Blues Gameday – Saturday October 24th, 2009 vs. Dallas Stars

Game Info
Location: Scottrade Center St. Louis, MO.
Game-time: 7pm Central
TV: FS-MW (HD)
Radio: KMOX 1120 AM

Previews:
ESPN Preview
Blues Official Website Preview
Stars Official Website Preview

Food for Thought
The Blues have been playing ill recenty. Not with the Swine Flu, but the Whine Flu. Fans have seen the symptoms of lack of physical effort and mental lapses. What did the doctor order? The Minnesota Wild and their less than stellar 18 goals scored in 8 games played. Last night’s game wasn’t a total turn around, but it was a very good start. The Blues will have to be working hard tonight versus a resurgent Dallas Stars squad.

Per Jeremy Rutherford at the St. Louis Post Dispatch, TJ Oshie was taken to the hospital Saturday morning for an appendectomy. While some of the St. Louis’ hockey media have said it wasn’t emergency, I doubt this was planned. A ruptured appendix can kill you. I would treat it as an emergency. Stemming from this news of Oshie being out indefinitely is word that there will be no call ups for tonight’s game. I would supposed we can expect DJ King to dress tonight. There is also word from Andy Strickland on Twitter than Alex Peitrangelo will play tonight. I sincerely hope its not as a “4th line winger” to replace TJ’s spot in the line up. Bottom line Blues fans, expect King to play, Oshie to watch on TV from the hospital, and Peitrangelo to fit in somewhere. Send good vibes TJ’s way for a speedy recovery.

Inserting DJ King in to the line up, one would assume we should see a physical game with some fights. I’m not exactly sure if that will be teh case. Physical, yes. Fighting, not so much. Dallas has only four Major penalties all season, the Blues have two. Both teams are in the top 5 in the NHL regarding fewest penalty minutes per game. I wouldn’t expect a ton of special teams play tonight. Both teams just don’t take many penalties (compared to the rest of the league). For that reason, expect less of Cam/DJ and expect more double shifting of players like Keith Tkachuk and Jay McClement.

If this does become a special teams battle, I would expect the respective penalty kills to determine the game. Both power play units are in the bottom half in the NHL. There is no doubting both have skill, but neither is converting. The Blues are currently ranked 18th and the Stars 21st on the power play. This is where the Blues should hold a distinct advantage. Last year’s squad ranked in the top 10. This years group is currently ranked 16th with two short handed goals. Dallas has one short handed goal and has allowed 10 goals in 36 kills. What could tip the balance? The loss of TJ Oshie. He works tirelessly on the kill and is always a threat to score short handed. It was very nice to see David Perron step up last night on the penalty kill. Maybe we will see more of him out there. The moral of this story, if you can get Dallas to take penalties they can’t kill them effectively, but the Blues should be able to.

One major point of concern for Dallas last year was the play of Goalie Marty Turco. A career 2.26 GAA and .911 Save% should have pointed to a better 08-09 season. However, Turco posted a career low GAA (2.81) and tied a career low Save% (.898). In seven games this season Turco has a 2.35 GAA and .911 Save%. I don’t think you can dispute that injuries and sub standard play by Turco is what demoted Dallas from a team capable of a deep playoff run to a low end bubble team. A solid Turco in the net gives them a chance to beat any team.

I cannot find anything that says if Mason or Conklin will be in net tonight for the Blues. Mason wasn’t severely tested by Minnesota last night. Id expect Mason to be able to play tonight.

See you all at Scottrade for Hockey Fights Cancer Night. Kudos to the Blues for a job well done last night for Pink at the Rink.

UPDATE 3:38PM – Appears that Strachan is out and Pietrangelo is in. I reread Strickland’s blog from Thursday and he said Mason is in Friday and Coklin Saturday. Guess we will see when we get to the rink tonight. Yes, no call ups. It still looks like King is taking TJ’s spot. As Mark and Randall alluded to earlier this week, Peoria has its own issues with players being out. We have warm bodies up now, no need to purge Peoria of a needed player.