GDT #37: Blues @ Avs | 8:00 pm CT | BSMW, 101 ESPN

[theohall]

St. Louis Blues (16-14-6, fifth in the West Division) vs. Colorado Avalanche (24-8-4, first in the West Division)

BOTTOM LINE: The St. Louis Blues visit Colorado after Nathan MacKinnon scored two goals in the Avalanche's 3-2 win against the Blues.

The Avalanche are 24-8-4 against opponents from the West Division. Colorado averages 10.1 points per game to lead the Nhl, recording 3.6 goals and 6.5 assists per game.

The Blues are 16-14-6 against West Division opponents. St. Louis has surrendered 30 power-play goals, killing 74.1% of opponent chances.

The teams meet for the second game in a row.

TOP PERFORMERS: Mikko Rantanen leads the Avalanche with 43 points, scoring 21 goals and adding 22 assists. Gabriel Landeskog has seven goals and 11 assists over the last 10 games for Colorado.

David Perron leads the Blues with 23 total assists and has 36 points. Vladimir Tarasenko has five assists over the last 10 games for St. Louis.

LAST 10 GAMES: Avalanche: 8-0-2, averaging 5.2 goals, 9.3 assists, 4.1 penalties and 9.8 penalty minutes while giving up 2.1 goals per game with a .918 save percentage.

Blues: 2-6-2, averaging 1.8 goals, 3.2 assists, 3.1 penalties and eight penalty minutes while allowing three goals per game with an .893 save percentage.

INJURIES: Avalanche: Bowen Byram: day to day (head), Logan O'Connor: out (lower body), Matt Calvert: day to day (undisclosed), Dennis Gilbert: out (face).

Blues: Carl Gunnarsson: out for season (lower body), Oskar Sundqvist: out for season (knee), Parayko: out (upper body), MacKenzie MacEachern: out (upper body).

[theohall]

Yes, Arizona won last night, so the Blues are currently out of the playoffs.

Wouldn't bet on this one, at least for the Blues, with likely Husso going up against Grubauer who has been playing great lately. In Grubauer's last 11 games, he only lost once in OT. 1.24 GAA, .942 SV% 10-0-1 - Ridiculous - and he has that lineup playing in front of him. Granted, most of that is vs the bottom half of the division, but 3 of them were vs Minnesota and Vegas. Avs defensively are better than they've been in a long time. Best I've seen them in terms of support they are getting from defensemen and defensive zone play since MacKinnon has been on the team. If the trend from Friday continues, notice how often Avs in their own zone are immediately on top of Blues players or the Blues player is outmanned on the puck - compared to what's happening in the Blues end and what the Blues are doing defensively. Kind of like the Blues did in the playoffs in 2019.

[Robb_K]

This is a MUST win!!!

[Robb_K]

Good job by Husso on that Rantanen breakaway! Caused him to shoot high by being in position!

Good Kill!

[Robb_K]

That looked to me like it changed direction slightly when just nicking the defenceman's stick. Might be why Husso misjudged it.

[ComradeT]

Schenn seems gassed and frustrated at the same time. The penalty screamed of despair.

[ComradeT]

Schenn seems gassed and frustrated at the same time. The penalty screamed of despair.

Though looking at the replay, it seems that was a really weak call and no slash whatsoever. Since when is the lone criteria for the slash is whether the stick breaks?

[Robb_K]

Good second save on that rebound by Husso! And good clear.

[Robb_K]

O'Reilly jams it in!!! Blues tie it after the power play ends!!! 1-1!!!

[Robb_K]

The Blues have been having smaller gaps in this game (skating better), and they've been keeping up with their men on defence. They played really well on their power play, too. They had a lot of good movement of bodies, rather than just the puck moving. I hope they can keep up with this energy for 60 whole minutes.

[Robb_K]

Bogus penalty to Schwartz, he was pushed down into Grubauer!

[ComradeT]

Another horrible call. Goalie interference outside of the crease and with Schwartz being pushed from behind. Tim Peel has nothing on Steve Kosari.

[Robb_K]

Super kill on the 5 on 3!!!

[Robb_K]

The Blues are storming the net, for a change and getting good rebound chances! Great play by Thomas! He should have scored 5-hole.

[Robb_K]

Super save by Husso on Kadri's breakaway!!! He read it perfectly!!!

[Robb_K]

Yet another super save by Husso, keeping The Blues in this game!!!

[flyingnote38]

just wow

[ComradeT]

I think the best team in the west just showed the blues that sometimes you just gotta put pucks on net. All that passing in the o zone is maddening, especially when it only leads to lost pucks. SHOOT THE DAMN PUCK YOU MORONS!!

Feeling mad. Might delete later.

[Robb_K]

Sad way to lose a game. They had puck possession with no pressure on them. O'Reilly should have just skated the puck around the net, and then taken a look at where his teammates were, to decide where to pass it when an opponent would approach him. This was their best chance to keep possession into The Av's zone, and they could have had the last good shot and chance to win in regulation, and almost guaranteeing the single point for the tie. The Blues definitely need to play with more confidence, They had too much trying to slap the puck out of their own zone, just to remove pressure, but The Avs are so deep in skilled puckhandling, fast skaters, that all that does is lose possession, either with the puck going to an Av player inside the zone, or them skating it right back into The Blues' Zone a couple seconds later, with 4 or 5 Avs entering at full speed. The Blues don't play with confidence and poise against any team except maybe The Sharks, since their rash of injuries started. I think it will take a lot of luck (things going unusually right) for them to make the playoffs. That includes Parayko returning very soon, and being back to 100% right away, and Tarasenko, Schenn, Kyrou, O'Reilly, and Perron getting on hot streaks, and Krug playing over his head most of the rest of the way - and both Binnington and Husso getting really hot.

[theohall]

Writing this while watching the game this time.

Before Avs first goal - how did the Blues try to move the puck up ice? Stretch pass from their own circles to the center line with all three forwards basically stationary. The Avs, when the puck is turned over, have all 5 players are in the D-zone. The three forwards skate up ice together all entering the zone with speed creating the 3-on-2 resulting in a goal. Also from another bad goal let in by Husso. The Blues have to get better at working as a 5-man unit in all three zones, because it's not happening right now. IMO - better entry with the team working together likely prevents the turnover and the shot on Husso never happens.

These friggin' refs. Just because a stick breaks doesn't automatically equal a slashing minor... ridiculous!! Especially when it's coming from the back referee who in know way could have seen a slashing motion - especially since there wasn't one. Why TF can't the ref close to these BS slashing calls overrule the ref who is 100+ feet away?

Nice power play at the end of the 1st. Great effort to get the goal from ROR and everyone on that power play, even if it wasn't a PP goal.

And the officiating joke Kozari continues with the goalie interference call on Schwartz. It wouldn't be as much of a joke had the trip on Sanford been called in the 1st period, but it's all one-way in this one, halway through the game.

Great PK on that 5-on-3!!

The Perron-Hoffman-Schenn line seriously needs to pull their head out of their butt instead of waiting at center ice for 100' passes. Only one forward is consistently working back while the other two keep waiting for the highly improbable pass. When Hoffman is on the ice and the Blues have to defend, he is a liability. I've read this nonsense about the Blues not knowing how to use Hoffman... BS. He's only good in one zone and has to rely on everyone else to get the puck to him there.

Fantastic 2nd period by Husso!

Figured out what bugs me about Sanford, beyond the obvious. He is a "wait for the puck" guy, not go to the puck or go to where the puck is going to be guy. Late in the 2nd, the puck comes from behind the Blues net up the LW wall and it's not going fast. Sanford is gliding into the zone waiting for the puck to come to him. Along with that, he has zero situational awareness of an Avs player coming up fast behind him and, not so surprisingly, loses the puck in the Blues defensive zone to that Avs player. Skate doggone it!!!! Don't wait for the !@#$ puck! I don't know what the heck Panger is seeing in positives from Sanford other than the occasional hit.

And the awful power play returns in the 3rd. Don't know what the heck it is with the 1st half of 3rd periods, but the Blues need to figure that out too, because it just hasn't been good lately.

Not enough shots in the 3rd. ROR in front - no shots to the net. Not even shot attempts. Can't score if you don't shoot.

And the Avs show the difference between a team that shoots, even if there isn't any kind of shooting lane, and a team that refuses to shoot the puck for most of a period. While SOGs for the 3rd period were the same, I'm hard pressed to remember those 8 shots and none of them were any kind of challenge for Grubauer. Would love to see Shot Attempts in the 3rd and offensive zone possession time, because it looked like the Avs dominated both.

Just not good enough. Most NHL teams will not win games when scoring 2 or less per game.

While the post-game comments are talking about snake bit and devastating loss - the Blues haven't been scoring goals for how many games??? Bring it up. In the past 10 games, the Blues have scored more than 2 goals once. In 6 of those games, they only scored 1 goal. You're not going to start winning, Bernie, if you can't score goals.