Gameday 01-14-10: Blues vs. Wild

Game Info

Location: Scottrade Center, St. Louis, MO
Game-time: 7:00 pm Central
TV: FSMW (HD)
Radio: KMOX 1120 AM

Stat Pack

St Louis Blues: 13th in Western Conference & 4th in Central Division – 45 Points

Minnesota: 10th in Western Conference & 4th in Northwest Division – 51 Points

Power Play:
Minnesota: (Road): 15.1%, (21st)
St. Louis (Home): 14.1%, (28th)

Penalty Kill
Minnesota: (Road): 82.8%, (13th)
St. Louis (Home): 83.7% (13th)

Goals Scored per Game vs. Goals Against per Game
Minnesota: (Road): 2.17 GF/G(29th) | 2.88 GA/G (T-13th)
St. Louis (Home): 2.46 GF/G (26th) | 3.21 GA/G (28th)

Hot & Cold
Minnesota: Guillaume Latendresse (4 Goals and 9 Points in Last 5 Games) | Andrew Brunette (1 Point in Last 5 Games)
St. Louis: Jay McClement (1 Goal, 6 Points, & a Plus-5 Rating in Last 4 Games) | Erik Johnson (1 Assist in Last 10 Games)

Food For Thought

In the third of four season meetings both teams face each other trending up.

Minnesota is a hot team. They are the winners of Four straight agiains the likes of Calgary, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Vancouver. In those games they have scored 18 Goals and allowed 11 Goals. That is 4.50 Goals For per game and 2.75 Goals Against per game. Minnesota played last night against Vancouver. Now they are flying to St. Louis for a game about an hour and a half earlier than what they are used to. Minnesota needs this game, its a kick off of a 3 game road trip where they could end up right at #8 in the West. The Blues must take advantage of their fatigue from playing last night and flying in today. The fisrt period must have the same Davis Payne jump we’ve seen in four of the last five games. Jump on Minnesota early and bury them. Just cannot allow a hot team to come in tired and hang around till the third.

Minnesota’s power play has been converting. In the four game win streak they are 3-for-15 for a 20% conversion rate. Their road power play this year sits at 15.1%. Can Minnesota carry a clicking power play at home on the road when on the road they have been generally poor? We shall see, but the Blues PK will need to be on point to keep the Blues in this game. Their penalty kill is 12-for-14 in their last 4 games, an 85.7% kill rate. Their penalty kill on the raod has not been that good, only siting at 82.8%. The Blues power play must find ways to score since both teams are fairly match 5-on-5.

The Blues are a stabilizing team winning two of their last three and taking points with solid efforts in three of the last four. The system Davis Payne has put in to place seems to be taking root with the Blues players and they are working the hardest they have all season. The biggest difference comes in peculiar places. I think fans expected players like Patrik Berglund, TJ Oshie, David Perron to respond to Payne. However, the biggest change has come from Brad Winchester and Brad Boyes. Winchester is skating with purpose and is back to playing hickey, instead of just skating around. The stats aren’t there but what he does often doesn’t total up on the score sheet. Working the boards, getting to the net, creating traffic/screens. Brad Boyes compete level is much higher, maybe the highest its been since last spring. He actually took a hit to make a play and is fighting for pucks and winning battles. That’s not what we saw from him for the first 40 or so games. Boyes seems to be doing well and is getting the little things right. Hopefully that will continue on to his scoring game.

Who else looks like a new man? Chris Mason. Since Payne’s takeover he has allowed only 9 Goals in 4 Games a 2.25 GAA. He also has saved 114 of the last 123 shots against, a .926 Save%. He looks more like the Chris Mason of 08-09 and early 09-10 than what he was in December 09.

Keith Tkachuk is 3 Penalty Minutes short of 2,200 for his career.
T.J. Oshie is appearing in his 99th NHL game tonight.
Eric Brewer is 5 shots on goal away from 1,000 for his career.
Brad Winchester is 5 Penalty Minutes shy of 300 for his career.
Cam Janssen is sitting on 293 career NHL games played, 7 short of 300.

Difference Makers:

The Grinders

Players like Brad Winchester, BJ Crombeen, Keith Tkachuk, Cam Janssen (if he plays), & Derek Armstrong (if he plays) are going to have a large impact on this game. Minnesota played last night and is traveling a timezone backwards to play today. The forecheck is going to be what keeps Minnesota from transitioning up ice and working the Blues over. Minnesota showed in the last few games that they can skate with the best of teams, the Blues need the physical presence up front to balance out that team speed. The Blues are rested and at home, there is no reason they shouldn’t come out flying and pound the Wild.

Player Notes:

Per multiple reports from the Blues media community, it sounds like Andy McDonald will skate tonight. It’s hard to imagine who is given the night off. I would imagine it would be Janssen. Minnesota’s most prevalent fighter is John Scott who has a whopping five fighting majors this season. I don’t think Minnesota wants to get in to a slugfest with Janssen, Crombeen, Winchester, or Backes. Tyler is likely to have some fighting goodies once his Thorwdown Lowdown is posted.

Since Niklas Backstrom played in Minnesota last night its possible the Blues see Josh Harding. Harding owns a 3-1-1 career record against the Blues witha 1.88 GAA.

I will be back with updates later as far as the line up goes.

Update 10:15am: Lou Korac says McDonald is on the ice for the morning practice and is still expected to play, but he will confirm later.

Keys to the Game

1. Take the Body
-  No more power play as the #1 key. Tonight is all about being physical and initiating the play. Must be careful not to cross the fine line between aggressive and over aggressive and end up with bad penalties or odd man rushes.

2. Keep the Special Teams Play High
- The Blues have a power play goal in five of their last seven and have killed off 34 of their last 40 penalties (85%) in the same time span.

3. Shoot the Puck
- Keep getting pucks to the net, there is no simpler idea to boost your chances of winning. The Blues have topped 30 Shots on Goal only once since Davis Payne took over.

Who to Watch for?

Alex Steen

Steen dropped in two goals vs. Columbus and looks too keep his sold power play production moving along.