Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie The Blues wrapped up their four game road trip by blowing a three goal lead and a third period lead in Nashville by giving up six unanswered goals.
I was listening to the game on the radio in the second period when Nashville scored two goals in a little over 2 minutes. Kelly Chase commented to the effect that Jake Allen likely wanted the first Nashville goal back. In seeing the replay, I can understand how Allen might think he could have made the save but given where Edmundson’s stick is on the shot and the traffic in front of Allen, you can understand how the goal was scored. I didn’t see it as an extremely weak goal by any means.
On the second goal, Chase commented that Allen had to have that shot and I agree completely. Some will blame Kevin Shattenkirk for unnecessarily backing in at the blue line and allowing the shot but even with that error, Allen has to make that save. It is a very stoppable shot at a point in the game where giving up the goal can turn the entire momentum of the game. These are the type of goals that seem to give teams fits and begin to turn victories into losses. Watching the video, I noticed that Allen’s right leg seals the butterly but his left leg is late to the party and that his stick position is off, allowing the shot to go 5-hole, illustrated here:
The four goal Predator third period started with a poor Alex Pietrangelo play that led to a goal and was followed up a number of miscues by Patrik Berglund on the eventual game winning goal. The play started with a poor decision in the Predator zone by failing to support the pressure that Nail Yakupov was going to apply on the forecheck. Instead of moving high in the zone to defend the pass up the wall, he also goes to forecheck the puck which Yakupov is already in a much better position to do. Berglund then also coasts through the defensive neutral zone allowing him to get beat to the puck before his stick breaks. Watch it here. This creates a two on one that the Predators finish nicely.
About a minute and a half later, Allen let in a back breaking goal to put the Predators up 2, misplaying an easy shot to his glove and leaving a fat city rebound for Ribiero. Much like first goal of the period, this goal starts by a misplay by a Blues defensemen along the wall (Kevin Shattenkirk this time) but in reality, the very poor save on the initial shot is the real cause of this goal with the rebound fluttering off his trapper to the far side of the net for Ribiero to bang the puck home.
On the positive side, Shattenkirk continues to put up points and potentially drive up his trade value, notching a goal and an assist while Brad Hunt extended his Blues career point streak to three games with a goal.
Up next are the New Jersey Devils tonight at the Scottrade Center, the only team the Blues beat on their recent road trip. The Devils will be looking for revenge for that 4-1 loss. The Devils are coming off a 5-0 loss to the Rangers and have lost three in a row. Unlike the game in New Jersey, expect Cory Schneider to get the start tonight in net for the Devils.
The Devils have been struggling to score at only 2.39 goals per game and no players with 10 goals and only three players with at least 8 goals. When you add that to Cory Schneider’s average 90.7% save percentage and you can see why the Devils are in 6th place in their division.
Coach Ken Hitchcock will again be changing up the lines, expect them to start like this: Fabbri – Lehtera – Tarasenko Schwartz – Stastny – Jaskin Steen – Berglund –Perron Upshall – Brodziak – Reaves (might not play though) Edmundson – Pietrangelo Hunt – Shattenkirk Bouwmeester – Parayko Allen
The Blues will be looking to extend their 13 game home point streak tonight. Allen will be going for his 8th home win in a row. In order to be successful, one would think that David Perron and Paul Stastny would need to contribute at least somewhat regularly. Perron is pointless in his last 7 games while Stastny is pointless in 7 of his last 8 games. Blues fans hope that home cooking continues to treat the team well tonight.
Jammer’s 9 NHL Nuggets 1) The Penguins, Flyers, Blue Jackets and Capitals have won 29 games in a row. 2) Oiler fans may be getting more worried, falling to 3rd in the division and only 1 point ahead of the Flames and only 5 ahead of the Kings who have 4 games in hand. 3) The Blackhawks finally seem safely above 70% on the PK. Depending on how they end the year, maybe we’ll create the Hawks Line like baseball has the Mendoza line. 4) The Hurricanes penalty kill is insane at over 92% success. 5) The Rangers are falling in the standings as their goals per game average plummets, now down below 3.5. 6) Phil Kessel has been streaking (2g 5a in 5 games) and now is averaging a point per game. 7) Jeff Carter and Artem Anisimov have 12 game winning goals out of their 27 goals. 8) Sidney Crosby leads all players in shooting % (players with more than 5 goals) at almost 27%. 9) Don’t think the power play is important to the Flyers? The top 3 NHL players in power play points are Flyers (Giroux, Simmonds and Voracek). The Blues have 2 of the next 3.
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.