimir Tarasenko scoring a vintage Tarasenkgoal just 25 seconds into the period.
None of the Blues forwards played more than 18:19, the minutes spread nicely around in the second game of back to back games.
Allen played well, stopping 28 shots and making a number of quality shots. The performance appeared to be strong enough to give Craig Berube pause as to who would start in San Jose today.
The Blues will be looking to avenge their 4-0 loss in San Jose in mid-November. In that game, Joe Pavelski had 2 goals, and Erik Karlsson and Evander Kane each added a goal while Aaron Dell made 30 saves in the shutout.
Joe Thornton is the only shark who has real success against the Blues with 54 points in 52 games. Pavelski only had 9 goals and 21 points in 41 games before the last game. Evander Kane only has 12 points in 19 games.
The Sharks have won three games in a row and six of their last 10. They are an incredible 22-5-5 at home and are 4-0-1 in their last five home games.
The Blues will be without Vladimir Tarsaenko who has an upper body injury which is really bad news for Blues fans. Taraseko didn’t miss a shift, taking his last regular shift with about a minute left in regulation (sound familiar?). Speculation has been that Taraseno wasn’t his usual self because of lingering injuries.
Even more bad news for Blues fans, coach Craig Berube feels the need to again put Jaden Schwartz on the 1st line. Some cynical fans will say book the loss now, especially once they realize Jake Allen will get the start in net. Allen does have a 92.5% save percentage against the Sharks though he is only 4-3-1. More positive fans will hope that this will get Schwartz going and Allen will build off last game and go on a roll.
With Tarasenko out, I’ll guess the lines as these: Schenn-O'Reilly-Schwartz Maroon-Bozak-Thomas Sanford-Sundqvist-Steen MacEachern-Barbashev-Blais Edmundson-Pietrangelo Bouwmeester-Parayko Dunn-Bortuzzo Allen
NHL Champions for Charity We’ve gotten some traction on the charity wager among the Central Division bloggers. One charity I’ll highlight is Best Buddies Tennessee https://www.bestbuddies.org/tennessee/from your Predators’s Blogger Paul McCann. Best Buddies Tennessee is dedicated to establishing a volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development and inclusive living opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. As a side note, I recently got to experience a Best Buddies even in the St. Louis area that was led by the Eureka high school football team. It was a lot of fun and brought a lot of joy to those involved.
It’s a great day for hockey.