Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie After a disappointing trade deadline, the Blues see themselves taking on the Winnipeg Jets tonight in the Peg at 7pm. The Blues have lost 4 games in a row, potting only 6 goals in those games. The losing streak comes after a 6 game winning streak, continuing the Jekyll and Hyde season.
The Jets have lost two games in a row and six of their last seven at home. Any hopes of the playoffs are fading fast as they sit six points out with the Blues also ahead of them but still out of the playoffs. Yes, you read that right. The Blues sit 9th in the Western Conference. Both teams are tied for the 2nd worst save percentage in the league at 89.7%. The Jets have the same number of wins (14) on the road and at home.
The Jets are 20th in the NHL on the power play and 27th on the penalty kill and 27th in goals against per game. They are in the top 10 in goals for per game. Patrik Laine leads the way with 31 goals while Mark Scheifele leads the way in points with 65. Dustin Byfuglien has 40 points to lead their defensemen.
The Blues called up Jordan Schmaltz to fill Kevin Shattenkirk’s roster spot but he is not expected to play tonight. Carter Hutton will get the start in net with his dad in attendance (it’s his dad’s birthday). Why do I feel like Allen would have gotten the start of Ken Hitchcock was still the coach?
Expect the lines to start out like this tonight: Steen – Stastny - Perron Schwartz – Lehtera – Tarasenko Sanford – Berglund – Paajarvi Upshall – Barbashev – Reaves Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo Gunnarsson – Parayko Edmundson – Bortuzzo Hutton
I realize the Blues were going to lose Pheonix Copley and Shattenkirk for nothing the offseason but the return they received from Washington seemed underwhelming. More telling was some of general manager Doug Armstrong’s quotes over the last few days. He made comments to the effect that if the Blues would have been in the same position this year as last year (top few teams in the standings), Shattenkirk would not have been traded. He also mentioned that he had concluded in January that Shattenkirk wasn’t going to be in St. Louis beyond this season.
He added that they “will lean heavily on Steen, Stastny, Bouwmeester, Berglund and Brodziak… to “lead the competitive charge…. I’m not sure how much faith Blues fans have in that group leading the competitive charge. If the core is truly changing on the team, Tarasenko, Schwartz, Pietrangelo, and Parayko need to be the ones leading the charge.
Comments like “if you can get into the playoffs, we have an opportunity to win… from Armstrong won’t instill a lot of confidence in the fan base or the players. Armstrong’s quotes seem to suggest they see just making the playoffs to be the real goal now, something reinforced with them currently on the outside looking in.
Hutton playing tonight is just another example of a difference in Hitchcock and Yeo. It’s really similar to Barbashev and Agostino getting more playing time. You also may have noticed Bouwmeester delivering more hits and aggressive play since Mike Yeo took over. Expect more of the coaching differences to surface as the weeks go on.
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.