Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie B’s are wild tonight and around the league today. The Blues will host Backes and the Bruins while the rest of the league calls BS as the Blackhawks save $212,500 of cap space because somehow, unexplainably, Artermi Panarin is left off the all star roster but more on that later.
David Backes will make his first return back to St. Louis and play his first away game at the Scottrade Center tonight. This will be Backes 3rd game back since what appeared to be another concussion. Backes scored a goal in each of the last two games and has 11 goals in 35 games this season. Given Backes animal shelter work while here in town, it seems appropriate that tonight is Barking with the Blues night with adoptable dogs at the game.
The Bruins are 1-2-1 in their last four games and 2-2-1 in their last five road games. While the Bruins are second in the Atlantic division, this is misleading as they have played four more games than both the Senators and Leafs. The Senators are only one point behind while the Leafs are only three even though they have four games to make up those points. The Bruins are only 4th in the division in points per game and currently, 4th in the division would be out of the playoffs.
The Bruins are one of the few teams that have been better on the road this season than at home, posting a 12-7-5 road record while only going 9-10-0 at home. Boston has struggled to score this season, mostly because of their league worst 7.1% shooting percentage. Their goaltending has been slightly above average with a 91.1% save percentage. Even more impressive is that it has been 92% on the road.
The Bruins power play has struggled on the road, 6th worst, while their penalty kill has been good, 6th best. Overall the Bruins have the best penalty kill in the league and the 5th worst power play efficiency.
David Pastrnak will be looking for his 20th goal tonight while playing in only his 37th game. Brad Marchand has been having a good season with 13 goals and 35 points in 43 games while Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci have been underperforming, combining for 17 goals and 24 assists in 83 games. Torey Krug is leading the back end with 23 points in 43 games. I expect Tuukka Rask will get the start in net. Rask has a 91.9% save percentage and a 2.32 goals against average versus the Blues.
The Blues hope to win 2 in a row tonight, ending their alternating won/loss formula of the last eight games. The Blues and Bruins have split the last two seasons evenly, going 2-2 in those games.
For the Blues, Jaden Schwartz looks to continue his over a point a game pace against the Bruins, building on his 3 goals and 7 points in 6 games. Vladimir Tarasenko looks to continue his success against the Bruins as he plays his 300th game. He has 3 goals and 5 points in six games against the Bruins. Patrik Berglund will be looking for his 1st goal against the Bruins as he looks to build on his last 10 games where he has 6 goals.
Jake Allen is expected to get the start hoping to continue his extremely strong play against the Bruins. In his career, Allen has a 1.21 goals against average and a 96.2% save percentage.
The lines should start out like this: Steen – Stastny – Yakupov Fabbri – Lehtera - Tarasenko - Schwartz – Berglund – Perron Upshall – Brodziak – Reaves Edmundson – Pietrangelo Hunt – Shattenkirk Bouwmeester – Parayko Allen
All Star roster selections If you didn’t see the NHL’s all star roster selections, you can see them here. Note that the NHL selected all of the team members except the 4 captains who were picked by the fans. All star roster selections over the years, like awards, have often had very curious selections, sometimes based on past performance more than the current year, sometimes based on no discernible rationale.
This year, a curious non-selection will have potentially significant cap implications for at least one team. Artemi Panarin is having a wonderful 2nd season for the Chicago Blackhawks. He is tied for 6th in the NHL in points, 12th best in goals and 12th best in points per game. Maybe more pertinent, Panarin is 3rd in points in the Central division, 4th in points per game, and 4th in goals. Jonathan Toews, for whom I have a lot of respect, was selected by the NHL ahead of Panarin. Toews is only is 38th in the Central Division in points, 35th in goals, and 32nd in points per game. Those rankings are in the division, not the NHL.
Regardless of the reasons, all of Blackhawk nation and especially Wirtz and the Bowmans have to feel lucky and relieved that Panarin was not selected, saving them $212,500 in cap space from the bonus he will not receive.
Some Winter Classic Photos You can find some of the photos we took here:
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.