Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie On Monday, the Blues downed one of the best teams in the NHL, beating the Kings 4-2 by handing them only their second regulation loss. For those of you keeping track, the xGF had the Blues winning. Work isn’t allowing for a good recap so here are some cliff notes from the game:
- Tarasenko and Schwartz both had a two point night, a goal and an assist each. - Schenn had a team high 4 shots on goal. - The Blues still have 3 players averaging a point per game or more. - Carl Gunnarsson had the game winning goal, giving the Blues 3 defensemen with 3 goals and giving them the league lead in goals from defensemen. - Vince Dunn logged almost 16 minutes of ice time and was +2. - Drew Doughty was -3 with only 1 shot on goal. - Dustin Brown continued his revival with a goal.
The Blues will look to push their perfect home record to 6 and their winning streak to 5 when they host the Philadelphia Flyers tonight. The Flyers have struggled on the road, going 3-4, will be without one of their best defensemen (Shayne Gostisbehere) and lost last night in Chicago 3-0.
The Flyers have been stingy in shots, allowing the 4th fewest shots per game, but are only middle of the road in goals against per game (17th). They are 10th in goals for per game while being 9th in shot generation. Their power play ranks 8th and their penalty kill 23rd.
Jakub Voracek leads the team with 16 points, followed closely by Sean Couturier (15) and Claude Giroux (14). Gostisbehere leads the defensemen by a lot with 13. Couturier leads in goals with 9. Couturier will be looking for his 1st point against the Blues in his 10th game. Voracek, Simmonds and Valtteri Filppula all average around 0.60 point per game against the Blues.
Given that Brian Elliott got the start last night, expect Michael Neuvirth to start tonight. Neuvirth has a 2.30 goals against average and a 92.5% save percentage so far this season. Neuvirth only has a career 89% save percentage against the Blues with a 3.03 goals against average.
I’m guessing the Flyers lines may be these: Claude Giroux – Sean Couturier – Jake Voracek Travis Konecny – Valtteri Filppula – Wayne Simmonds Jordan Weal – Jori Lehtera – Dale Weise Taylor Leier – Scott Laughton – Michael Raffl Ivan Provorov – Robert Hagg Travis Sanheim – Brandon Manning Will O’Neill – Mark Alt Michael Neuvrith
For the Blues, Jake Allen, Alex Pietrangelo and Vladimir Tarasenko have struggled against the Flyers. Allen only has one game against the Flyers but is was memorable for the wrong reasons as he only stopped 87% of the shots he faced. Pietrangelo only has 1 point in 11 games while Tarasenko is still looking for his 1st goal against the Flyers in his 7th game. Paul Stastny has enjoyed the most success with 12 points in 14 games versus the Flyers.
Ville Husso will be backing up Allen as Carter Hutton is on new baby watch.
According to NHL.com, which has been wrong a lot this season, expect the lineup to look like this tonight:
Forwards Jaden Schwartz - Brayden Schenn - Vladimir Tarasenko Vladimir Sobotka – Paul Stastny - Alexander Steen Magnus Paajarvi – Oskar Sundqvist – Beau Bennett Scottie Upshall - Kyle Brodziak – Dmitrij Jaskin
/Defense Carl Gunnarsson - Alex Pietrangelo Joel Edmundson - Colton Parayko Vince Dunn - Robert Bortuzzo
Goalie Jake Allen
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.