St Louis Blues

Blues look to clinch with Sobotka and Lehtera out
April 8, 2017, 2:32 PM ET [1 Comments]
Jason Millen
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The Blues defeated the Florida Panthers on Thursday night by a score of 6-3. The Blues never trailed in the game, taking 1 goals leads in the 1st and 2nd periods before scoring three unanswered goals in the 2nd half of the third period. Jake Allen stopped 29 of 32 shots. The Blues got goals from Ryan Reaves, Vladimir Tarasenko, David Perron, Patrik Berglund, Alex Pietrangelo, and an empty net goal from Jaden Schwartz.

Perron’s goal was another highlight reel goal, much like the one on Sunday against the Predators. With his assist as well, Perron now has six points in his last five games. Schwartz added two assists giving him five points in his last five games. Pietrangelo added an assist, aslo giving him five points in his last five games.

The win brought the Blues magic number to clinch third place and a date with the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the playoffs to one point. The Blues will look to lock down third place tonight when they travel to Carolina to take on the Hurricanes.

The Hurricanes are winless in April, losing their last four games but they are 4-2-1 in their last seven home games. They will miss the playoff this year though they will have exceeded a more than 50% point percentage. Their road record of 12-19-9 is what will be keeping them from making the post season. They do sport a strong home record of 23-12-5 so the game should be far from a cake walk for the Blues.

The Hurricanes are led by Jeff Skinner who has 35 goals and 61 points in 77 games. Up and coming Sebastian Aho is 2nd, with 23 goals and 48 assists in 80 games. Justin Falk leads there defensemen in points and goals but Jacob Slavin may be their best blueliner. Slavin only has two less points but he plays more minutes and is +24 as compared to Faulk’s -17.

The Hurricanes have done a good job of shot suppression, allowing the 4th fewest shots per game and have been very strong on the penalty kill, right behind the Blues at 6th best. Their shot suppression hasn’t translated into fewest goals against where they rank 18th. They have struggled to score goals where they are in the bottom 3rd in goals scored per game and in power play efficiency. The Hurricanes are 4th best in the face-off circle, something that may pose a challenge for the Blues given all of their injuries.

The Blues continue to do well on special teams, ranking 8th on the power play and 5th on the penalty kill. They also continue to rank in the top half of the league in goals per game and goals against per game even though they generate the 5th lowest shots per game.

As most of you are all aware, the Blues signed Vladimir Sobotka to a 3 year, $10.5 million contract extension. Sobotka joined the team yesterday and practiced on a line with Steen and Paajarvi as well as spending time in the number one power play unit. He is not expected to be in the lineup even with Jori Lehtera out sick. Yeo decided to wait until tomorrow to play him as Sobotka has not played in a few weeks. It was interesting to see Sobotka’s quote on not playing today. He commented: “yesterday I thought I’m going to play tonight but after the skate, I just feel like I needed more work on the things”.

Also, as many of you mentioned, Petteri Lindbohm was returned to the Wolves, ending his emergency recall. Hutton will start tonight with Allen going tomorrow. With Sobotka and Lehtera out, expect the lines to start like this:
Schwartz – Barbashev – Tarasenko (the TBS line)
Steen – Berglund - Perron
Jaskin – Sanford – Paajarvi
Upshall – Brodziak – Reaves
Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo
Edmundson - Parayko
Gunnarsson - Schmaltz
Hutton

Some other quotes regarding Sobotka:
- “I was really tired to read stuff about me where I’m going to play next year. It’s been going on too long and I’m happy that it’s over now and everything is fine.” - Sobotka
- “It’s part of line and I had to decide what I’m going to do for the future at that time. I would never regret it. But nothing happened between (Army and him) and we kept our relationship. We had really good talks over the past three years.” - Sobotka
- On the confusion before the season, “I thought it (the termination option) was there, and when I wanted to leave, my agents said it’s not in the contract. I couldn’t really do anything about it.” – Sobotka
- “I got nothing against the Blues. I always loved to play St. Louis and I always will.” - Sobotka
- “If he comes back as the exact same player as he left, we’re excited.” – Doug Armstrong
- “I’ve talked to a number of players on the team and everybody is just real excited to have him back in a real genuine way.“ – Mike Yeo
- “My first impression was that he’s just a low-maintenance guy. He just wants to be a hockey player and he basically said ‘play me where you want to play me and I’ll go do my best’”. – Yeo

Other hockey news:
- Danny Divis and Justin McKenzie of Saint Michael’s College won the NCAA Hockey Humanitarian award for creating their Hope Happens Here campaign to support those with mental health issue. Read more about it here.
- Congratulations to the United States women’s team who won the world championships last night on a golden goal from Hilary Knight (@Hilary_Knight) over Canada.
- Bryan Bickell had a very emotional interview that you can watch here.
- It sounds like Kyle Okposo is doing better and was released from the hospital.
- In non-hockey news, this was a great interview that I somehow missed that all high school athletes should watch – watch it

It’s a great day for hockey.