On Sunday, the Blues almost completed an amazing feet of winning all six games in consecutive weekend back to back games, falling just short in overtime in Minnesota to the Wild. Getting 11 of 12 possible points in those six games is pretty amazing when you consider two of the games were against Nashville, one was against one of the three hottest teams in the league (Boston) and the other three were against division rivals fighting for their playoff lives.
The Wild opened the scoring midway through the 2nd period when Eric Staal went behind the net and found an inexplicably uncovered Jason Zucker right in front of the net. Vince Dunn tried to defend with is stick only and missed the pass while Alex Pietrangelo was standing around, covering nobody.
The Blues would finally break through a little over seven minutes into the 3rd period on a power play goal from Alex Pietrangelo whose shot deflects in off a shin guard.
Ryan Donato would win the game in overtime, taking advantage of poor defense by Robert Thomas who does enough to impair Jake Allen’s sight line on the shot yet not nearly enough to actually have a defensive impact on Donato. Allen can’t pick the shot up at the release point and doesn’t make the save.
Over a minute before the goal, Vince Dunn gets clear possession and lays a pass for Jaden Schwartz who is gassed and wants to get to the bench, completely missing the pass and allowing the Wild to take possession. This possession is an extended one that eventually ends with the game winning goal.
Overall, Allen was the main reason why the Blues were even able to salvage a point, stopping 33 of 35 shots, many of them quality chances against. It’s a shame he couldn’t come up with the save to turn possession back to the Blues.
After travelling back to St. Louis, much of the attention turned to the trade deadline where GM Doug Armstrong did very little, adding Michael Del Zotto for a 6th round pick (more on him later). Many of us wonder if this signals that Carl Gunnarsson may be out longer than some were hoping. It definitely suggests that David Perron and Brayden Schenn are not likely to be out long term. Armstrong said so today, stating “we’re comfortable they’re going to be back sooner rather than later”. As a result, he didn’t feel the need to stretch for a pending UFA forward.
Of all the deals that were done, the only potential deal that I could have seen working, maybe, were the Derek Brassard and Marcus Johansson deals but I understand why the Blues were not in on those. Don’t change the luck as they say.
Speaking of deadline day, tonight’s game against the Predators got a bit more challenging as the Predators acquired Mikael Granlund and Wayne Simmonds.
The Predators are fresh off a shootout win over the Edmonton Oilers in Nashville though the Oilers were without Connor McDavid though the Predators were without Simmonds and Granlund.
The Predators are only 5-4-1 in their last 10 games but are 4-2 in their last 6 road games. They will be looking to avenge their two losses to the Blues from earlier this month. Given that Pekka Rinne played last night, assume the Blues will see Juuse Saros again tonight.
With Schenn and Perron and Alexander Steen sick, expect the lineup to look like this:
Schwartz - O'Reilly - Tarasenko
Maroon - Bozak - Fabbri
Sanford - Sundqvist - Thomas
MacEachern - Barbashev - Blais
Edmundson - Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester - Parayko
Dunn - Bortuzzo
Binnington
In regards to Del Zotto, you’ll be hard pressed to find a more sheltered defensemen this season and he still wasn’t producing. Two thirds of his zone starts were offensive with the Ducks yet he managed only three assists in over 17 minutes of ice per game in 12 games. I'm not sold on him being an upgrade over Butler but I hope to be proven wrong.
NHL Champions for Charity
We’ve gotten some traction on the charity wager among the Central Division bloggers. One charity I’ll highlight is Best Buddies Tennessee
https://www.bestbuddies.org/tennessee/from your Predators’s Blogger
Paul McCann. Best Buddies Tennessee is dedicated to establishing a volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development and inclusive living opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. As a side note, I recently got to experience a Best Buddies even in the St. Louis area that was led by the Eureka high school football team. It was a lot of fun and brought a lot of joy to those involved.
It’s a great day for hockey.
St Louis Blues Blogger • 
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