Randall Ritchey: Brian Elliott Shines In Overtime Win Over The Lightning Vladimir Tarasenko scored in regulation, and Jaden Schwartz scored the overtime winner, but the real hero tonight is Brian Elliott. Elliott was dominant tonight, and was the only reason the Blues didn't lose in regulation.

Big game by Elliott. Stole that one.

56 minutes of one of my least favorite games of the year followed by a victory.

2 bonus points for certain. Worst game I have seen them play all year, sans Elliott.

Butler was bad. I think you have to consider splitting Jaybo and Petro while Shatty is hurt.

Rattie still has not shown me anything that suggests he will be productive in the NHL. In the AHL, sure. In the NHL, not so much.

With Fabrri having a stall with the team in St. Louis, any chance he stays and practices. Can he get his 9 games in now? lol.

Interesting no-call on what looked to be a Backes boarding.

Terrible call on the Bolts on the phantom trip that was two Blues players colliding. Did Steen actually hook anyone on his penalty? Oh wait, Peel did the game. Now it all makes sense.

2 bonus points for certain. Worst game I have seen them play all year, sans Elliott.

Butler was bad. I think you have to consider splitting Jaybo and Petro while Shatty is hurt.

Rattie still has not shown me anything that suggests he will be productive in the NHL. In the AHL, sure. In the NHL, not so much.

With Fabrri having a stall with the team in St. Louis, any chance he stays and practices. Can he get his 9 games in now? lol.

Interesting no-call on what looked to be a Backes boarding.

Terrible call on the Bolts on the phantom trip that was two Blues players colliding. Did Steen actually hook anyone on his penalty? Oh wait, Peel did the game. Now it all makes sense.
- stljam

I am all for trading Rattie. I don't think he will be a good NHLer and hope they can get something for him before others figure it out.

your goalie played great look forward to the blues coming to tampa in about a week

your goalie played great look forward to the blues coming to tampa in about a week
- todd1a

Hopefully in a week we have 2 more forwards back in our lineup and a more rounded out offensive attack. With Shatty going down on Sunday we haven't had much time to get our defense completely ready either. Not taking anything away from Tampa Bay, but hopefully next time the Blues can play a better game as Elliot saved our butts tonight.

Still Wish we had Bishop though

I felt the Bolts deserved the two points but Elliott had his say and won the game for the Blues. Good game by him. Can't wait to see the Blues live in Tampa, it should be a good game.

That was a pathetic game, but something should be said for the Blues' ability to find a way to win even when being outplayed tonight. That is the mark of a great team and something I've seen other great teams do to the Blues in the past.

Feels like the first time in quite a while where Blues were on the winning side of a goalie stealing a game. Tampa deserved 2 points; hopefully the Blues can get things going better while we wait for people to get healthy.

So Happy I traded for him in my pool this year. And gave up practically nothing

Hopefully in a week we have 2 more forwards back in our lineup and a more rounded out offensive attack. With Shatty going down on Sunday we haven't had much time to get our defense completely ready either. Not taking anything away from Tampa Bay, but hopefully next time the Blues can play a better game as Elliot saved our butts tonight.

Still Wish we had Bishop though
- BluesDroogie

yan we hope to make a deadline move for a defenseman with carle and gudas out we are in need of help back there.

yan we hope to make a deadline move for a defenseman with carle and gudas out we are in need of help back there.
- todd1a

You're not the only ones

Big win tonight. We were completely outplayed. If not for Moose, the team would've been booed off the ice. Pietrangelo and Bouwmeester look like Dumb and Dumber out there. With our upcoming salary cap problems (Tarasenko), I would not be upset if Army moved Pietrangelo. It's too bad Shattenkirk is out of commissions right now. If 27 & 19 are going to stay, will someone please teach them to stand up at the blue line & how to play the body?

Big win tonight. We were completely outplayed. If not for Moose, the team would've been booed off the ice. Pietrangelo and Bouwmeester look like Dumb and Dumber out there. With our upcoming salary cap problems (Tarasenko), I would not be upset if Army moved Pietrangelo. It's too bad Shattenkirk is out of commissions right now. If 27 & 19 are going to stay, will someone please teach them to stand up at the blue line & how to play the body?
- Blues65

If I didn't know better I'd say this was Lonewolf. They have internet there at the home do they?

2 bonus points for certain. Worst game I have seen them play all year, sans Elliott.

Butler was bad. I think you have to consider splitting Jaybo and Petro while Shatty is hurt.

Rattie still has not shown me anything that suggests he will be productive in the NHL. In the AHL, sure. In the NHL, not so much.

With Fabrri having a stall with the team in St. Louis, any chance he stays and practices. Can he get his 9 games in now? lol.

Interesting no-call on what looked to be a Backes boarding.

Terrible call on the Bolts on the phantom trip that was two Blues players colliding. Did Steen actually hook anyone on his penalty? Oh wait, Peel did the game. Now it all makes sense.
- stljam

Butler had a bad first period but he got better as the night went on. Made a nice play on the game winning goal and finished with over 20 minutes. I think you keep Petro and Bow together if not to maintain cohesiveness down the stretch into the playoffs, then to take some of the pressure off of Butler/Gunnarson and keep giving them more offensive zone starts.

I agree about Rattie. Not sure he has the motor or the fearlessness it will take for him to be a scorer in the NHL. I actually would not be surprised if we end up seeing Fabrri at some point this season.

By the way, I'd like to thank Guru in advance for reminding us that he played for Chaminade just like Butler, Bishop, and Stastny.
Just kidding guru, I'd be proud too if I played there.

I felt the Bolts deserved the two points but Elliott had his say and won the game for the Blues. Good game by him. Can't wait to see the Blues live in Tampa, it should be a good game.
- stammerman

Curious to see Tampa's response to Backes giving Stamkos a love tap and a hug...

Curious to see Tampa's response to Backes giving Stamkos a love tap and a hug...
- eggsegan

Without Gudas.... Nothing

Without Gudas.... Nothing
- Artyukhin76

Maybe Luke Witkowski if he plays against the Blues next game. I am sure the Bolts didn't like it and might try to address it because Stamkos was just standing there not even close to Elliott when Backes shoved him. Glad Stamkos stood up for himself. Will be interesting next game versus the Blues as the Bolts are not known to fight much.

Big win tonight. We were completely outplayed. If not for Moose, the team would've been booed off the ice. Pietrangelo and Bouwmeester look like Dumb and Dumber out there. With our upcoming salary cap problems (Tarasenko), I would not be upset if Army moved Pietrangelo. It's too bad Shattenkirk is out of commissions right now. If 27 & 19 are going to stay, will someone please teach them to stand up at the blue line & how to play the body?
- Blues65

Pietrangelo is not getting moved please stop saying Pietro should be moved if a high priced Dman is moved it will be Bo at the draft

The first 55 Minutes of that game were miserable to watch. Elliott played one of the best games I have seen him play.

Stamkos must have smoked crack before coming out for that shift. Good thing the refs were there to keep Backes from turning him inside out.

Thanks Randal for the mention.

Thanks for these much better wrote ups of late. I like the spice you are adding to the recaps. Because I hate just plain recaps. The added opinion is working keep up the good work.


Elliott played his best game of the season after what I thought was a weak goal for him. Then he made numerous great saves.


The Blies struggled for sure but got the points. There was some puck luck as a post or two was hit by the Lightening and we can recall the opposite happening to the Blues many times throughout the season.

Hopefully the Blues do not take the ECHL team they play Thursday lightly. Might want to have the Chicago Wolves play the game instead so that it will be an actual hockey game.

steal of a game by Elliot last night!

i have to say my favorite team to watch in the EAST is TBL! there offense is and these kids they draft and acquire are amazing!

not in favor of moving Rattie just yet but if it is for right player do it!

agree on AP27 the guy seems to be afraid to take body and never seems to have position against the opposition in front of the net. i wouldn't mind trading him maybe to TML straight up for Kessel or EDM's taylor Hall i would rather give that D money to Shattenkirk.

i have cooled on hitchcock for now because of the points streak the team is on but the team has not played CHI, LAK or ANA during this stretch. which are going to be the teams the BLUES have to play to get to a CUP!

also an article on Backs in case nobody saw it
http://sports.yahoo.com/b...-out-there-221337958.html

2 bonus points for certain. Worst game I have seen them play all year, sans Elliott.

Butler was bad. I think you have to consider splitting Jaybo and Petro while Shatty is hurt.

Rattie still has not shown me anything that suggests he will be productive in the NHL. In the AHL, sure. In the NHL, not so much.

With Fabrri having a stall with the team in St. Louis, any chance he stays and practices. Can he get his 9 games in now? lol.

Interesting no-call on what looked to be a Backes boarding.

Terrible call on the Bolts on the phantom trip that was two Blues players colliding. Did Steen actually hook anyone on his penalty? Oh wait, Peel did the game. Now it all makes sense.
- stljam

I think you are wrong about Butler.

I watched that tripping call in slow motion ontop of the replay slow motion. I thought I saw what you saw at first. What happened though was Hedman's stick was sort of hooking Schwartz as Schwartz skated and Oshie skated by he pushed Hedman's stick the opposite direction Schwartz was going in. So it was actually a trip as Schwartz and Oshie did not contact eachother as I had also first thought.

Plenty of missed calls on the Lightening in the third though. A lot of interference, the kind that Detroit is so good at not being called for makes you wonder where they learned it. Yzerman. So I would no worry.

You know who played bad though on defense? Jackman. But it was not so much bad play as bad passing by the Blues that hurt their play and had them chasing the gaame.

The other big problem is they are relying only on three lines. The fourth line looked slow agaist a fast Lightening team.

I do not know how Rattie has much of a chance to show anything with his center's only positive play skating the perimeter and then losing the puck while Rattie and Jaskin were deep. It is crap.

Quick, somebody call the Po-Po.

Tarasenko stole a point. Schwartz stole the second point and Elliot drove the getaway car.

Geeze, what a snoozer of a game. Four minutes of excitement jam-packed into three hours.