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Blues best Canadiens as Binngton stars before facing the Stars tonight

January 12, 2019, 2:06 PM ET [18 Comments]
Jason Millen
St Louis Blues Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT


The continued their Yin and Yang season, rebounding from the loss to the Dallas Stars with a 4-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens. Unfortunately, the win came at a great cost as Robert Thomas injured his left shoulder sliding into the boards after getting pushed while attempting a shot.


It’s rather unfortunate for Thomas as his game has been improving, scoring three goals in his last eight games. In fact, he got the 1st goal of the game, stuffing home a power play rebound less than two minutes into the game.

Oskar Sundqvist would add a short-handed goal with under four minutes to go in the period. Most fans may not realize it but the key to the play was a subtle but deft pass by Carl Gunnarsson to get the play started.

Sundqvist and Ryan O’Reilly then work some magic on the rush before Sundqvist neatly between Carey Price’s skate and the post.

Jay Bouwmeester extended the lead about six minutes into the 2nd period with a true snipe. Jaybo explodes through the neutral zone, creating the two on one and buries the feed from Robby Fabbri.

Look again at the top shelf snipe from Jaybo. Maybe the hip and rushing him back too soon was what was holding Jaybo back earlier in the year.

The Canadiens would get one back when Brendan Gallagher’s pass deflects off Alex Pietrangelo’s skate and in for a power play goal. Given it was a type of own goal, Jordan Binnington still hasn’t been beat by a clean shot in his two NHL starts.

Sammy Blais would cap the scoring off midway through the 3rd period on a good passing play from Alex Pietrangelo and Oskar Sundqvist, giving Blais a goal against one of his idols growing up.


When you look back at the game, a number of things stand out. Binnington made a number of quality stops again such as:






Sundqvist had another quality game and this time was rewarded even more for it. In addition to the goal and assist, he saw 19 minutes of ice time and even three minutes on the power play.

Unfortunately, Jaden Schwartz went another game without much contribution and dropped his shooting percentage to below 4%. His next lowest shooting percentage in a season? 10.6%. His career average before this season 13.7%. His struggles and frustration this year are reaching unbelievable levels.

The Blues travel to Dallas to face the Stars tonight. The Stars are in 3rd place in the Central, 10 points ahead of the Blues thanks to an excellent 14-5-2 home record. They are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games and 3-0-1 in their last four home games. The Stars rank 26th in goals per game but have been excellent defensively, ranking 5th in goals against per game. They are 9th on the penalty kill and 12th on the power play.

Alexander Radulov has been having the best season of the Stars, with 39 points in 35 games. Tyler Seguin has 43 points in 45 games. Jamie Benn and Jason Spezza have struggled with 33 and 21 points respectively in 44 and 34 games, respectively. John Klingberg returned to the lineup in late December and has 21 points in 27 games. Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin both have a 92.3% save percentage.

Bishop is even better against the Blues with a 92.5% save percentage. Jamie Been also has enjoyed success against the Blues with 34 points in 36 games and Tyler Seguin has 22 points in 26 games.

Vladimir Tarasenko has points in 3 of his last 4 games. The Blues hope Tarasenko can continue his recent success and his success against the Stars. He has 20 points in 24 games against the Stars including 4 game winning goals. Alex Pietrangelo has 27 points in 35 games against the Stars.

To nobody’s surprise, coach Craig Berube will go with Jordan Binnington again in net tonight. Given the injuries, I assume Pat Maroon will enter the lineup again. I’m guessing at the lineslike this:

Schwartz - Schenn - Tarasenko
Sanford - O'Reilly – Perron
Maroon - Sundqvist - Fabbri
MacEachern - Barbashev - Blais
Edmundson - Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester - Parayko
Bortuzzo - Dunn
Binnington

Gunnarsson is only out of the lineup because he wasn't feeling well today.

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.
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