For me, the morning and the Blues game today against the Colorado Avalanche (4pm CST) will be overshadowed by the reported death of former Blues and Avalanche player Marek Svatos. Svatos played in parts of six seasons for the Avs, topping 25 goals twice, one scoring 32 goals in only 61 games. Svatos was only 34 years old. Our thoughts and well wishes go out to his family and friends. RIP Marek.
As to the game this afternoon, both teams are fresh off of one goal wins yesterday where their backup goalies put in strong performances. The Blues beat the Blue Jackets 2-1 in OT while the Avs defeated the Wild 1-0.
Today’s game may be the perfect demonstration of goal scoring futility. In their last 5 games, the Avs averaged only 1 goal per game and were shutout twice. The Blues are only slightly better, averaging 1.2 goals per game and being shutout once.
Even though both backup goalies played extremely well yesterday, expect the starting goalies to be Semyon Varlamov and Jake Allen. As to the rest of the lines, I’m guessing they will look like this:
Varlamov Gelinas - Beauchemin Barrie - Tyutin Johnson – Zadorov Comeau – Mitchell - Martinsen Colburne – Grigorenko - Bourque Iginla – Soderberg - Landeskog Rantanen – Duchene - MacKinnon
Perron – Berglund - Steen Schwartz - Lehtera - Tarasenko Fabbri - Stastny - Jaskin Upshall - Brodziak - Yakupov Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo Gunnarsson – Shattenkirk Edmundson – Parayko Allen
Blues vs Blue Jackets recap The Blues kept their perfect Saturday record (4-0) intact yesterday, besting the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1 in overtime. Their scoring struggles continued but much like the game against the Kings, the Blues scored just enough to win.
The team continues to fail to convert on glorious scoring chances, sometimes missing the net completely, sometimes hitting iron, often unable to elevate the puck, and sometimes getting robbed by strong saves. Make no mistake, Curtis McElhinney played a very strong game in net for the Blue Jackets but the Blues continue to find ways not to finish quality chances. Carter Hutton also turned in a strong performance for the Blues, only giving up a goal directly caused by Kevin Shattenkirk who threw a blind pass into his own slot, onto the tape of John Anderson, giving him an A+ scoring chance.
Congratulations to Jay Bouwmeester who was honored for his 1,000 NHL game before the game and celebrated by scoring only his 82nd goal in front of his parents, wife, children and friends. The Blues and their fans must also be happy that Vladimir Tarasenko finally got on the scoreboard, winning the game after going scoreless for seven games.
I usually stay out of the other team’s side of things but yet again John Tortorella stirs the pot in his news conference. He just can’t help himself. After the game, Torts said “the thing that crawls up my ass is I watched Nick Foligno fight that animal. I watched Mac play the way he did in net. I watch some other guys do everything possibly they can to try and win the hockey game and then I see a few and a few of our top guys not give enough.… I’m surmising but I wonder if this was a direct call out of Brandon Saad who was -2 with only 2 shots and perhaps Brandon Dubinsky and Boone Jenner. It doesn’t seem like he had a big issue with Foligno who didn’t a register a shot on goal and was well meaning but ineffective in fighting Reaves. Do you wonder if the play of Bobrovsky and Weresnki has saved the Jackets and Torts job so far this season and how long that will continue?
Other game notes: - The Blue Jackets 1st place power play looked good passing the puck around but failed to convert on 3 chances, dropping them under 40% on the year. - There were a number of penalties in the game and easily could have been more. Inconsistent officiating continues to be a trend in the NHL. - Scottie Upshall was very lucky not to get called for his hit on Jack Johnson and Johnson was lucky not to get called for his cross check on Fabbri just to name 2 easy examples. - Ryan Reaves had more PIMs than TOI but he did take off Brandon Dubinsky and Nick Foligno for 7 minutes which is a very good trade for the Blues. - Jori Lehtera seems to be struggling with forcing passes in my humble opinion. - Paul Stastny has the most minor penalties on the team. - Kyle Brodziak tied for the team lead in shots on goal while not even playing 8 minutes. - Berglund, Jaskin and Pietrangelo failed to register a shot on goal.
No 9 NHL Nuggets today.
Today, it’s a sad 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.