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****UPDATE****
Tonight's expected lineup for the Ken Hitchcock's first return to St. Louis and the Blues rematch against the Stars will include the following:
Forwards: Ivan Barbashev, Beau Bennett, Samuel Blais, Klim Kostin, MacKenzie MacEachern, Adam Musil, Magnus Paajarvi, Vladimir Sobotka, Oskar Sundqvist, Chris Thorburn, Robert Thomas, Tage Thompson
Defense: Robert Bortuzzo, Chris Butler, Carl Gunnarsson, Colton Parayko, Thomas Vannelli, Jake Walman
Goalies: Jake Allen, Ville Husso
The Star confirmed to be playing tonight is Jason Spezza who is making his preseason debut.
The NHL DOPS confirmed what I thought and said last night in that Tom Wilson's check to Robert Thomas in the 3rd period was illegal and dangerous. The league suspended Wilson 2 games for the check which it correctly (IMHO) labeled as interference.
****
The Blues kids sure looked all right last night, well better than all right actually as they downed the Capitals in Washington 4-0.
Sure Washington didn’t dress Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov but the majority of their forward roster did play including Nicklas Backstrom, TJ Oshie, Andrew Burakovsky, and Lars Eller. John Carlson played on defense with Braden Holtby in net while Dmitry Orlov and Brooks Orpik sat this one out.
Compare that to the Blues who rested Vladimir Tarasenko, Paul Stastny, Jaden Schwartz, Vladimir Sobotka, and Brayden Schenn while being without Patrik Berglund and Alexander Steen from their forward corps and without five of their regular NHL defensemen with only Robert Bortuzzo playing.
I realize it’s only one preseason game but there are signs of some real talent among the recent Blues draft choices. Take the first goal for example. Dmitrij Jaskin makes a good play making a backhand pass Robert Thomas at the front of the net. Thomas uses his feet (or it luckily bounces off him) to get the puck back toward Jaskin, into a space that Holtby has already vacated and where Thomas can get his stick on it to put it in the net. Watch it here:
Less than 40 seconds later, Conner Bleackley gives the Blues a 2-0 advantage before the end of the 1st period. You can see it here:
The Blues ended the period outshooting the Capitals 13-7. The second period was scoreless with the Blues outshooting the Capitals again. This time it was 9-6.
A little over half way through the 3rd period, Robert Thomas added his second goal of the game thanks to a good decision to drive to the net and excellent execution of a pass by Ivan Barbashev. It was good to see Thomas drive hard for the far post and even better to see Barbashev recognize it and execute the pass. See it here:
Recent draft pick Klim Kostin finished the scoring with less than 4 minutes remaining. While much of the focus on this play will be on Wade Megan’s tremendous assist, I would suggest that people focus on where Kostin put the shot. Watch how he roofs the finish on the goal.
This was a play by a pure goal scorer (think Brett Hull). Compare this to the finishes or attempted finishes on similar plays by players like David Backes, TJ Oshie, and Alexander Steen. How many of these glorious chances have Blues fans not seen converted because the forward didn’t elevate the puck and a power sliding goalie was able to make the save?
I realize it was only one finish in one preseason game but we saw this kind of finish from Kostin in the Traverse City NHL Prospects Tournament.
There is much to like from the kids as Kostin, Thomas (great rebound game kid), Barbashev, Megan and Jordan Kryou all had very strong games as did Niko Mikkola on defense though a lot less flashy. The most impressive kid though was Ville Husso who stopped all 27 shots he faced.
Husso has been nothing but impressive this preseason and continues to show his maturation and development. In my opinion and that of Gregory Balloch of Sportsnet650 and InGoalMedia, he has the highest ceiling of any Blues goalie. You saw why last night. Husso’s save selection and recoveries were excelled last night. If you got to see it or get a chance to watch, pay attention to his recovery after the save on Oshie how came down partly uncontested on the right wing. It was a thing of beauty. It was exact and efficient, meaning it put him back into position within the ongoing play as fast as possible.
John Gibson had this type of quality when he came up. You noticed how exact, efficient and precise his movement was. Husso is one of the first young goalie since Gibson to demonstrate this in games that I have watched. Here are a couple of his saves from the game:
Husso again
The overall highlights can be found
here.
Other game notes:
- Nate Prosser with another assist and played over 20 minutes.
- Jake Walman with almost 24 minutes.
- Jordan Schmaltz played less than 16 minutes.
- Vince Dunn played over 20 minutes and added 3 shots on goal.
- Magnus Paajarvi led the team in shots with 4.
- Robby Fabbri had 3 shots but no points.
- While Thomas scored 2 goals, he was 14% in the face-off circle.
- Wade Megan added 3 shots with his 2 assists and was 70% in the circle.
More later on the Blues hosting the Stars tonight.
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 will donate in their name.
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