Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie With the Blues in their bye week and the season near the mid-point, I thought it might be interesting to take at where this year’s team stands on a number things.
Positives: - The team has the 5th best goals against per game in the league and the 5th least shots against per game.
- They have the most wins of any team when outshooting their opponent, partially because they lead the league in games in which they outshot their opponent.
- They are playing better with the lead – 4th best in shot attempt and unblocked shot attempt percentages when leading.
- They have the 3rd best record when leading after the first period and 7th best when leading after the second.
- They have the fewest giveaways of any team and are 9th in takeaways.
- They have the 2nd most 3rd period goals in the league.
- They are 3rd in blocked shots.
- They are 8th best in 5v4 and 5v5 goals and 4th best in 4v4 goals.
- They are substantially more disciplined than last year’s team, ranking 12th in penalties per 60 minutes (19th last year).
- They are also doing better drawing more penalties, ranking 10th in the league vs 22nd last year.
- The penalty kill has improved a lot from the start of the year and now sits 14th best.
- Coach Mike Yeo is playing the kids and increasing their responsibility – Colton Parayko averaging 22:44 of ice time, Vince Dunn 16:37, Tage Thompson at12:51 which is more than Kyle Brodziak, Dmitrij Jaskin, Ivan Barbashev, Scottie Upshall, Magnus Paajarvie, etc.
- Jaden Schwartz, Brayden Schenn and Vladimir Tarasenko formed the 2nd best line in the NHL for most of the 1st 1/3 of the season. Schenn has fit in very well with Tarasenko overall.
- Carter Hutton is 2nd to only Marc-Andre Fleury in save percentages and goals against average among goalies with at least 10 games.
- 6 of Brayden Schenn’s 17 goals have been game winning goals.
Concerns or negatives: - Another injury to Robby Fabbri.
- Another injury to Jaden Schwartz.
- The team hitting their winter swoon yet again. The team was 6-6-2 in December and 5-8 in January last year vs 7-8-1 in December and 2-2-1 in January this year.
- They have given up the 3rd most 3rd period goals, negating their strong goal production and leaving them with a zero goal differential in the 3rd period.
- Very pedestrian average points per 60 minutes, ranking 14th.
- Jake Allen is 33rd in goals against average and 41st in save percentage among goalies with at least 10 games.
- The power play has been abysmal, 3rd worst in the league.
- Jay Bouwmeester has the teams worst points per 60 minutes at a paltry 0.39.
- Only 3 of Vladimir Tarasenko’s goals have been game winning goals.
- Alexander Steen is a team worst -13 and Paul Stastny isn’t far behind at -8.
Overall, the Blues can’t be completely unhappy with where they stand right now but the December and January repeat swoon has to be very frustrating. Blues fans are hoping the long break was exactly what the doctor ordered to reverse the recent fall off in wins.
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.