Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie The Blues will look to start a new home point streak tonight and avenge their October loss in Edmonton when they take on the Edmonton Oilers at 7pm at the Scottrade center. The Oilers have lost their last three road games and are fresh off a 2-1 home stand.
The Oilers have been a pretty strong road team this season as they are only one road victory shy of the most in the conference. Their success is due in large part to having the second best road shooting percentage at 10.3% and the league’s best road power play with a 30.8% conversion ratio.
Connor McDavid still leads the league in points but Vladimir Tarasenko is only two points behind while playing one less game. McDavid plays the 2nd most minutes of any scorer in the top 15, 39 seconds per game behind Patrick Kane. Leon Draisaitl has been hot in the last month or so, posting 11 goals and 9 assists in 17 games. Milan Lucic, Jordan Eberle and Patrick Maroon are all approaching 10 goals.
Cam Talbot has been good in net, posting a 91.6% save percentage with a 91.5% on the road. Their goaltending has them 13th in the league in save percentage while the Blues sit dead last.
The Blues still need Colton Parayko and Paul Stastny to contribute more offensively. Stastny now is pointless in 8 of his last 9 games and Parayko is still searching for his first goal of the season.
Jake Allen will get to watch tonight as Carter Hutton gets the start on his birthday with Allen going tomorrow against Dallas. Both netminders have extremely poor save percentages against the Oilers with Hutton at 83.9% and Allen at 82.6%.
From what I can tell, these look to be the lines tonight: Fabbri – Lehtera – Tarasenko Schwartz – Stastny – Yakupov Steen – Berglund –Perron Upshall – Brodziak – Rattie Edmundson – Pietrangelo Gunnarsson – Shattenkirk (Will be a mild surprise if Hunt replaces Gunnarsson tonight) Bouwmeester – Parayko Hutton Chicago Recap I wonder if Blues fans were more frustrated with the weather or with the team on Saturday night. After taking an early lead in the first minute on good read and play between Joel Edmundson and Patrik Berglund, they seemed to try and coast through the last minute of the first period and it cost them. Poor and lazy plays by Carl Gunnarsson and Kevin Shattenkirk led to a nice goal by Dennis Rasmussen. Watch it here.
After a fluke goal to start the second period, Patrick Kane would even the score midway through the period on a breakaway goal caused by a bad change and a good stretch pass from Trevor vam Riemsdyk. Who would have thought that Edmundson and van Riemsdyk would have great stretch passes to create goals in the same game?
Patrik Berglund would again reclaim the lead with about five minutes left in the period before Brian Campbell would tie it up with a minute left. Both Patrik Berglund get caught loafing and in no man’s land, leaving Campbell with an easy shot into the open net. In yet another last minute goal, Alex Pietrangelo gives the Blues the lead with 12 seconds left in the period.
For the second game in a row, the Blues will lose after heading into the third period with a lead. About a minute into the period, Niklas Hjalmarsson scores after a poor play by Pietrangelo behind the net by having his shot redirect past Allen, off Jay Bouwmeester.
Vinnie Hinostroza gets the game winner with less than five minutes left, shortly after a Blues penalty kill. Allen goes down to the butterfly for the point shot that never gets to the net. For some reason, he doesn’t power slide back into position but rather clumsily tries to dive back to the net which leaves the net mostly open for the goal. Hinostroza out-battles Edmundson in front of net on the play. If Allen makes the correct save recovery selection, he likely makes the save. Artemi Panarin adds an empty net goal after the puck bounces over Parayko’s stick at the point.
Someone asked an interesting question at the game. When is the last game that Allen has played where you feel like he stole the game for his team? I’d be curious to see your answers in the comment section. Most people at the game couldn’t remember the last time.
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.