Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie Blues fans received a well needed break from watching their consistently inconsistent home team over the all star break. Tonight the potential roller coaster ride continues when they host the Winnpeg Jets tonight at the Scottrade at 7pm.
The Blues will be looking to avenge their 5-3 loss in Winnipeg less than two weeks ago, though that game wasn’t as close as the score indicates with the Blues getting two goals in the latter part of the 3rd period after the game was 5-1.
The Jets are 1-3-1 in their last 5 road games, winning their last road game 5-3 over the Blackhawks. They are 10-14-3 overall on the road this season. The Jets should have rookie sensation Patrik Laine in for tonight’s game. Laine has 22 goals and 40 points in only 44 games. He and Tarasenko may put on a display tonight as they are two of the best pure shooters in the league.
While the Blues are 16-7-4 at home this season, they have lost 3 in a row, four of their last five and seven of their last 10 at home. In the Blues last 6 losses, they are averaging 5.5 goals against. In their last 3 wins, they are averaging 0.33 goals against. Interestingly, the differential in average goals for is small in those games, only scoring a half a goal a game more in the wins.
Something that shouldn’t be overlooked is the Blues fall in penalty kill success, going from 2nd best in the league for much of the season to 8th best now. The Blues continue to have the worst save percentage in the league, just below 89% while Winnipeg isn’t much better at 7th worst and 90%.
The Blues’ lines are in flux but expected to start like this: Steen – Stastny – Perron Schwartz – Lehtera - Tarasenko Fabbri – Berglund – Reaves Upshall – Barbashev – Yakupov Bouwmeester –Pietrangelo Gunnarsson – Shattenkirk Edmundson - Parayko Allen
A friend of mine cracked the quip that he wondered which will change faster tonight, the lines or the netminder.
My cynicism today was aimed more at coach Ken Hitchock’s quote when he said “we’ve earned the right to be in this race…. He’s right, their inconsistent and often poor play has them at the bottom of the heat at risk of losing the race into the playoffs. Let’s hope they find their legs and drive and finish strong.
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.