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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Welcome to the Neno's Place!

Neno's Place Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality


Neno

I can be reached by phone or text 8am-7pm cst 972-768-9772 or, once joining the board I can be reached by a (PM) Private Message.

Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Many Topics Including The Oldest Dinar Community. Copyright © 2006-2020


    St Louis Blues

    jedi17
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    Posts : 10738
    Join date : 2013-02-20
    • Post n°1

    St Louis Blues Empty St Louis Blues

    Post by jedi17 Mon 06 Feb 2017, 8:36 pm

    Blues Jekyll/Hyde season continues versus Pens, Flyers and Trade Deadline 
    February 6, 2017, 2:56 PM ET [15 Comments]
    Jason Millen
    St Louis Blues Stl St Louis Blues Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
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    As I feared, the Blues continued their Jekyll and Hyde season on Saturday getting soundly beat by the Penguins, getting outshot and out-chanced. Perhaps the lone bright spot was that the Blues killed all 5 penalties faced.

    The Penguins opened the scoring after a poor icing by Kevin Shattenkirk. On the subsequent draw, Jori Lehtera lost the draw to Sidney Crosby and then lost Crosby as he cut to the net, getting open for a nifty one-time backhand shot. The whole defensive coverage after the lost face-off was atrocious. Vladimir Tarasenko is with Chris Kunitz who has the puck but he drifts to cover Justin Schultz at the point, expecting that Lehtera will release Crosby to Shattenkirk so he can pick up Kunitz. Instead, Lehtera does a poor job following Crosby, forcing Shattenkirk to come across and put pressure on Kunitz. Kunitz makes a good but relatively easy play given the situation and Crosby nets the goal. It’s hard to fault Allen on the goal.

    The Penguins second goal of the night is likely the biggest frustration of the evening for Blues fans. The Blues start the second period up 2 skaters and fail to convert. Not only do they fail to convert but they give up a breakaway to Ian Cole as he is coming out of the box, making it a 5 on 4. The Blues escape that chance as he shoots wide but a terrible play by Alex Pietrangelo at the right point creates a breakaway for Kris Letang as he exits the penalty box. This time Jake Allen gets caught too far forward and low and gets beat by the shot. 

    On the play, Shattenkirk makes a great hold at the left point and slides the backhanded pass to Pietrangelo who has a clear shooting lane and perhaps a passing lane to Tarasenko down low, both good options given what is on the ice and the status of the penalty. Instead he throws an awkward pass to Jaden Schwartz between the top of the circles, a pass that even if Schwartz receives would leave him facing the side wall with pressure. The goal seemed to take the life out of the fans sitting around us.

    The third Penguins goal is vintage 2017 Blues poor defensive zone coverage. Schwartz loses Schultz and stands off to the left side of the net covering nobody while Schultz goes to the right side of the net for the one-timer. Nothing Jake Allen could do about this goal.

    Also, vintage 2017, the Blues could not take advantage of playing a team without one of their best players, even though they played an overtime contest the night before. Adding injury to insult, the Blues lose Robby Fabbri for the season to a torn left ACL.

    Due to the Fabbri injury, the Blues called up Kenny Agostino and Maguns Paajarvi. It looks like Agostino will get in the lineup tonight when the Blues travel to Philadelphia to take on the Flyers.

    The Flyers have been hot at home, going 4-1-1 in their last six home games and are a very good 16-7-4 there this season. They are in the middle of a hotly contested wild card race, 2 points ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs but they have played three more games than the Leafs.

    Wayne Simmonds leads the Flyers in goals with 23 while Jakub Voracek lead them in points with 45. Michael Neuvirth is expected to get the start in net.  

    Eklund speculated recently about an Eastern Conference team considering making a change to former Blues coach Ken Hitchcock. My guess on that team, and it’s a complete guess, is the Flyers. Recently coach Dave Hakstol has been really spreading his healthy scratches around, scratching Michael Del Zotto (injured currently though), Shayne Gostisbehere , Travis Konecny and now Matt Read. He also made a comment about letting the team they are playing drive his lineup. The Blues will benefit from not having to face Gostisbehere and Read.

    Mike Yeo is turning to Carter Hutton in net tonight. Yeo made positive comments about Allen’s play on Saturday. Neither goalie has done well against the Flyers though their entire experience spans three games. Allen will get the start tomorrow in Ottawa.

    With Fabbri out for the year, look for the Blues to experiment with lines. Here is the best guess for how things start tonight:
    Steen – Stastny –Tarasenko
    Agostino – Lehtera - Perron 
    Schwartz – Berglund – Jaskin 
    Upshall – Barbashev – Reaves
    Bouwmeester –Pietrangelo 
    Gunnarsson – Shattenkirk 
    Edmundson - Parayko
    Hutton

    Trade Deadline Advance Thoughts
    The Blues play six of their next seven games on the road and their performance during that span will determine what type of buyer or seller general manager Doug Armstrong will be at the trading deadline. Another interesting wrinkle in the schedule is that the Blues are off from February 21st until they play Chicago on the 26th. This gives a good window of time for Armstrong to be working those phones hard to put some “meat on the burner”. It feels like this road trip will be a bonding trip that propels the Blues into a playoff spot or a season ending trip that signals Armstrong to be a full seller even though they really don’t have that many assets to sell. 

    It’s a great day for hockey.
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