St. Louis Blues
(8-5-1)
vs
Vancouver Canucks
(8-3-2)
at
Rogers Arena
Game Time 8:00 CDT
St. Louis, MO- It had been nearly a year since the St. Louis Blues played the Calgary Flames when the Note strolled into Alberta Friday night. The Blues were fresh off a win in Detroit and hopefully on their way to stringing together a few wins in a row. What happened in Calgary was a bit multi-personality in nature. The Blues came out blazing in the first period, scoring 4 goals and seemingly ready to put many more crooked numbers up on the board. The second period strolled around and another team took the ice. The Blues looked somewhat flat and lazy with the puck. If it were not for Jake Allen being in goalie beast mode, the Blues could have left Calgary without the win and feeling pretty crappy about themselves. Don’t get me wrong, St. Louis played a decent game, but when you look at the overall picture one can see some of those bad habits of pulling off the gas pedal. Killer instinct is a phrase used a lot when talking about a teams nature in putting opposing clubs away. The Blues will need that killer nature against the Canucks tonight as they head out onto the ice of Rogers Arena.
Always stingy at home, the Canucks have had a season somewhat similar in points to the Blues. Vancouver starts the night with 18 points good for 1st in the Pacific Division and third overall in the Western Conference. The Blues have had the Canucks’ number for the most part after being sent home from the 2009-2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs first round in 4 games. Call it a long memory, call it a drive to beat one of the best teams in the West, call it what ever you want. The St. Louis Blues will need a full 60 minute effort tonight to take two points away from BC. When St. Louis is hard on the puck and plays their puck possession game there are few if any teams in the league that can compete with them. When the Blues start chasing the puck and not supporting one another, they get into trouble in a hurry. Look for the Blues to come out flying against Vancouver and get that all important early goal on the road.
Tonight’s line up should remain basically the same. The Blues do not need to fix what isn’t broke. With the Schwartz-Berglund-Stewart line starting to catch fire, the Blues are rolling 4 lines that can beat you night in and night out.
Tonight’s Line Up:
Forward Lines
Perron-Backes-Oshie
Schwartz-Berglund-Stewart
McDonald-Steen-Tarasenko
Sobotka-Nichol-Reaves/D’Agostini
Defensive Pairings
Cole-Pietrangelo
Jackman- Shattenkirk
Redden- Polak
In Goal
Jake Allen
In case you missed Jake Allen’s Ridiculously good save here you go: