The Blues played a strong road game on Friday night, defeating the Winnipeg Jets 1-0. The loss was just the 4th regulation loss of the Jets at home this season.
The Blues scored on a lucky play when Colton Parayko’s point shot deflected of Bryan Little and knuckled into the net past Connor Hellebuyck. Both goalies played strong games, stopping 52 of 53 shots combined. Jake Allen made a number of strong saves and got some help from his post at least once. Here are a couple of them:
Other interesting notes from the game Friday night:
- Vince Dunn only played 11:21 while Robert Bortuzzo played 21:14 and Jay Bouwmeester played 25:24. Could it be due to Dunn’s three giveaways.
- Jordan Nolan only played 4:24 and received a penalty that he didn’t deserve.
- David Perron only played 13:26, had 2 giveaways and took a bad penalty while Oskar Sundqvist played 14:05.
- Tyler Bozak only played 12:21 but Ivan Barbashev played 15:04.
The Blues will host the Vancouver Canucks at home today at 2pm. The Canucks are 2-7-1 in their last 10 and are 6-9-2 on the road. Their season in a way mirrors the Blues. The Canucks have 2 wins in their last 10 compared to the Blues 3. Both have only 6 wins at home and both have 50% more regulation losses on the road than they have wins and their points percentages differ by less than 1%.
The Canucks are 22nd in scoring, one position worse than the Blues, and 26th in defense, three spots worse than the Blues. The Canucks are only 20th on the power play and 27th on the penalty kill. The Blues on the other hand are in the top 10 in both. The Canucks don’t generate many shots at 28.7, higher than only the lowly Kings, the Islanders and the Ducks.
The Blues have the 4th worst goals against per game at home at 3.47 and the 6th worst save percentage at 89%. Vancouver gives up 3.53 goals per game on the road, only stopping 88.5% of the shots against.
Blues fans should pay particular attention to Ellias Pettersson (#40). The Calder candidate has 14 goals and 25 points in 25 games including 3 game winning goals. Pettersson has only played 3 day games, posting only a single goal.
Bo Horvat is leading the Canucks with 27 points in 31 games. Ben Hutton leads their defensemen with only 10 points. Horvat thrives in day games posting 19 points in 25 games, a much higher production rate than his career 188 points in 326 games. He has struggled against the Blues with only 3 points in 10 games.
Expect Jacob Markstrom to get the start in net. Markstrom has stopped 89.7% of the shots he has face this season. Markstrom has struggled against the Blues in his career only stopping 88.2% of the shots he has faced while going 1-4. He has been very good in day games, posting a 91.3% save percentage but is still only 2-6-4 in those games.
Jake Allen will get the start in the Blues net looking to make his 10th quality start in a row. In his past 9 starts, Allen has a staggering 93.9% save percentage but has only been rewarded with 4 wins. Allen is 7-2-2 against the Canucks with a 90.4% save percentage. In day games, Allen has a 91.5% save percentage with a record of 9-5-1.
On the offensive sides of the rink, Vladimir Tarasenko loves playing during the day, posting 33 points in 32 games but has been a little below average, for him, against the Canucks with 13 points in 18 games. David Perron has enjoyed success against the Canucks, bettering his career average with 23 points in 35 games but his penchant for taking poor, lazy penalties at bad times may get him scratched today. Ryan O’Reilly will be looking for his 1st goal against the Canucks in his 33rd game against them.
Assuming practice from yesterday holds true, the lineup will look like this:
Sanford - O'Reilly – Kyrou
Steen - Schenn - Tarasenko
Maroon - Bozak - Thomas
Nolan - Barbashev - Sundqvist
Edmundson - Parayko
Bouwmeester - Bortuzzo
Dunn - Butler
Allen
In order to hit 99 points, which should be around a playoff spot, the Blues need to get 68% of their remaining points. They are currently earning 42%.
NHL Champions for Charity
We’ve gotten some traction on the charity wager among the Central Division bloggers. More on that to come.
It’s a great day for hockey.
St Louis Blues Blogger • 
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