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Much like Blues coach Mike Yeo, I wanted to take a bit of time before writing about Thursdays 3-1 loss against the Bruins. After I saw some replays from the Vegas Golden Knights and Winnipeg Jets game the same night, I needed even more time. Two Central division teams lost points Tuesday night when two goals were allowed to stand for which I still have not heard or read an explanation which aligns allowing the goals to count and the rules of the NHL.
Let me start by stating that the Blues got outplayed on Thursday night with the Bruins directing 46 shots at the Blues net. Having said that, two questionable calls led directly to both Bruins goals. The first of which still has me baffled and even more confused on what constitutes goaltender interference. Watch the play for yourself.
Notice how Ryan Spooner skates into Jake Allen and drives his leg into Allen’s back, pushing him out of the crease. Jake DeBrusk aids Spooner by sliding into Allen. Allen ends up a few feet out of the crease as a result of the contact from the Bruins players. According to the NHL’s own rulebook, a goal should be disallowed if “an attacking player, either by his positioning or by contact, impairs the goalkeeper’s ability to move freely within his crease or defend his goal”. Considering they pushed Allen outside his crease and prevented him from being able to get back into the crease, this seems pretty clear cut. The rule does grant an exception for incidental contact, saying that it “will be permitted, and resulting goals allowed, such contact is initiated outside of the goal crease, provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contract”. This is clearly not applicable here as Spooner does nothing to avoid skating through the crease and into Allen. It very clearly states “if an attacking player enters the goal crease and, by his actions, impairs the goalkeeper’s ability to defend his goal, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed”. It mentions nothing about the referee’s judgement as to whether or not the goalie could have made a save. Of course both Alex Pietrangelo and Joel Edmundson could have made better plays and easily moved the puck out of the Blues zone which would have changed the entire sequence of the play.
A call later in the night in the Winnipeg Jets game was even more curious. Let’s revisit the rule again and note that it states that contact includes any made “by means of a stick or any part of the body” and that “if an attacking player initiates contact with a goalkeeper, incidental or otherwise, while the goalkeeper is in his goal crease, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed”.
Watch here as James Neal slashes Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck in the head area just before the goal is scored, slashing him so hard that his head snaps back.
I thought I had no idea about how goalie interference was called before. It’s even worse now. Maybe they moved on from the Ouija board to a coin flip or maybe a séance. Who knows.
While the Blues lost 3-1, giving up a power play goal after a questionable penalty call against Vladimir Tarasenko, the Jets lost 3-2 in overtime. The Blues will look to move on when they travel to Buffalo tonight.
The Sabres have the 2nd worst points per game average of any team, scoring the least of any team in the league while allowing the 4th most goals per game. They have the 7th worst power play. The Sabres have lost their 1st two games of their 5 game home stand. They are only 6-14-3 at home and 4-6 in their last 10 games.
Their offense is led by Jack Eichel who has 49 points in 51 games. They don’t have a defenseman who has reached 23 points yet. Eichel will be looking for his 1st goal against the Blues in his 5th try. Kane’s totals against the Blues approximate his career averages with 9 points in 14 games. Kyle Okposo has 11 points in 14 games against the Blues.
Robin Lehner is their number one goalie and has a 90.9% save percentage and a 2.92 goals against this season. Lehner played well in the game earlier this season, stopping 42 of 45 shots and pushing his career save percentage against the Blues to 92.6%.
For the Blues, it is expected that Carter Hutton will get the start even though Allen played well on Thursday, played well in the game earlier this year against the Sabres with a 91.7% save percentage, and has great numbers against the Sabres over his career with a 94.3% save percentage. Believe it or not, Hutton has been even better with a 95.3% save percentage against the Sabres.
The goalies are not the only Blues to have success against the Sabres. Vladimir Tarasenko has 10 points in 8 games including 2 points and the game winning goal in the 3-2 overtime win earlier this season. Jaden Schwartz missed the game earlier this season but has had 8 points in 6 games against the Sabres. Paul Stastny has 9 points in 10 games including 2 in the last game while Alexander Steen has 27 points in 33 games and Colton Parayko has 3 in 4 games.
My guess at the lines tonight looks like this:
Forwards
Jaden Schwartz - Brayden Schenn – Vladimir Tarasenko
Vladimir Sobotka – Paul Stastny – Alexander Steen
Ivan Barbashev - Patrik Berglund – Tage Thompson
Dmitrij Jaskin – Kyle Brodziak – Chris Thorburn
Defense
Carl Gunnarsson - Alex Pietrangelo
Jay Bouwmeester - Colton Parayko
Joel Edmundson - Vince Dunn
Goalie
Jake Allen
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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