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GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 7:49 am
by gaijin
Not waiting until noon this time- maybe that will bring us some luck.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/preview;_yl ... 2009111919
St. Louis’ longest homestand of the season got off to a promising start, but more struggles on the offensive end have the Blues heading in the wrong direction once again.

The Blues look to avoid a third consecutive loss - and third straight to the Phoenix Coyotes - on Thursday night at the Scottrade Center.

Struggling to score all season, St. Louis (6-8-4) showed signs of life in a 6-1 win over Vancouver to open a six-game home stretch Nov. 10. The Blues, however, weren’t able to carry over any momentum with a pair of 3-1 losses to follow, including Saturday against San Jose.

“We’ve certainly have had trouble scoring. That’s been our Achilles’ from the beginning of the season,” said Blues coach Andy Murray, whose team has a league-low 41 goals. “We’re playing hard. We’re battling.”

St. Louis has scored two goals or fewer in 12 of 18 games overall and eight of 10 at home.

Brad Boyes(notes) and Jay McClement(notes) have scored the last two goals for the Blues, who have one victory in their last eight games (1-4-3) at home and are 3-7-1 overall at Scottrade.

St. Louis hasn’t received must production from some of its top scorers of late. Paul Kariya(notes) has gone 10 games without a point and Keith Tkachuk(notes) has gone seven.

“Our goal scorers are squeezing their sticks,” Murray said. “Pucks are laying there or they’re just going by the net or we’re not putting it in. Keep working, and the pucks that are not going in now will find a way to go in for us.”

Boyes, however, has two goals in his last three contests. He’s scoreless in both losses to Phoenix (12-9-0) this season.

After sweeping the four-game series from the Coyotes in 2008-09, the Blues are 0-1-1 against them this season. Ilya Bryzgalov(notes) made 32 saves to best Ty Conklin(notes) and the Blues 2-0 in the teams’ most recent meeting Oct. 29 in St. Louis.

St. Louis’ Chris Mason(notes), 4-6-3 with a 2.27 goals-against average this season, has started three straight games and is 5-2-2 with a 2.52 GAA against Phoenix. He could give way to Conklin, who’s 2-2-1 with a 2.24 GAA, but 0-2-1 in his last three starts. Conklin is 1-2-0 with a 3.01 GAA all-time versus the Coyotes.

Bryzgalov made 24 saves as the Coyotes won for the third time in eight games, 3-2 at Minnesota on Wednesday.

Though Bryzgalov is 11-6-0 with a 2.04 GAA overall, and 2-0-0 with a 0.97 GAA versus St. Louis this season, backup Jason LaBarbera(notes) could be in net for this back-to-back scenario.

LaBarbera is 1-3-0 with a 2.66 GAA this season and 2-2-0 with a 3.03 GAA against the Blues.

Radim Vrbata(notes) had a goal and an assist Wednesday, and Scottie Upshall(notes) broke a 2-2 tie with a late third-period goal for the Coyotes, who improved to 6-4-0 on the road.

“That’s a big one,” Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said of Upshall’s team-leading seventh goal. “They get some life and we can take it away from them in a hurry. That’s not a bad scenario you want to follow.”

Upshall has a goal in each of his last two games against St. Louis.

Though he’s close to returning, Phoenix defenseman Ed Jovanovski(notes) will miss his sixth straight game with a lower-body injury Thursday.

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 8:06 am
by kodos
Wait, I thought the season was over?

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 8:26 am
by fargoblues
Dogs 4
Note 1

Can't pick 'em to win until they prove they can score.

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 8:58 am
by The Flake
I can.....

Blues - 1
Yotes - 0

:letsgoblues:

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 8:58 am
by abc789987
yay hokies!! and i get to watch on my tv!!

so, i say we lose 1-3 again. that sounds about right.

:goblues:

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 9:22 am
by section319
Blues-1
yotes-2

I hate playing phoenix and we continue to not be able to score more than 1 goal. Awesome.

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 9:31 am
by Sweetred95ta
Maybe we can get some scoring against Jason LaBarbera (if he starts). We need to do something. :goblues:

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 9:34 am
by Krigloch the Furious
Lose, get the chump out.

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:03 am
by ReelBluesFan887
Blues 3
Yotes 1

The start of a big winning streak

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:27 am
by cprice12
Good christ it's been a long time since they've played a game.

Game on already...let's go.

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 11:16 am
by DaDitka
My guess is they screw upand win one buying Murray a few more weeks.


Man this sucks when you almost hope they loose just, so they can win more. :facepalm:

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 11:21 am
by dmiles2186
Blues- 4
Dead Team Walking- 1

EJ gets another pair of assists, Perron continues scoring with another goal tonight, Berglund gets of the schnide (sp?) with a goal, and Fatty gets one against his old team. The 4th goal? I'll say an empty netter by Boyes.

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:10 pm
by Winning Unlimited
First one to score gets traded.

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:43 pm
by Sweetred95ta
Per Strickland's twitter:
Blues D-men Darryl Sydor and Mike Weaver will sit out Thursday's game vs. Phoenix. Alex Pietrangelo will play his 9th game of the year.

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 1:16 pm
by cprice12
It's a win-win from here on out as far as I'm concerned.

If they win, they get 2 pts.
If they lose, Murray is closer to getting fired.

Win-win.

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:06 pm
by WaukeeBlues
Tonight is a big one.

If Murray can't get the boys ready to play after the greater part of a week to prepare, then he can't anymore. I say the Blues unimpressively eek one out.

Blues 3
'Yotes 2

McDonald, Oshie, Perron
Doan, someone else

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:17 pm
by ohio BLUES
Coyotes 7
Blues 1

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:34 pm
by richtedm
If I go I put my undefeated season attendance-wise (1-0) on the line. If I don't go they'll probably lose (since they usually do).

Hows that for a prediction?

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:39 pm
by abc789987
cprice12 wrote:Good christ it's been a long time since they've played a game.

Game on already...let's go.
++

Yeah I hate waiting so long in between games. But we play a lot more hockey coming up. Next time we get 4 days off in a row is after the olympics.

Re: GDT: Phoenix @ St. Louis, 19 Nov 2009, 7 PM CST, FSMW

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 3:43 pm
by glen a richter
Blues 1 (McClement)
Jets 4 (Tkachuk, Janney, Eakins, Finley)