Bluenotes 2-25-11: Tarasenko’s Back | Conklin Killing the Blues | Two Deadlines Approach

A daily dose of news and views from around St. Louis Blues Nation

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Tarasenko News

According to friend of the blog, Alex Seren Rosso, prospect Vladimir Tarasenko did not play in Game One of Sibir’s KHL playoff series against Salavat Yulaev. He was set to appear in Game Two and did play roughly 10 minutes. Sibir is down 0-2 in the series.

You may remember that Tarasenko injured his shoulder after the World Junior Championships and at one time was expected to possibly miss the remainder of the KHL season, playoffs and any subsequent tournament play. His quick recovery turnaround can be likened to that of TJ Oshie.

Good news that it takes a lot to keep Tank down.

Deadlines Approaching

Two deadlines approach quickly for the Blues that are tightly woven in to each other.

The trade deadline is Monday the 28th and how “active” the Blues may be in moving out payroll space for the future will be determined by news of another “soft deadline” passing in the ownership situation.

Yes, the deals the Blues have made set them up for future success and address key areas of need. However, they do free up over $1 million in payroll for the final 20-something games.

Expect a leaner lineup on March 1st against Calgary if Dave Checketts doesn’t have good news to report very soon. Good news being the ownership group has been finalized and will be presented to the league for approval. Otherwise, the cuts with “future implications” will continue to come.

Standings Watch

The Blues are in 13th place of the Western Conference with 63 points. They are still 4 points ahead of 14th place Colorado and 3 behind 12th place Columbus. They are 7 points behind 10th place Calgary and 6th place Chicago.

Had the Blues defeated Vancouver, Colorado and Chicago, all winnable games, they would have 69 points and be just one point back of the playoff cutoff with at least one game in hand on every team they were directly competing against.

For those watching to see if the conditional pick exchange with Colorado will kick in this season, the Blues are currently the 10th lowest team in the NHL. They are two points behind Carolina and only one ahead of Buffalo. There is a very strong possibility that the roll over does kick in given how the team has performed.

Conklin Killing The Blues

I’ve argued more than once that Ty Conklin’s substandard efforts at home kept the Blues out of the 2010 Playoffs. He lost seven games at Scottrade. Had he won half of those, at least three, that would have given the Blues 6 additional points and forced them in to a tie for 8th.

He’s back at it again.

In the month of February Conks has allowed 17 goals in 8 games. While his GAA of 2.73 may not look all that bad, his performances on the ice tell a different story. In crucial games, he hasn’t provided the needed band-aid to stop the bleeding.

Lost 3-1 in second half of home and home with Minnesota.
Lost 4-3 to Colorado in second half of back to back with Chicago.
Lost 3-2 to Vancouver, a team the Blues had not yet lost to this season in a close game.

Redux? Deja vu?

Three straight losses in his starts. Six points. Add six points to the Blues total, they’re one point back with games in hand.

Some say they don’t trust Ben Bishop to be the backup next season. I say bring him on. He likely can’t reduce the Blues chances of making the playoffs as much as Conklin has. I will admit, he has been given questionable at best defensive support. Though, shouldn’t the goalie be counted on at some point to stop the puck? It’s a two way street. In this case, the devil you know is not better.

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