The Blues take on the Colorado Avalanche at 9pm CST at the Pepsi Center. While the Avalanche are second to last in the Central division, they are playing much better hockey having earned 14 points in their last 10 games while the Blues have lost 3 games in a row, the last being in OT.
The Blues hope to take advantage of the Avalanche’s home struggles where their futility is only surpassed by San Jose and Vancouver’s poor home records. As an illustration, the Blues have twice as many road victories as the Avalanche at home in the same amount of games. Their home record has not been helped by Semyon Varlamov’s poor home statistics (3.20 GAA and 89.4% save percentage). Throughout his career, Varlamov has been better at home than on the road but this year has been an anomaly. He hopes to get back on the home track tonight by continuing his excellent play against the Blues (1.88 GAA and 94.2% save percentage).
When I looked at this part of the Blues schedule, I noticed that they would be playing notorious Blues killers in back to back games. Bobby Ryan added to his crazy totals against the Blues on Monday (now 17 goals and 12 assists in 23 games). Tonight, Jerome Iginla tries to add his 29 goals and 44 assists when he plays his 71st regular season game against the Blues. He has more goals against the Blues than Backes, Steen and Tarasenko have against the Avalanche combined. On the injury front, Erik Johnson won’t likely get a chance to suit up against his former club.
Speaking of suiting up against your former club, Paul Stastny will be looking for his first goal against his former team while Kevin Shatternkirk hopes to build on his 5 goals and 7 assists in 19 games. Jori Lehtera will be searching for his first point against the Avalanche in now his 7th game. Both Blues goalies have struggled against the Avalanche with both having sub 89% save percentages.
In comparing the teams, it is interesting to note that they are tied power play efficiency at 21.7% The Blues recent penalty killing woes have them falling to third in the league at 85.1% while the Avalanche are 16th at 80%. Even though the Blues have 10 more points than the Avalanche, they have a smaller goal differential (0 vs. +2).
As to the Blues lines, I expect to lots of shuffling but reports are that they will start as follows: Steen – Stastny – Brouwer Fabbri – Lehtera – Tarasenko Berglund – Backes – Paajarvi Jaskin – Brodziak – Reaves Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo Edmundson – Shattenkirk Gunnarsson – Parayko Allen
Notes from around the league: - Reports are surfacing that Lecavalier and Schenn (Luke) have traded to the Kings for a prospect and a mid pick. - Don’t look now but the Panthers have won 10 in a row and are 4th in the league in points per game. - Are the Stars falling off? They are only 5-3-2 in their last 10 and Seguin and Benn were benched last night. - Buffalo has lost 5 in a row. Too early to talk about them tanking for Matthews? - How good have the Capitals been? They have a +39 goal differential in only 39 games.
It’s a great day for hockey.