Blues recap, notes for tonight and notes from around the league
April 14, 2017, 7:16 PM ET [50 Comments]
Jason Millen
St Louis Blues Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
Follow me on twitter
The Blues will be on the road against the Wild in game 2 tonight at 7pm CST. You can find the crazy schedule of the series here.
Game one saw the Blues and Wild play a pretty even first period. The Blues got a bit of a lucky goal early in the 2nd period when Jonas Brodin made a very poor play with the puck, flipping it into the body of Alexander Steen who slid the puck over to Vladimir Sobotka in the slot. Sobotka’s shot deflected off Wild defenseman Christian Frolin and beat Devan Dubnyk.
Other than that goal, the Wild dominated most of the rest of regulation.
The Wild outshot the Blues 16-6 in the 2nd period and 18-6 in the 3rd period. Much has been made about Zach Parise preventing one of his own team’s goals but Nino Niederreiter should get the most credit for keeping the puck out of the net. The original shot would have gone into the net had Niederreiter not touched the puck. After he touched it, the puck changed direction and was still going toward the goal but at a worse angle and much slower. Of course, Parise’s contact with the puck ended any chance of it going in. Watch it here.
Parise redeemed himself (see it here when he tied the score up with less than 25 seconds to go. Once overtime started, the Blues looked more like the team that came out in the first period rather than the team that was being dominated in the 2nd and 3rd period.
With a little over 2 minutes left in OT, Vladimir Tarasenko passed the puck to the Jaden Schwartz on the right wing. Schwartz gained the zone and Tarasenko followed. Schwartz made a nice backhand pass of the wall to Tarasenko who simply beat Mikko Koivu with a few nifty moves, making him look lost until Koviu was able to get a hit on him as Tarasenko was trying to shoot. The hit kept Tarasenko from shooting but guided the puck directly to Joel Edmundson who made the appropriate read, coming in from the left point to open space on the far side of the net. Edmundson had a lot of net to hit and iddn’t miss. What has been overlooked on the goal is the play made by Ivan Barbashev. Barbashev drove the net as Tarasenko got the puck and cut to the net. This was key as he drew Mikael Granlund to cover him and also helped make Jaren Spurgeon debate between taking Tarasenko and Barbarshev. This allowed Edmundson to come in the second wave, undetected and uncovered.
Of course, Allen’s 98+% save percentage was key to the Blues win. There was one sequence that you may recall where Allen made a spectacular glove save on Jason Zucker with about 3:20 left in the second period. What you may not have noticed was that Allen misplayed a puck that came from the goal line with a little over 4 minutes. He tried to cover the puck but missed badly. It would have been a routine play that would have allowed for a line change and stopped the sequence but instead he played the puck back to the Wild who then got a number of scoring chances, ending with his spectacular glove save on Zucker.
Vladimir played fairly well for his second game back in North America though the rink differences were noticeable for him if you were really paying attention. There was a play where the puck was with him near the wall and the defenseman closed the gap from the front of the net very quickly. To the trained eye, it sure looked like he was surprised with how little time. I wonder if he noticed the net and then the wall and was automatically trained to know the KHL distance to the corner which would be longer than the NHL distance.
A number of fans seemed to suggest that they thought Barbashev seemed a bit overwhelmed in his first playoff game. I don’t share their opinion. For a non-generational player (Matthews, Crosby, Ovechkin, etc), I thought Barbashev did very well. In addition to the supporting role I previously mentioned on the overtime goal, he led the Blues in faceoff percentage and was the only Blue with any true number of draws that was actually over 50%. He was at 57% while the expert Sobotka was only at 43% and Lehtera was a terrible 36%. Barbashev played 18:36, more than Paajarvi, Lehtera, Upshall, Brodziak, and Reaves. He held his own in the game which is a good sign given the new environment he has been thrust in during the last few weeks (switching to the first line, first playoff game, more minutes, etc).
A number of fans also are wondering why Sobotka isn't going to play center tonight. He likely won't much though he will take faceoffs. In a way, Sobotka is like a free agent signing. He doesn't know the systems and zone coverage very well, nor the zone exits even. The center on each line has a lot more responsibility, especially in defensive zone play than the wingers so it's a lot easier for someone new to play wing rather than center on a team. Once Sobotka gets up to speed on the systems, depending on injuries, look for him to shift to center.
As I mentioned earlier, it appears that Sanford is in tonight Barring any unforeseen injury healings, expect the lines to start like this:
Schwartz – Barbashev – Tarasenko
Paajarvi – Berglund - Perron
Sobotka – Steen - Sanford
Upshall – Brodziak – Reaves
Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo
Edmundson - Parayko
Gunnarsson - Bortuzzo
Allen
Overall NHL playoff news:
- Road teams went 4-1 on day one and 1-2 on day two.
- Five of the 8 lower seeds won their first games.
- The average scoring per game was 3.275 goals with the road team getting 56% of them.
- None of the games have combined for more than 5 goals and 63% have combined for less than 5.
- Playoff results continue to buck statistics. Examples – Blues game, Predators game and the fact that 4 of the 7 teams that were outshot actually won their games.
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. Since the Hawks won the division and JJ didn’t participate, Dan Wallace got to choose the charity. Dan graciously agreed to also donate since the Wild didn’t actually win the division. Dan picked United Heroes League (https://unitedheroesleague.org/) who helps keep military kids active and healthy while their parents serve their country, helping more than 40,000 military families keep or start their kids in sports through game tickets, sports equipment, camps and grants. Dan and I have made a charity on this series as well.
April 14, 2017, 7:16 PM ET [50 Comments]
Jason Millen
St Louis Blues Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
Follow me on twitter
The Blues will be on the road against the Wild in game 2 tonight at 7pm CST. You can find the crazy schedule of the series here.
Game one saw the Blues and Wild play a pretty even first period. The Blues got a bit of a lucky goal early in the 2nd period when Jonas Brodin made a very poor play with the puck, flipping it into the body of Alexander Steen who slid the puck over to Vladimir Sobotka in the slot. Sobotka’s shot deflected off Wild defenseman Christian Frolin and beat Devan Dubnyk.
Other than that goal, the Wild dominated most of the rest of regulation.
The Wild outshot the Blues 16-6 in the 2nd period and 18-6 in the 3rd period. Much has been made about Zach Parise preventing one of his own team’s goals but Nino Niederreiter should get the most credit for keeping the puck out of the net. The original shot would have gone into the net had Niederreiter not touched the puck. After he touched it, the puck changed direction and was still going toward the goal but at a worse angle and much slower. Of course, Parise’s contact with the puck ended any chance of it going in. Watch it here.
Parise redeemed himself (see it here when he tied the score up with less than 25 seconds to go. Once overtime started, the Blues looked more like the team that came out in the first period rather than the team that was being dominated in the 2nd and 3rd period.
With a little over 2 minutes left in OT, Vladimir Tarasenko passed the puck to the Jaden Schwartz on the right wing. Schwartz gained the zone and Tarasenko followed. Schwartz made a nice backhand pass of the wall to Tarasenko who simply beat Mikko Koivu with a few nifty moves, making him look lost until Koviu was able to get a hit on him as Tarasenko was trying to shoot. The hit kept Tarasenko from shooting but guided the puck directly to Joel Edmundson who made the appropriate read, coming in from the left point to open space on the far side of the net. Edmundson had a lot of net to hit and iddn’t miss. What has been overlooked on the goal is the play made by Ivan Barbashev. Barbashev drove the net as Tarasenko got the puck and cut to the net. This was key as he drew Mikael Granlund to cover him and also helped make Jaren Spurgeon debate between taking Tarasenko and Barbarshev. This allowed Edmundson to come in the second wave, undetected and uncovered.
Of course, Allen’s 98+% save percentage was key to the Blues win. There was one sequence that you may recall where Allen made a spectacular glove save on Jason Zucker with about 3:20 left in the second period. What you may not have noticed was that Allen misplayed a puck that came from the goal line with a little over 4 minutes. He tried to cover the puck but missed badly. It would have been a routine play that would have allowed for a line change and stopped the sequence but instead he played the puck back to the Wild who then got a number of scoring chances, ending with his spectacular glove save on Zucker.
Vladimir played fairly well for his second game back in North America though the rink differences were noticeable for him if you were really paying attention. There was a play where the puck was with him near the wall and the defenseman closed the gap from the front of the net very quickly. To the trained eye, it sure looked like he was surprised with how little time. I wonder if he noticed the net and then the wall and was automatically trained to know the KHL distance to the corner which would be longer than the NHL distance.
A number of fans seemed to suggest that they thought Barbashev seemed a bit overwhelmed in his first playoff game. I don’t share their opinion. For a non-generational player (Matthews, Crosby, Ovechkin, etc), I thought Barbashev did very well. In addition to the supporting role I previously mentioned on the overtime goal, he led the Blues in faceoff percentage and was the only Blue with any true number of draws that was actually over 50%. He was at 57% while the expert Sobotka was only at 43% and Lehtera was a terrible 36%. Barbashev played 18:36, more than Paajarvi, Lehtera, Upshall, Brodziak, and Reaves. He held his own in the game which is a good sign given the new environment he has been thrust in during the last few weeks (switching to the first line, first playoff game, more minutes, etc).
A number of fans also are wondering why Sobotka isn't going to play center tonight. He likely won't much though he will take faceoffs. In a way, Sobotka is like a free agent signing. He doesn't know the systems and zone coverage very well, nor the zone exits even. The center on each line has a lot more responsibility, especially in defensive zone play than the wingers so it's a lot easier for someone new to play wing rather than center on a team. Once Sobotka gets up to speed on the systems, depending on injuries, look for him to shift to center.
As I mentioned earlier, it appears that Sanford is in tonight Barring any unforeseen injury healings, expect the lines to start like this:
Schwartz – Barbashev – Tarasenko
Paajarvi – Berglund - Perron
Sobotka – Steen - Sanford
Upshall – Brodziak – Reaves
Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo
Edmundson - Parayko
Gunnarsson - Bortuzzo
Allen
Overall NHL playoff news:
- Road teams went 4-1 on day one and 1-2 on day two.
- Five of the 8 lower seeds won their first games.
- The average scoring per game was 3.275 goals with the road team getting 56% of them.
- None of the games have combined for more than 5 goals and 63% have combined for less than 5.
- Playoff results continue to buck statistics. Examples – Blues game, Predators game and the fact that 4 of the 7 teams that were outshot actually won their games.
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. Since the Hawks won the division and JJ didn’t participate, Dan Wallace got to choose the charity. Dan graciously agreed to also donate since the Wild didn’t actually win the division. Dan picked United Heroes League (https://unitedheroesleague.org/) who helps keep military kids active and healthy while their parents serve their country, helping more than 40,000 military families keep or start their kids in sports through game tickets, sports equipment, camps and grants. Dan and I have made a charity on this series as well.
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