GDT #29: 3/19/13 > Blues @ Canucks > 9:00 PM > FSMW/KMOX

[dmiles2186]

BLUES (16-10-2) at CANUCKS (13-8-6)

TV: FS-Midwest, SNET-Pacific

Last 10: St. Louis 6-4-0, Vancouver 3-5-2

Season series: This is the second time this season these Western Conference foes will meet. Their first contest resulted in a 4-3 shootout victory for the Blues on Feb. 17. They will play once more this season in St. Louis on April 16..

Big story: The Canucks have dropped out of first place in the Northwest Division and are seventh in the West with 32 points. That's two behind the Blues, who are fifth.

Team Scope:

Blues: The Blues are looking for their fourth straight win and sixth in seven games. Of the Blues' six victories in the month of March, Chris Stewart has notched points in five of those games with a total of 15 points (7G-8A) in his last nine games including the overtime game-winning goal in the Blues 2-1 win over the Ducks on Saturday.

"Guys have been dropping all year and guys have been stepping up," said Stewart, the NHL's First Star of the Week after scoring five times in three games. "[Alex Pietrangelo] goes down with the flu and you look at Ian Cole, who's been out the last four or five games, he steps up and he has a great game for us. It's going to be scary when we do get healthy. I think we're going to be getting healthy around the right time of the year. We're going to be a team to be reckoned with."

The Blues have gotten a big boost from the impressive play of rookie goaltender Jake Allen, who improved to 8-1-0 on the season with his 27-save performance in Saturday's 2-1 overtime win against Anaheim.

"When you've got goaltending like this and it gives you a chance to win every night," coach Ken Hitchcock said. "He makes hard saves look routine, which calms everybody down on the bench."

Canucks: The Canucks have a quick turnaround after Monday's 3-1 home loss to Minnesota allowed the Wild to jump on top in the Northwest Division. It was the Canucks' 11th loss in 16 games.

The one good note was that the Canucks did snap a power-play drought that stretched back to Feb. 21 and had reached 36 unsuccessful attempts. Henrik Sedin's second-period power-play tally ended the drought but was Vancouver's lone goal against the Wild.

"In the end it's not about the power play goals, it's about the [wins], and

we didn't win tonight," coach Alain Vigneault said.

Who's hot: Stewart leads the Blues in goals (14), assists (14) and points (28) and had five goals and seven points in three games last week.

Injury report: Blues forward T.J. Oshie suffered an upper-body injury during the second period of the March 12 game against the San Jose Sharks and was placed on injured reserve.

Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is day-to-day with the flu. …The Canucks are without forwards David Booth (ankle), Zach Kassian (back) and Ryan Kesler (foot).

[sseagle]

(Frank) sushi
(Frank) alien twins
(Frank) the vanqueerver Canucks!

Lets go blues!

We need 10 points out of this three game road trip, get on it!

[glen a richter]

West coast games Blues 2 Canucks 1

[cprice12]

I love west coast games!!

This is a big game tonight.
Vancouver trails us by 2 in the standings. A 4 pt. cushion over them right now would be nice.
After this game, we have two vs. Edmonton and one vs. Calgary. All winnable games, you would think...so taking out the so-called toughest team right off the bat could set the table for a nice road trip.
Vancouver just played last night...a 3-1 loss at home to Minnesota. We've had two days off.
We're coming off of that nice three game sweep of the home stand and are winners of 5 of our last 6.

Gotta keep it rollin'. The standings are way too tight to be losing to teams that are only a couple points behind you.

None of this 3 pt. game crap tonight. Get this done in regulation.

- Schnieder should be in net as Luongo played last night.
- We haven't faced Schneider yet this year and have only faced him twice ever.
- We played him once last year, in Vancouver, and we won 3-0.
- We played him once two years ago, in Vancouver, and lost 3-2.

- Vancouver has one of the worst power plays in the league at 14%.
- St. Louis is tied for the best PP at 24%.

My predictions for tonight?
- We get our first 5 on 3 goal of the year
- Burrows gets called for diving
- 4-2 Blues...and we hit an empty netter.
- For the first time in 3 games, Jake Allen will NOT be the #1 star. That honor will go to Steen with a goal and an assist.

[sseagle]

I love west coast games!!

This is a big game tonight.
Vancouver sucks!!

I agree with curt 100000%

[Portland Blues]

I just hope Burrows doesn't bite any of our players tonight...God, I hate that guy. And I love that our smilie selection still includes retro gems like this one:

[WaukeeBlues]

TEH HOCKIES?! ITS BAHK!?

Blues 3
'Nuckas 1

[Oaklandblue]

We're steamrolling Canucks tonight!

Blues 8
Canucks 0

Goals by: AMac, Frankx2, Stewx2, Steen, Backes, Sobotka. Two assists awarded to The Jake(tm).
Dives by: Burrows, Semin (choose one)

[theohall]

Good news: Canucks have been struggling in the faceoff circle, while the Blues have been improving.
Better news: Canucks have struggled scoring recently, while the Blues defense has been improving.
Best news: Allen gets the start.

[Shanahan19]

Note - 6
Dumb marine life logo - 0

Would love nothing more than destroying these idiots. Burrows needs be thrown through some glass.

[gaijin]

All the trends and signs are in our favor. This scares the hell out of me.

2 points, please.

[dmiles2186]

Kudos to Corey Schneider. Blues brought it in the 1st period and he stopped all 15 shots. Blues could have (should have?) had 2-3 goals up to that point. Instead, they went into the break with a goose egg. Once Vancouver flipped the script in the 2nd, it was the Blues that were playing from behind.

Good to see them not give up the fight and push back in the 3rd. Just not enough, unfortunately. If only Berglund hadn't clanged metal early in the 3rd...

[DaDitka]

Good to see them not give up the fight and push back in the 3rd. Just not enough, unfortunately. If only Berglund hadn't clanged metal early in the 3rd...

Perhaps if 27 or 5 showed any pulse out there on defense, two goals would have been good enough. I think Jacks has been out best/most consistent defensive defenseman this season...but he was terrible last night. It was par for the course for Pie in his own end this year.

I'm one that thinks plus/minus is a 'goofy' state, but our shut down captain and the entire first line was - 3.

I thought once Andy Mac knocked a little rust off his stick handling he played well, he had those wheels moving all game.

I think Tank looked pretty good to. Looked a little more comfortable.

I appreciate Stewart dropping the gloves and my fantasy team will certainly take the 5 PIM....but when you're that hot......keep your azz out of the box.

[glen a richter]

Was the 2nd period more a result of horrendous defensive breakdowns or Allen just playing like a rookie? I missed the entire game so I can only assume by looking at the shot totals by period that the 2nd was a complete clusterfrank by everyone. When you give up five shots over the course of two full periods to a team as offensively (and divingly) gifted as Vancouver, you should not be losing the game.

[Oaklandblue]

Was the 2nd period more a result of horrendous defensive breakdowns or Allen just playing like a rookie? I missed the entire game so I can only assume by looking at the shot totals by period that the 2nd was a complete clusterfrank by everyone. When you give up five shots over the course of two full periods to a team as offensively (and divingly) gifted as Vancouver, you should not be losing the game.

From what I saw, we just weren't covering our men and that just kept giving them opportunities. Backes looked like he was playing hurt. Allen was solid in goal. The only thing I feel meh about with this game is how we got 30+ shots at goal and couldn't convert on all but two of those.

D looked weak. Thought that occurred to me last night for some odd reason after the game was, what if who we're considering trading isn't Pie or Shatt, but Jackman?

[theohall]

Was the 2nd period more a result of horrendous defensive breakdowns or Allen just playing like a rookie? I missed the entire game so I can only assume by looking at the shot totals by period that the 2nd was a complete clusterfrank by everyone. When you give up five shots over the course of two full periods to a team as offensively (and divingly) gifted as Vancouver, you should not be losing the game.

The first goal was mostly a result of all three Blues forwards mucking around in the corner. Not one of them thought for a moment to actually that 3rd man high. Steen and Backes were mucking along the right wing boards and for some reason, Stewart came in and essentially stood on the boards at the goal line in the same corner. Bad decision. Be aware darn it.

2nd goal was a great passing play by the Sedins. That one would have been hard to stop.

3rd goal - Jackman and Backes got caught in between. Jackman too slow turning not expecting the puck to get to him as quickly and Backes reaching for a puck, instead of full on skating to it.

But - the Canucks played a great 2nd period overall while the Blues struggled to even get it out of their own zone. Not enough north-south passing, too much D to D and pushing the puck backwards from the forwards. When the Blues move the puck mostly north-south up ice and get it in deep, they control the flow of the game. The Canucks are a better east-west team. I can't count the number of times the Canucks would get the puck in the zone and essentially pass it behind the net from one wing to the other just throwing it back and forth until something opened up in front.

[DaDitka]

And don't just look at the goals scored. The defensive play (of the forwards and defense) could have lead to more goals if Allen were off his game.

The forwards were not helping at all and there was one play in particular were Jacks got caught flat footed and got walked around as if he weren't even there.

There was plenty of blame to go around in that second period....but I think it's safe to say that the defensive duo of 5 & 27 probably had the worst of it Was that because they faced the best line? Was that because the first line offered nothing defensively? I don't know...don't care......just saying the really struggled that period and Jacks for one has been playing much better then that.