Blues vs. Flames 3/14/16 Game Day Preview The Blues finished a successful tour of the titans of the Western conference on Saturday when they beat the Stars in overtime, going 3-0-0 against the Stars, Blackhawks and Ducks though they did give away a point to the Blackhawks and Stars late in each game. They have won 6 in a row and now have 20 road wins. The Flames have been sinking in the standings, winning only 2 of their last 10 though they are much better at home where they are 18-15-2. Much of the Flames struggles are tied to their league worst 3.10 GAA and their specials teams where they are second to last in power play efficiency and last in penalty kill efficiency.
Johnny Gaudreau leads the Flames with 26 goals and 66 points. Gaudreau is night and day at home versus on the road with 23 of his goals and 48 of his points coming at home. Sean Monahan is in a similar situation with 32 of his 48 points coming at home. I expect Joni Ortio to be between the pipes for his first start against the Blues. The Blues would do well to not look past the Flames and their 18 home wins.
Many of the Blues players have enjoyed success against the Flames. Vladimir Tarasenko, Jori Lehtera, Paul Stastny and Colton Parayko each have at least a point per game average with Parayko having 3 goals in only 2 games. Jake Allen looks to remain undefeated against the Flames and improve on his 1.50 GAA and 94% save percentage. Allen has a 92.9% save percentage during the Blues 6 game win streak.
My guess for the Blues lines are as follows: Schwartz –Lehtera – Tarasenko Berglund – Backes - Jaskin Fabbri – Stastny -Brouwer Upshall – Brodziak – Reaves Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo Gunnarsson – Shattenkirk Edmundson – Parayko Allen
An old note about the Winter Classic During the fall of 2009, I had the pleasure of traveling to Sweden to see the Blues play the Red Wings. While on the trip, we ran into Dave Checketts walking around Gamla Stan. He noticed that we were wearing Blues gear before we saw him and yelled let’s go Blues. We walked over and had a short conversation with Dave. I told him that I thought he could have used the process of buying the Blues to leverage an opportunity from the NHL, suggesting a draft or an all-star game. Dave’s response was quick and decisive, telling me they had little interest in those but that they were focused on trying to bring a Winter Classic to St. Louis.
It’s a great day for hockey.