Follow @stlgoalie Tonight the Blues will be hosting the Chicago Blackhawks at the Scottrade Center at 7pm. The Blackhawks bring a 6 game winning streak to town while the Blues hope to extend their winning streak to 3 games. The Blackhawks are the 2nd best team in the NHL in their last 10 games, going 8-1-1. The Blues have been middle of the road during the same stretch going 4-4-2. With a win, the Blues would come within one point of the division leading Blackhawks.
For the few of you who haven’t been following the Blackhawks this season, you won’t be surprised to know that a Blackhawk was second in the NHL in points but you may be surprised to realize that Blackhawk is Artem Anisimov who has 8 goals and 9 assists in 13 games. If he continues at that pace, he’ll top his career high in points by game 34. Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin are also playing, each averaging at least a point per game. Marian Hossa and Duncan Keith aren’t far off either with 11 points each.
Even with all of their offense, I might suggest that Corey Crawford has been a bigger part of their success, stopping almost 94% of the shots he has faced and keeping them in certain games. Something that shouldn’t also be overlooked is that the Blackhawks have played more home games than any other team in the NHL other than the New York Islanders. How much of their record is due to this home ice advantage? Perhaps some given their road record is a pedestrian 2-2.
Much has been made about the Blackhawks terrible penalty kill this season (currently at 65.2%) and their recent turnaround. In their last 6 games they have killed 19 of 21 power plays but that success should be taken with some grains of salt. Their power play competition in those games was below average with only 1 team in the top half of the NHL, and 5 of the 6 games being against teams in the bottom third of the league.
The Blues will likely keep the same lineup as the weekend except for bringing in Peteri Lindbohm for injured Joel Edmundson. Coach Ken Hitchcock is very reticent to change the lineup when the team is playing well. This means that Nail Yakupov will likely still be in the pressbox Wednesday night. To me, as long as the communication has been good with Yakupov, this should be much ado about nothing. Based on Yakupov’s quotes to the media, this appears to be the case.
Yakupov said “the four lines are playing good, winning the games and it’s coach’s decision to not put me in the lineup,… adding “it’s hard watching a game from upstairs but the team played good, guys are working hard.…
His attitude seems good when you hear him say “I like the way I play, but obviously I want to improve my game. I want to get better every day in practice and the game day.… More importantly, he stated that he was happy with how the coaching staff communicated with him about it. He said “I’m really happy we talk and I’m happy the way [coach] said to me about my game. I’m 100% happy the way he said everything to me, but I’m not happy I’m not playing, that’s it.…
As an outsider, assuming what is being said is true, this is what you want. You want players that don’t like it when they are out of the lineup but respect that the lineup isn’t going to change while it is working and the team is playing well and winning. This should provide a situation where he knows his time will be coming and that he should be ready to take advantage of it.
Of course, I’d use Yakupov a bit differently but I don’t get paid to coach. Hopefully the communication is as good as is being represented and Nail is able to make the most of his next opportunity.
As to the lines tonight, I’m guessing they will look like this:
Crawford Hjalmarsson - Forsling Seabrook - Kempny Campbell - Keith Tootoo – Rasmussen - Desjardins Panik – Kruger – Hartman Hossa – Anisimov - Panarin Kane – Toews - Schmaltz
Perron – Berglund - Steen Schwartz - Lehtera - Tarasenko Fabbri - Stastny - Jaskin Upshall - Brodziak - Reaves Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo Gunnarsson – Shattenkirk Lindbohm – Parayko Allen
In other news, Ty Rattie has been sent to Chicago for a conditioning assignment.
Jammer’s 9 NHL Nuggets 1) Mark Scheifele leads the league in points while Patrik Laine leads in goals – go Jets go. 2) 32 NHL players are averaging a point per game though that number drops to 28 if you exclude players with less than 4 games played. 3) Among defensemen, only rookie Zach Werenski is averaging a point per game. 4) Shea Weber is tied for the lead league in game winning goals with Alex Ovechkin and rookie Mitchell Marner. 5) Speaking of Marner, he has 60% of the Leafs’ game winning goals. 6) The Central division is the only division without a team that is above .500 on the road. 7) Only 5 of the 14 Western conference teams have a positive goal differential. 8) The NY Rangers are 10 goals ahead of the next best team goal differential. 9) The Columbus Blue Jackets are tied for 5th in goal differential. I guess a 10-0 win will help that statistic.
Blues vs Avalanche notes First things first. The Blues and Avalanche did a great job honoring Hockey Fights Cancer and more importantly, those impacted by cancer. See part of it here.
The Blues completed a successful weekend on Sunday, defeating the Avalanche 5-1. There was a lot to be happy about as a Blues fan or coach. Five different players scored. Four of the five goals were scored at even strength. Ten of the twelve forwards registered a point (Stastny and Berglund did not). Robbie Fabbri and Jori Lehtera both got their first goals of the season. Carl Gunnarsson got his first assist of the season. In a rare sight, both
Alexander Steen and Kyle Brodziak got into fights. In addition to spreading the offense around, Jake Allen was much better in net. From time to time, Allen gets too active in net, becoming inefficient at best and often out of position by moving too early and too much. Allen was much more patient, calmer and efficient on Sunday. He was rewarded with a 95+% save percentage for the game. Sometimes less is more.
The only bad news for the game was the injury to Joel Edmundson who will be out weeks, likely at least a month.
It’s a great 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.