GDT #34: Blues vs Ducks | 7:00 pm CT | NHLN, FSMW, 101 ESPN

[theohall]

BOTTOM LINE: Anaheim travels to St. Louis looking to stop its three-game road slide.

The Blues are 16-12-5 in division matchups. St. Louis has given up 28 power-play goals, killing 74.1% of opponent chances.

The Ducks are 9-19-6 against West Division teams. Anaheim is the last team in the league averaging only 3.5 assists per game. Rickard Rakell leads them with 15 total assists.

In their last meeting on March 3, St. Louis won 3-2.

TOP PERFORMERS: Ryan O'Reilly leads the Blues with a plus-11 in 33 games this season. David Perron has five goals and five assists over the last 10 games for St. Louis.

Rakell leads the Ducks with 21 points, scoring six goals and registering 15 assists. Adam Henrique has 9 points over the last 10 games for Anaheim.

LAST 10 GAMES: Blues: 3-4-3, averaging 2.1 goals, 3.9 assists, 3.1 penalties and 7.7 penalty minutes while giving up 3.1 goals per game with an .889 save percentage.

Ducks: 3-7-0, averaging 2.4 goals, 3.9 assists, 3.7 penalties and 9.1 penalty minutes while allowing 4.2 goals per game with an .857 save percentage.

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

[gaijin]

The offense needs to pick things up. The Blues have scored more than 1 goal only twice in the last six games.

[gaijin]

Schenn is trying really, REALLY hard to convince me to buy his jersey.

[Robb_K]

Nice to see so many Blues down low fighting for a rebound, including Bortuzzo. Too bad The Blues couldn't punch it in. A relatively poor 1st Period, even though they didn't allow a goal. Like last night, they still are taking too many shots from far out, and not going deep enough of the time and setting screens. They are shooting a little more tonight. Last night they kept passing when they didn't line up a good shot. But, they need to move in deeper, and have at least 2 players without the puck moving towards the net when the pass or shot is just about to happen.

[gaijin]

8th consecutive game allowing the other team to score first.

[ibldbl]

Is this really 8 games in a row where we are down 1-0? NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Injuries aside.....just crap.

[gaijin]

Can't blame injuries anymore. Everyone is back but Parayko and Sundqvist.

Oh, and Barbashev.

[ibldbl]

*sigh*

[gaijin]

FINALLY! Fer cryin out loud, it's about time they got a goal.

[Robb_K]

FINALLY!!!!! O'Reilly pops in the loose puck on the 6 on 5!!!! Blues within one!!!!

[gaijin]

Why do the Blues suck so bad at home?

[Portland Blues]

Well, that was a bummer after finally waiting for a game to be broadcast here in Oregon.

[theohall]

Well, the top lines got healthy and now they don't go to the net enough. Too many shots from the outside without someone driving the net. That's where someone like Sundqvist really helps. From 2-27 to 3-12, the Blues were scoring plenty - 3.85 goals/gm. Since that OT loss to Vegas on 3/12th - they've scored 1, 1, 2, 5, 1, 0, and 1 goal - 1.57/game which is more like 1.00/gm without that 5 goal outlier vs the Sharks which included an empty netter.

The top three lines are too busy passing looking for the perfect darn play and when it isn't there, they wind up shooting from the outside with noone going to the net. Fix the going to the net thing and the goals will follow. The forecheck looks good, possession time looks good, zone exits and entries look good. There is just that one thing missing - goals - and goals mean doing the dirty work in front.

Sanford is not an effective bottom six forward. He's also not good enough to supplant any of the wings on the top lines. That's an issue. You don't want Schwartz, Tarasenko, Perron, or Kyrou playing down. IMO, it would be a more effective lineup with someone like Dakota Joshua or Blais being one of the bottom 6 instead of Sanford. Bottom line had zero shots on goal. I get that it's not there job, because it's a 4th line, but that is where Sundqvist is flat out a difference maker in that role. Let's see Clifford, Blais and Joshua - instead of Clifford, De La Rose, and Sanford.