Season series: This is the second meeting of the season between the St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators, and the first of three in Bridgestone Arena. The Blues beat the Predators 4-2 in St. Louis on Oct. 3 and have won six of the past seven games between the teams.
Blue Notes: The Blues are 6-1-0 in their last seven games against Nashville. Since joining the Blues in 2010-11, Jaroslav Halak shares the League lead in wins vs. the Predators (7-3-3). Eight of the last 10 games between the teams at Bridgestone Arena have been one-goal games. T.J. Oshie has a three-game point streak vs. Nashville (two goals, one assist). Alexander Steen has eight points (three goals, five assists) in his last 10 against the Predators.
Big story: The Predators will try to sweep a two-game homestand before playing seven in a row on the road after beating the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 in overtime on Thursday, hours after learning they would be without starting goaltender Pekka Rinne for at least four weeks while he deals with an infection in his left hip. The Blues had a week off before hosting the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night, but had to settle for one point in a 3-2 overtime loss.
Team Scope:
Blues: St. Louis was nothing if not well-rested for its game against the Canucks. The Blues had a week off, while Vancouver was playing for the fifth time in seven days in five cities. Yet St. Louis allowed the Canucks to grab a 2-0 lead before tying the game on goals by Alexander Steen and Vladimir Sobotka. The Canucks won on Ryan Kesler's power-play goal in the final seconds of overtime.
"It is a week, but we discussed it before the game. There's no excuse for not coming out harder than we did, but as the game progressed, I thought we got into it more and started taking over," Steen said. "They kind of got us back a little bit in the third, but we kept coming. We had our fair share of chances to win the game. ... We've got nobody to blame but ourselves. Now we regroup and head to Nashville."
Predators: With Rinne sidelined, Nashville will depend on untested youngsters Carter Hutton and Magnus Hellberg in goal. Hutton excelled against Winnipeg, stopping 34 of 36 shots before Craig Smith scored the winning goal with 17 seconds left in overtime.
Hutton has been working extensively with goaltending coach Mitch Korn, and coach Barry Trotz feels the effort is paying off.
"You saw in a number of those saves he had to be very explosive coming across and doing some of those things," Trotz told The Tennessean. "I thought he was pretty square to the puck and from a standpoint, they put a lot of rubber towards him and he handled it just fine."
Who's hot: Steen had an assist and his eighth goal of the season in the loss to Vancouver. He has as many goals in the season's first eight games as he had in 40 games in 2012-13. … Smith leads the Predators with seven points in 11 games; he had 12 in 44 games last season.
Injury report: The Blues report no injuries, though forward Maxim Lapierre is sitting out a five-game suspension. … In addition to Rinne, the Predators are still without defenseman Roman Josi (concussion), though he's skating in non-contact drills.
60 minutes of effort (65 if it hits OT), that is all I ask. I don't care if they win, lose, or tie. I'll be happy with a solid 60 of effort. That is something I do not feel we have seen from the Blues this year. It is also something that I don't think many teams across the ice could overcome. If the Blues play a solid 60, the wins will come. So if the Blues give the effort and lose to a goalie who stands on his head or bad bounces or both, I'll be fine. If I hear, "we really didn't come out that strong but we dominated for 10 minutes in the third" again, I'll be pissed regardless of if they grab 0, 1 or 2 points. If I hear anyone drop the "We played back to back nights" excuse, I'll....I'lll....I'lll...GRRRRRRRR Let's just hope that doesn't happen.
You could blame last nights game on rust, but tonight they better bring it. I don't care if it's back-to-back games. They just came off a week-long vacation and they really didn't even play most of the game last night anyway. That's a pansy excuse.
If they lose tonight, Hitch better grow back that mustache of old to show that he means business.
ViPeRx007 wrote:More Blues goals, more hitting, less BS.
You could blame last nights game on rust, but tonight they better bring it. I don't care if it's back-to-back games. They just came off a week-long vacation and they really didn't even play most of the game last night anyway. That's a pansy excuse.
If they lose tonight, Hitch better grow back that mustache of old to show that he means business.
(Frank) the sexpreds... last nights loss lays solely on the hands of dmiles for not playing...
ViPeRx007 wrote:More Blues goals, more hitting, less BS.
You could blame last nights game on rust, but tonight they better bring it. I don't care if it's back-to-back games. They just came off a week-long vacation and they really didn't even play most of the game last night anyway. That's a pansy excuse.
If they lose tonight, Hitch better grow back that mustache of old to show that he means business.
(Frank) the sexpreds... last nights loss lays solely on the hands of dmiles for not playing...
Broadcasting a football game, yo. I told you a few games back I was going to be flashchat incapacitated. I gave you proper warning, boss.
Alex Steen is tied for the league lead in goals and is the first Blue in a number of years to score 10 goals in the team's first 10 games. So, it appears we didn't have to trade for a goal scorer or sign one, seems like the scoring is on the roster already, just like Army said. I don't know if he'll be able to sustain this pace, but he's feeling it.
