stljam

"It's a great day for hockey!"

St. Louis, MO • United States • 39 Years Old • Male

Blues look to continue taking advantage of friendly Canada

As the Blues travel east through Canada, they look to add to their 7-3-1 record against Canadien teams, including a 3-1-0 road record in Canada. They also hope to add to the Oilers two game home losing streak

While the Oilers have improved in the last 10 games, it's like saying your kid improved in school by going from a 45% on their first test to a 55% on their second. They are still failing as their 4-5-1 recent record indicates.

It's no surprise that the Blues have only gone 5-5 in their last 10 games. Many of you may think that is because of poor goaltending. While the goaltending hasn't been good on many nights, their record is more a reflection of scoring 2 or fewer goals in 8 of those 10 games (and 10 of the last 12 if you throw out one empty net goal). Given that scoring level, they are lucky to have a 50% winning percentage in the games. The Oilers should expect to help the goal scoring given that they have allowed the fourth most goals in the league.

According to JR, Elliott is in goal and Cole is in for Butler. Expect Lindstrom and Porter to be scratched.

Other notes and thoughts:
- I didn't have the pleasure of watching the game against the Jets but the Post reported that the Jets out hit the Blues 35 to 21 which many fans take as a bad sign. I hope this helps to remind the team, coaching staff and fans that outscoring the opponent is much better than out hitting them. I actually agree with many of the Hawks hockeybuzz commenters when they suggest the Blues can look for hits too much, willing to take themselves out of plays to make a hit. I'd rather the Blues take advantage of hitting situations, finishing them hard, rather than continually searching for hits and taking themselves out of the play.
- I wanted to thank the Blues and TJ Oshie for making a wish come true. As a fan and a person, I appreciate when hockey organizations and players attempt to positively impact the lives of others. Read about it here: http://blues.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=755326&navid=DL|STL|home
- JR has speculated that the Blues may have interest in Jeff Petry and Zbynek Michalek. For all that is good, Army please just say NO. These are not significant upgrades. If you are going that route, please look to Niklas Grossman and Braydon Coburn or maybe a better route to Marek Zidlicky.
-Last year Armstrong implied and said things about standing pat and the deadline and then made the deal most wanted, other than yours truly. Again this year, he is talking about standing pat. Does that mean a big deal is coming?
- February Saturdays are Blues face small former Alumni days (Perron and Roy).

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