Follow @stlgoalie The Blues head to Denver this evening to take on the Colorado Avalance at the Pepsi Center at 7pm CST. The Blues look to forget about their off-key performance against the Boston Bruins on Hull & Oates night. Like the Bruins game, the Blues will face a very desperate hockey club, fighting for their playoff life. With an Avalanche loss tonight, the Minnesota Wild would only need 2 points in 3 games to keep the Avs out of the playoffs.
Like last Tuesday’s game 3-1 Blues victory between these two clubs, Nathan MacKinnon is expected to be sidelined. The Avalanche will also be without Nikita Zadorov who was concussed Friday night on this hit by Tom Wilson. The Avalanche will have Matt Duchene back as he played Friday, stepping in and logging almost 20 minutes of ice time but only registering 1 shot. Expect Semyon Varlamov to get the start.
Jake Allen will get the start for the Blues in net and may likely be backed up by Anders Nilsson, leaving Brian Elliott in St. Louis to prepare for his start tomorrow night against the Coyotes. Coach Ken Hitchcock is going directly against the statistics in picking the starters over the next two days as Elliott has much better numbers against the Avalanche and Allen has better numbers against the Coyotes. Allen is 1-2-1 with a 3.40 GAA and 88.1% save percentage Blues fans hope his intuition is correct. Let the speculation about the number 1 goalie spot begin anew.
Perhaps Blues fans are getting a bit more comfortable with Paul Stastny’s contract. Stastny scored a goal and added an assist in the Bruins game, giving him a 4 game point streak (3 of them multi-point games) and points in 9 of his last 11 games during which he has 4 goals and 12 assists.
It will be interesting to see what Hitchcock does with the lines today. The line blender was in full effect on Friday. In the previous five games, the top 4 line combinations on 5v5 play accounted for over 78% frequency (per leftwinglock.com). On Friday, they accounted for only 71.4%. Hitchcock has commented recently about changing the lines up. Robby Fabbri, Jay Bouwmeester and Carl Gunnarsson are all out today but have not been ruled out for Monday yet. Of course, this could just be injury gamesmanship which happens a lot at this time of year.
My guess for the Blues lines are as follows but expect the full line blender in overdrive: Steen –Lehtera – Tarasenko Jaskin - Berglund – Backes Schwartz – Stastny -Brouwer Upshall – Brodziak – Ott Edmundson – Pietrangelo Shattenkirk - Parayko Lindbohm - Bortuzzo Allen
Teams around the league have not been helping the Blues. The Kings couldn’t close out a third period lead against the Stars. The Jets lose a late third period lead to the Blackhawks and then lose in OT. Detroit beat the Wild, leaving the Avalanche with a sliver of playoff hope. The probability of a first round playoff matchup against the Blackhawks is getting more and more likely. The Blues lose the tie breaker to the Stars and likely will lose the tie breaker with the Blackhawks. The Blues need to take 5 points in the last 4 games to ensure 2nd place in the division.
Notes from around the league: - Very bad news for the Lighting and Steven Stamkos as he is out 1 to 3 months with a blood clot in his arm. The timing is very poor for both the Lightning and Stamkos. Hopefully this isn’t significant for Stammer. Pascal Dupuis recently retired due to a blood clot in his lung. - Bad news also for the Penguins who lost Marc Andre Fleury to his second concussion of the year. - Good news for the Penguins, Matt Murray got his first NHL shutout in their 5th win in a row. - Don’t look now but the Stars have won 4 in a row. - The Rangers are stumbling into the playoffs, losing 6 of their last 10, their last to the Sabres. - The Oilers and Leafs are in a dog fight for last place.
It’s a great day for hockey.