St Louis Blues

Blues and Predators battle for 3rd while Blues battle injuries
April 2, 2017, 11:22 AM ET [2 Comments]
Jason Millen
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The Blues wrapped up their successful road trip on Friday, losing in a shootout to the Avalanche. The shootout loss secured a spot in the post season for the 6th consecutive year for the Blues. Ryan Reaves had the only Blues goal with a deflection of the Scottie Upshall shot. Jordan Schmaltz got the secondary assist on the goal. Jake Allen played strong and got a little help from his friends (the metal ones that is), stopping 31 of 32 Avalanche shots, only allowing a power play goal from JT Compher.

The Blues playoff clinching game didn’t come without cost though as Robert Bortuzzo was lost to injury early in the 2nd period and it appears that Ivan Barbashev may have been lost to injury on his last shift of the game. Bortuzzo has an upper body injury while Barbashev’s injury looks to be because of a blocked shot. Petteri Lindbohm and Kenny Agostino have both been recalled on an emergency basis and I expect you will see Lindbohm in the lineup this afternoon.

The Western conference playoff placement race is getting quite intriguing. Both teams who were seemingly running away with their division a month or two ago look to have lost the division title and are battling to keep from losing home ice advantage in the first round with the Sharks at risk of getting relegated to a wild card spot.

This afternoon the Blues will face the Predators in a battle which may got a long way to deciding who finishes 3rd to face the Wild and who gets the wild card spot. The teams are tied in total points with their points earned percentages differing by only 0.8% as the Blues have a game in hand. After today, the Predators will host the Islanders before finishing with two road games against the Stars and Jets. The Blues on the other hand will face the Jets and Avalanche at home and the Panthers and Hurricanes on the road. The Blues do hold the tiebreaker.

The Predators are coming off a win against the Wild yesterday but have lost 2 of their last 3 and are only 2-2 in their last four road games. As their 16-18-4 road record would suggest, they have been very ordinary on the road in the key statistical areas with them being in the bottom 3rd in road shooting percentage, almost exactly at the league average in road save percentage, in the bottom 3rd road power play percentage while being in the top 3rd road penalty kill. Overall, the Predators rank 7th in shots per game, 13th in shots against per game, 15th in goals against per game, and 9th in goals for per game.

James Neal missed yesterday’s contest and is questionable for the game this afternoon.
The Predators are led by Ryan Johansen who has 60 points in 78 games. Filip Forsberg (top 10 trade ever?) leads them with 31 goals and 57 points in 78 games. Viktor Arvidsson isn’t far behind with 29 goals and 57 points in 76 games. I realize PK Subban gets a lot of the hype and he’s a great player but Roman Josi leads their defensive corps both in minutes (more than 25 a game) and points (48 in 69 games).

Pekka Rinne started yesterday and got the shutout. I’m not yet sure if they will come back with Rinne today or with Juuse Saros. I would bet Rinne but that could be wrong.
With the call ups of Agostino and Lindbohm, the lineup will be in flux. Expect Jake Allen in net and Linbohm to insert himself in the lineup. Also, expect Dmitrij Jaskin to get back in the lineup.

My best guess at the lineup looks like this:
Schwartz – Steen – Tarasenko
Sanford – Berglund - Perron
Paajarvi – Jaskin – Yakupov
Upshall – Brodziak – Reaves
Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo
Edmundson - Parayko
Lindohm – Schmaltz
Allen

More scary stuff around the league yesterday as Flyers goalie Michael Neuvirth collapsed in the net while there was a faceoff in the neutral zone. Reports are that he had been sick so hopefully this was just the case of a fever and dehydration leading him to temporarily pass out. Reports are that he was released from the hospital this morning.

It’s a great day for hockey.

Fellow Hockeybuzz bloggers Nashville Predator's Paul McCann, Winnipeg Jet's Peter Tessier and Minnesota Wild's Dan Wallace have generously agreed to a friendly charity wager. We were hoping to do the whole division but don't have it fully represented yet. The blogger whose team finishes the highest the standings at the end of the year gets to pick a charity to whom the others donate in their name.