GDT #40: Blues vs Wild | 7:00 pm CT | BSMW, 101 ESPN

[gaijin]

Better late than never.

BLUES VS. WILD
When: Friday, April 9 at 7 p.m.
Where: Enterprise Center in St. Louis, MO
Watch: Bally Sports Midwest, FOX Sports GO
Listen: 101 ESPN, NHL App

Season series presented by Purina Pro Plan: Wild lead 1-0

PROJECTED LINEUP

The St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild will meet seven more times before the end of the 2020-21 regular season. The second meeting between the teams is Friday.

TEAM SNAPSHOTS
BLUES Vladimir Tarasenko, Sammy Blais and Jake Walman scored Wednesday to lift the Blues to a 3-1 win against the Vegas Golden Knights, snapping a seven-game winless skid.

Jordan Binnington made 50 saves, setting a new career high - just one short of the regular-season record held by Wayne Stephenson (1974) and Curtis Joseph (1992).

"Everybody is obviously happy," Blues Head Coach Craig Berube said after the game. "We want to win. It was a good win. The team battled hard… Binner lead the way."

The Blues find themselves in fifth place in the West Division, three points behind the Arizona Coyotes for the final playoff spot. The Coyotes have played one more game than the Blues.

WILD The Minnesota Wild are coming off of a series split with the Colorado Avalanche, but goal scoring hasn't been a problem.

On Monday, the Wild dropped a 5-4 decision. On Wednesday, they put eight goals on the division-leading Avalanche and ended Colorado's point streak at 15 games.

Kevin Fiala had a hat trick Wednesday, rookie Kirill Kaprizov had two goals and an assist, and Cam Talbot made 29 saves for Minnesota.

The Wild have won three of their last four games and sit third in the division with 50 points (24-12-2).

THE SERIES SO FAR
March 25: Wild 2, Blues 0
The Blues fired 37 shots on goal and limited the Wild to only 11 shots, but still fell 2-0 at Xcel Energy Center. Cam Talbot recorded a 37-save shutout to extend Minnesota's home winning streak to 11 games.

THEY SAID IT
"We've got seven left against (the Wild). They're huge points for us. I feel like we had a great game last game, a great team game. We just need to bring that into this week." - Marco Scandella, on needing to build momentum in game against Minnesota

[gaijin]

Currently 2-1 Blues in the 1st Period.

[Robb_K]

Thanks for making this thread. Sanford scored on a nice shot on a feed from Bozak. Schwartz scored on a nifty wrister on the short side. And now scores again on a nice pass from Schenn!!!

[gaijin]

Wow! 4-1 Blues in the first. Who ARE these guys?

[Robb_K]

Blais knocks in Faulk's shot's rebound!!!! Blues lead 4-1!!!!

[Robb_K]

Fantastic First Period by The Blues!!! Keep it up for the rest of the game. Schwartz, Schenn, Bozak, Sanford, Blais, Tarasenko, and Parayko have ALL come back alive again. It's great to see. Maybe The Blues will get their game back and not only MAKE The Playoffs, but actually do something there!

[gaijin]

WHAT? Faulk scored to boost the score to 7-1 Blues!

[glen a richter]

Speaking of better late than never, about damn time the offense showed up. Peaking at the right time?

[Robb_K]

Great 2nd Period for The Blues! They are feeling it tonight! I hope they keep playing like this all the way to, and through The Playoffs! I don't see anyone, except, possibly Hoffman, being traded at the deadline. IF they trade him, I hope they get an overpayment of draft choices and, possibly, a sleeper 2nd tier prospect with great upside potential (preferably a solid, left-side defenceman).

[Robb_K]

Walman flips a high riser towards the net, and it goes in!!!! His 2nd in 2 games!!!! Blues lead 8-1!!!!

[Robb_K]

Barbashev tips in Krug's long shot!!! Blues lead 9-1!!!

[Robb_K]

Great game by The Blues. Great to see their confidence return. On the way to the playoffs. I hope Thomas will be back next game with no problems.

[theohall]

TLDR - in everything posted before.

Just watched the 1st period - holy crap!!! That's the team I remembered. Yes, they gave up a couple of chances and the Wild converted on one of them, but the Blues dominated that period in possession and put up 4 goals... That's what this team used to do. Good riddance Mike Hoffman!!!

[theohall]

I gotta point out the Blues 5th goal... all 5 Blues players are working back defensively. When the puck is turned over at the Blues blueline, all three Blues forwards are basically in a line across the Blues blueline and the turnover leads to an easy odd-man rush straight up because of the entire lines positioning - like Vegas and Colorado have been doing to the Blues. It's the thing I mentioned a few games ago wondering what happened to the team working as a group - vice forwards vs defenseman - and it's showing how effective the tight 5-man unit is compared to the forwards waiting for stretch passes at center ice as was the case for a ton of games prior to these last two.

[theohall]

Didn't the Blues go years without scoring an SHG and now they have 4 this season??

[theohall]

I can't say enough about Thomas on the 7th goal. Tripped, gets the call, keeps going and makes a beautiful pass to Faulk for the PPG. The number of players who would quit after being tripped and seeing the call being made is rather large. Not Robert Thomas the Tank Engine. Fantastic play!!!

I kinda feel for Kahkonnen with the b2b situation and Minnesota not wanting to bring Talbot into this game.

[theohall]

And apologies for not posting the GDT earlier - work plus backed up sinks got in the way.