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Blues try to extend point streak to 5, Backes back after a healthy scratch

January 17, 2019, 3:30 PM ET [8 Comments]
Jason Millen
St Louis Blues Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT


On Tuesday night the Blues extended their point streak to four games, going 3-0-1 and giving them points in 6 of their last 8 games. Of the Blues last 3 games where they didn’t earn a point, they lost by a goal twice and two goals once. This illustrates the Blues improvement as both their record is better as are their losses.

Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime loss may have been disappointing but it still felt like a good step in the right direction. The Islanders have been on fire, winning 8 of their last 10 games and the Blues were one of their toughest games in the last three weeks or so. The point put the Blues 4 points out of the last wild card spot with one game in hand and five points out of the other spot with two games in hand.

On Tuesday, the Blues received exceptional play from David Perron who scored their only goal, extending his point streak to 12 games and firing 5 shots on goal. Vince Dunn was likely seen as a bit of the scapegoat as he made a horrid drop pass in overtime that started the sequence, leading to the Islanders game winning goal. He can’t make the drop pass in overtime when surrounded by three opponents and without any of his own real speed. Your own speed has to cause the opponents around you to be defending with their own speed in order for that type of drop pass to be effective. Essentially, your speed causes them to defend in a way that forces them to vacate the area where the puck will be left. Dunn had little speed, making it easy to defend and intercept.

Jaden Schwartz’s career low season continued with 4 more shots without a goal, a penalty, two giveaways and a -1. Schwartz hasn’t scored on a goalie since November 9th, a span of 20 games. His season shooting percentage is 3.4% putting him 393rd among forwards who have played at least 20 games. Compare that to the 13.7% career average he had before this season and it leaves you shaking your head. Blues fans hope this is just bad luck or that it is a result of lingering issues that resolve themselves soon. I wonder if he is starting to regress to a new norm. Sure, 3.4% won’t likely be the new norm but maybe 8-9% could be his new normal. It will be interesting to see if this is an aberration or the start of a decline. When you look at players like Backes and Brouwer, it was easy to see the decline coming. I would argue the same could be said of Steen though GM Doug Armstrong chose to retain him on a longer term contract at a higher rate than likely will be justifiable in those later years. I don’t think Schwartz is there yet or that there should be a Backes type decline in the immediate future but it may bear watching. Please don’t confuse my words and suggest I am recommending the Blues trade him at his lowest value point. I am not but rather I am suggesting you can’t simply ignore significant underperformance in what amounts to effectively a third of a season or more.

Speaking of Backes, I wonder how many Blues fans noticed he was a healthy scratch earlier this week. You can listen to how he responded here.


The way Backes handled this likely didn’t surprise a single Blues fan and is one of the reasons why he endeared himself to the Blues faithful.

I’m guessing Backes won’t be scratched tonight when the Blues travel to Boston to take on the Bruins. Boston is 6-3-1 in their last 10 games and a very impressive 16-6-1 at home though they are winless in their last two home games. The Bruins are 2nd in power play efficiency and 13th on the penalty kill. They are only the 18th best scoring per game but are very stingy, 3rd lowest in goals against per game.

David Pastrnak leads the Bruins with 27 goals and 55 points in 47 games while Brad Marchand has 51 points in 46 games and Patrice Bergeron has 39 points in 31 games. Torey Krug leads the defense with 31 points in 36 games.

Tuukka Rask is expected to get the start in net. For those who aren’t familiar with Tuukka, I recommend you tubing some of his AHL games for a good chuckle. Let’s just say he can be animated at times and might remind you of Eddie Belfour. Rask has a career 91.9% save percentage against the Blues and a 92.5% save percentage at home. This year he has a 91.9% save percentage.

The Blues will counter with Jake Allen in net. Allen may only have an 89.9% save percentage this season but has a 92.5% on the road this year. Allen also has been very good against Boston with a career 94.5% save percentage.

The Blues will be without Zach Sanford who was injured in Tuesday’s game and will choose to go with seven defensemen. The lineup will look like this:
Kyrou - O'Reilly - Perron
Schwartz - Schenn - Tarasenko
Fabbri - Sundqvist - Maroon
Barbashev - Blais
Edmundson - Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester - Parayko
Dunn - Bortuzzo
Gunnarsson
Allen

I’m glad to see Kyrou put on a line where I think he could actually succeed. I would have tried him there over Sanford last game as well as I don’t see why Sanford has been given so much more opportunity than some of the other young players. Sanford has 2 points in his last 13 games and didn’t even generate 2 shots per game during that span while averaging a little under 14 minutes a game. Since starting with 3 goals and 7 points in 6 games, Sanford has a meager 2 goals and 2 assists in the next 24 games. With the injury, some others will get an opportunity.

NHL Champions for Charity
We’ve gotten some traction on the charity wager among the Central Division bloggers. The first charity I’ll highlight is Meagan’s Walk (website) from your Blackhawk’s Blogger Justin Lowe (Justin's Blog). Meagan’s Walk seeks to bring hope and awareness to cancerous brain tumors, the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in children and young people.

Side note – Please join the bone marrow registry. It’s an easy, painless process to join the registry and you might be called upon to help save someone’s life, like Molly Bozak, wife of Blues player Tyler Bozak was. Read more about it here.

It’s a great day for hockey.
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