Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie
Tonight the Blues will face the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Hurricanes are fresh off a 6-3 drubbing of the Toronto Maple Leafs last night where the Hurricanes got 2 goals from Josh Jooris and one from Brock McGinn, Elias Lindholm, Teuvo Teravainen, and Victor Rask. Scott Darling stopped 31 of 34 shots for the win.
The Canes are a respectable 4-3-1 with a zero goal differential. They have an 1-1-1 record at home so far this season. They are in the top ten in both shots for (9th) and shots against (7th) per game. Their penalty kill is not much better than the Blues (80% vs 75%) while their power play is worse (16.1% vs 18.4%).
The Canes haven’t exactly been strong starters with only a +1 goal differential in the 1st period. A strong start will be key given they played and traveled last night. The Blues on the other hand are a +6 in the 1st period. The Canes are in the bottom half of the league in SPSV% (shooting + save %) while the Blues are 5th.
Perhaps more interesting, the Canes have a league worst home shooting percentage of 5.4% and 2nd worst goals per game at home (2 per game) even though they generate the 6th most shots per game at home (37.3). They Blues aren’t much better shooting on the road, only 8%.
As you would expect, Jeff Skinner leads the Canes in points and goals with 5 goals and 7 points in 8 games. Blues fans who aren’t familiar with the Canes should focus on Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce who likely will draw the assignment of trying to shut down Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko. I’m also interested to see Noah Hanifan play.
Given that Darling played last night, expect to see Cam Ward between the pipes tonight. Ward has been excelling in his career against the Blues, posting a 93.3% save percentage in 12 games. Like Ward, Jeff Skinner has been a Blues killer with 11 points in only 10 games.
For the Blues, Schwartz has been on fire to start the season. Tonight we’ll see if he can break his point struggles against the Canes (1 point in 7 games) and keep his torrid pace going. Unlike Schwartz, Alex Pietrangelo has been on fire against the Canes (10 points in 12 games) and hopes to keep his Norris chance going at full speed.
Tarasenko only has 2 goals nad 4 points in 8 games against the Canes but Paul Stastny has 11 points in 13 games.
Carter Hutton will get the start and has only played 3 games against the Canes and has a 2.53 goals against average and a 91.7% save percentage against them.
I expect the lineup to look like this tonight:
Forwards Jaden Schwartz - Brayden Schenn - Vladimir Tarasenko Vladimir Sobotka – Paul Stastny - Alexander Steen Magnus Paajarvi – Oskar Sunqvist – Beau Bennett Scottie Upshall - Kyle Brodziak – Chris Thorburn
Defense Joel Edmundson - Alex Pietrangelo Carl Gunnarsson - Colton Parayko Vince Dunn - Robert Bortuzzo
Goalie Carter Hutton
Some good news for Blues fans:
Kostin & Warsofsky out in full contact sweaters for morning skate. Looks like both will be available for tonight. #sarampage #avs #stlblues
— Dan Weiss (@DanWeissPBP) October 27, 2017
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.