So far the Blues have been the good, the bad and the ugly this year but have mostly been bad and ugly.
The Good - Best in the NHL in the face-off circle - 6th best power play at 32.1% - Got solid contributions from both Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou with primary assists in the win over the Flames and a wonderful primary assist from Jordan Schmaltz against the Hawks - Vladimir Tarasenko is generating shots like no season before - Five players averaging 0.83 points per game or more See the good in visual form
The Ugly - The gaffes that the team is making are like nothing I have seen before - Allen’s first goal against versus Montreal - The low point percentage is due to giving away points by blowing third period leads and giving the puck away to lose a game right at the end
See the ugly in visual form:
Of course, back in September, I said coach Mike Yeo was going to be on at least a warm seat to start the year. The tweet appears that it might be aging well unfortunately.
JR, I might suggest Yeo starts on a warm seat as well. They blew a great start to the year, missing the playoffs thanks to losing 4 of their last 5, including effectively a play in game. The team is perceived to have upgraded at forward a lot so expectations are higher.
— Jason Millen (@stlgoalie) September 27, 2018
Of course, there is a lot of ugly in the NHL. While Allen has an 87.7% save %, Bobrovsky, Rask, Quick, and Mrazek are all lower. Holtby, Fleury, Elliott, Howard, Jones, and Murray are all better but still sub 90%.
Tonight the Blues will face a tough offensive threat while visiting Toronto. The Leafs have the best power play at 45% and the best goals per game at 4.13. They have the 5th best point percentage and Matthews is tied for Malkin in points per game behind McDavid at 2 and has 10 goals in 8 games with 2 game winning goals and an insane 40% shooting percentage. The whole team has an insane team shooting percentage at 13%. I expect those will regress to more historic averages as the year progresses.
NHL Champions for Charity We’ve gotten some traction on the charity wager among the Central Division bloggers. More on that to come.
It’s a great day for hockey.