GDT #72: 3/15/12 > Blues @ Hurricanes > 6:00 PM > FSMW/KMOX

[dmiles2186]

I hate games that start before I'm off work.

BLUES (45-18-8) at HURRICANES (26-29-15)

TV: FS-MW (HD), FS-CR (HD)

Last 10: St. Louis 8-1-1; Carolina 3-3-4

Season Series: Second and final meeting of the season. Matt D'Agostini scored with 1:02 left in overtime to give the Blues a 3-2 win on Oct. 21 at Scottrade Center. St. Louis had rallied from a two-goal deficit on tallies by Jason Arnott and David Backes after Carolina got goals from Jay Harrison and Brandon Sutter.

Big Story: Nearly five months after their initial matchup, the Blues are in the driver's seat to capture the Presidents' Trophy and home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs, while the Hurricanes are playing out the string. St. Louis leads the NHL by a wide margin in team goals-against average at 1.86, while Brian Elliott (1.61) and Jaroslav Halak (1.87) rank 1-2 among goalies in that category.

Team Scope:

Blues: Halak saw a streak of 10 consecutive starts in which he allowed two goals or less come to an end Tuesday against Chicago, though he could hardly be faulted for the eventual 4-3 shootout loss St. Louis suffered. Halak stopped 43 shots through regulation and overtime as well as two of three attempts in the penalty-shot tiebreaker, but the Blues were stymied there by Corey Crawford. They had chased Blackhawks starter Ray Emery with first-period goals by Jamie Langenbrunner, Andy McDonald and Patrik Berglund, but were unable to build on their 3-1 lead.

"We have to play that blue-collar, hard-nosed type of game, but we haven't lately," Backes said in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "They pounded us down, pounded us down and finally capitalized. We need to play for each other, stick up for each other, but we can't keep riding train tracks to the box all the time. … They got physical and we got soft. It's a learning lesson."

Hurricanes: This is one of only two home dates for Carolina in a 12-game stretch that accounts for much of the month of March. The Hurricanes come off a respectable 2-2-1 road trip that ended with a 4-2 loss to the Eastern Conference-leading Rangers on Tuesday. They spotted New York a three-goal lead before Tim Brent and Drayson Bowman scored 32 seconds apart late in the second period to make it a game. But Martin Biron shut the door from there and Carl Hagelin added an insurance marker in the third.

"We're battling hard right now," coach Kirk Muller said in the Raleigh News & Observer. "As long as we're mathematically still in it (playoff race) we're going to keep going. As you can tell, we’re not quitting."

Who's Hot: McDonald has 4 goals and 5 assists during a six-game points streak for the Blues, as well as 6 goals in his last eight games. Berglund (3-2-5) and David Perron (2-3-5) have four-game points streaks active. … Jeff Skinner has 3 goals and 6 assists in his last nine games for the Hurricanes.

Injury Report: St. Louis defenseman Kent Huskins (bruised hand) hasn't played since March 5. D'Agostini, forward Alex Steen and defenseman Kris Russell are all sidelined with concussion-related symptoms. … Carolina defenseman Jaroslav Spacek (strained lower back) was out of the lineup Tuesday, while forward Jiri Tlusty (upper body) has missed two straight. Defenseman Joni Pitkanen (concussion/knee) is on injured reserve.

Stat Pack: The Blues have eight players with at least 10 goals this season, while McDonald, D'Agostini and Kevin Shattenkirk all have nine. … Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward ranks second in the League in both shots faced (1,828) and saves (1,666).

Puck Drop: This will be the third stop on a seven-game road trip for St. Louis, which was a mediocre team for much of the season away from Scottrade Center but has turned it up a notch of late. The Blues are 6-1-1 in their last eight road games to move to 16-14-4 for the season.

[fargoblues]

Note: 3
NASCAR: 2
Eastern Time Zone: sucks

[glen a richter]

Blues 2
Canes 4

[gaijin]

Eastern time zone = meh.

On leave this week = start time doesn't matter.

[drwoland]

Strong East road game for the Blues

Blues: 4
Canes: 0

BOOM

[thedoc]

Bounce back game

Note 2

Canes 1

[ohio BLUES]

If the Canes manage to score tonight, listen to their post-goal celebration music/random sounds. It literally is some guy whooping into a microphone, accompanied by various animal sounds. I'm pretty sure they use Chewbacca too. They also have copied what Buffalo used to do with Rick Jeanneret, and they play John Forslund's (their TV play-by-play man, who by the way is very good) call of the goal over the PA. Strange stuff.

Blues 4
Canes 2

[dmiles2186]

Per JR on the Twitterz:

The Blues can clinch a playoff berth tonight if this happens...they beat CAR, SJ loses in reg to NASH and CGY loses in reg to PHX #stlblues

No pressure.

[northwest dave]

Any word on the kid playing?

[kodos]

I read that he is not playing tonight. Apparently he needs more time to practice with the team and is getting over strep throat. He is supposed to make his debut at some point on this trip.

Also, they are going to be resting Arnott for a few games. Not an official injury, but he's got some nagging minor issues and/or is old as hell.

EDIT: I just realized that I called Arnott old as hell, when he is in fact, my exact age. FML

[cprice12]

Per JR on the Twitterz:

The Blues can clinch a playoff berth tonight if this happens...they beat CAR, SJ loses in reg to NASH and CGY loses in reg to PHX #stlblues

No pressure.

Pulling really hard for Nashville to pass Detroit and get home ice vs. them in the 1st round.

[STLADOGG]

Per JR on the Twitterz:

The Blues can clinch a playoff berth tonight if this happens...they beat CAR, SJ loses in reg to NASH and CGY loses in reg to PHX #stlblues

No pressure.

I'd much rather see SJ beat Nash tonight for sure...Let's continue this dominance over the East.

[WaukeeBlues]

Per JR on the Twitterz:

The Blues can clinch a playoff berth tonight if this happens...they beat CAR, SJ loses in reg to NASH and CGY loses in reg to PHX #stlblues

No pressure.

Saw that too. Reminds me of baseball when ESPN starts the "way too early to be talking about it" playoff berths and it's something insane like "If Milwaukee wins, Cubs win, Cardinals lose, Astros lose, Padres have a base hit with two outs in the ninth inning then this will happen..."

Play our game. Get the two points. That's what we control.

Anyone heard anything about teh Schwartz?

[WaukeeBlues]

and on yea

Blues 5
Canes 1

[cprice12]

Per JR on the Twitterz:

The Blues can clinch a playoff berth tonight if this happens...they beat CAR, SJ loses in reg to NASH and CGY loses in reg to PHX #stlblues

No pressure.

I'd much rather see SJ beat Nash tonight for sure...Let's continue this dominance over the East.

Why?

[kodos]

Yeah, this starts to get tricky.

I don't want to see Nashville fall so much that we get them in the first round, but at the same time, screw em.

I'm not worried about mathematically clinching. The Blues are in the playoffs. Even if they lose out they are in the playoffs.

[STLADOGG]

Per JR on the Twitterz:

The Blues can clinch a playoff berth tonight if this happens...they beat CAR, SJ loses in reg to NASH and CGY loses in reg to PHX #stlblues

No pressure.

I'd much rather see SJ beat Nash tonight for sure...Let's continue this dominance over the East.

Why?

Because Nashville has 2 games in hand on us and if they were to win those they will 5 points behind us compared to Detroit's 7 points behind us...the Division means more to this club then be the first to clinch.

[cprice12]

Yeah, this starts to get tricky.

I don't want to see Nashville fall so much that we get them in the first round, but at the same time, screw em.

I'm not worried about mathematically clinching. The Blues are in the playoffs. Even if they lose out they are in the playoffs.

Nashville wont' fall that far. Not enough games left for three teams to pass them especially with them playing so well right now. We won't face them in Rd. 1.

We are almost definitely going to finish 1st or 2nd in the conference, barring a monumental slide/collapse.
If at all possible, I'd like the Blues to stay away from an elite goalie in Rd. 1.

Teams I'd like the Blues to avoid in the 1st round:
Los Angeles - Quick can steal a series from anyone. He has only allowed 1 goal in two games vs. the Blues...good for a 0.50 GAA. No thanks.
Chicago - Don't get me wrong, I'd love watching this series...but Chicago can be explosive. Their goaltending is shakey though, and I think the Blues would take the series if Halak plays well...but it would be a tough one, and it probably wouldn't surprise many if Chicago somehow won this matchup.

Teams I'd like to see the Blues to matchup against in the 1st round:
San Jose - People talk about wanting to avoid them and them being a sleeping giant, but they are a mess. The only reason they are in the race is a bunch of OTL's lately. They play Nashville & Detroit over their next two games. Detroit is sucking it up too, but San Jose may be in trouble after this weekend. We swept the season series from the Sharks.
Colorado - They have won 5 of 6 and would seem to be surging, but the only good team they played over that stretch was Nashville and they lost. Varlamov hasn't been great this year.
Calgary - They don't scare me...even with Kiprusoff. We beat them 2 out of 3 so far.
Phoenix - Meh. They have seemingly had good/decent teams the past few years...but never do anything. I don't think they scare anyone.


LA is really the only team I don't want the Blues to face in Rd. 1.
And travel aside, I'd like to see them face San Jose. As far as travel goes, there really isn't a favorable matchup for us at all, unless Chicago falls to 7th or 8th.

[cprice12]

Per JR on the Twitterz:

The Blues can clinch a playoff berth tonight if this happens...they beat CAR, SJ loses in reg to NASH and CGY loses in reg to PHX #stlblues

No pressure.

I'd much rather see SJ beat Nash tonight for sure...Let's continue this dominance over the East.

Why?

Because Nashville has 2 games in hand on us and if they were to win those they will 5 points behind us compared to Detroit's 7 points behind us...the Division means more to this club then be the first to clinch.

I seriously doubt Nashville is going to catch us. Chances are slim and none.
If they go 10-2-1 over their last 13 games, they'll finish with 110 pts.
The Blues would only have to go 5-3-3 (which would be their worst 11 game stretch under Hitchcock) to finish with 111 pts.
If you want to see Detroit bounced in Rd. 1, I think the best bet is for the Wings to lose home ice and play Nashville in Rd. 1.

[STLADOGG]

Per JR on the Twitterz:

The Blues can clinch a playoff berth tonight if this happens...they beat CAR, SJ loses in reg to NASH and CGY loses in reg to PHX #stlblues

No pressure.

I'd much rather see SJ beat Nash tonight for sure...Let's continue this dominance over the East.

Why?

Because Nashville has 2 games in hand on us and if they were to win those they will 5 points behind us compared to Detroit's 7 points behind us...the Division means more to this club then be the first to clinch.

I seriously doubt Nashville is going to catch us. Chances are slim and none.
If they go 10-2-1 over their last 13 games, they'll finish with 110 pts.
The Blues would only have to go 5-3-3 (which would be their worst 11 game stretch under Hitchcock) to finish with 111 pts.
If you want to see Detroit bounced in Rd. 1, I think the best bet is for the Wings to lose home ice and play Nashville in Rd. 1.

Good points...well it's pick your poison with Nashville or Detroit.
Also you said in another post that you would like to play Colorado in the 1st round, I would disagree. They play a game that is tough to play against(lots of speed) and they played very well against San Jose 2 years ago and I would have to put them for against.