The St. Louis Blues have recorded points in six of their last seven meetings with the Minnesota Wild (5-1-1).
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.
April 9: Blues 9, Wild 1
Ryan O'Reilly scored his second career hat trick en route to a statement 9-1 Blues' win at Enterprise Center. Justin Faulk and Sammy Blais each had a goal and two assists and Jaden Schwartz scored two goals to give the Wild their most lopsided loss in franchise history - never before had the Wild given up nine goals in a single game. It was the Blues' best offensive performance since a 10-3 win against the Detroit Red Wings on March 30, 2011.
THEY SAID IT
"The excitement is back in our game." - Ryan O'Reilly.
Yes it is, captain. Yes it is.
BLUE NOTES
With Friday's win and a loss by the Arizona Coyotes, the Blues moved back to within one point of a playoff spot in the West Division. Arizona has played one more game than the Blues and does not play again until Sunday against Vegas… Sammy Blais set a new career high with three points (one goal, two assists) in Friday's win… Ryan O'Reilly has 11 points (six goals, five assists) in nine career regular-season games against Minnesota… Vladimir Tarasenko has 26 points (11 goals, 15 assists) in 28 regular-season games against the Wild.
BOTTOM LINE: St. Louis hosts the Minnesota Wild after Ryan O'Reilly scored three goals in the Blues' 9-1 win over the Wild.
The Blues are 18-16-6 against the rest of their division. St. Louis has surrendered 30 power-play goals, stopping 76.6% of opponent opportunities.
The Wild are 24-13-2 against the rest of their division. Minnesota serves 10.3 penalty minutes per game, the most in the Nhl. Carson Soucy leads the team serving 45 total minutes.
The teams square off for the second straight game.
TOP PERFORMERS: O'Reilly leads the Blues with 16 goals, adding 22 assists and totaling 38 points. David Perron has 10 points over the last 10 games for St. Louis.
Kirill Kaprizov leads the Wild with 16 goals and has 34 points. Kevin Fiala has five goals and six assists over the last 10 games for Minnesota.
LAST 10 GAMES: Blues: 3-6-1, averaging 2.5 goals, 4.6 assists, 3.3 penalties and 8.4 penalty minutes while giving up 2.7 goals per game with a .911 save percentage.
Wild: 6-3-1, averaging 2.9 goals, 5.1 assists, 4.6 penalties and 13.4 penalty minutes while giving up 2.9 goals per game with a .913 save percentage.
INJURIES: Blues: Carl Gunnarsson: out for season (lower body), Oskar Sundqvist: out for season (knee).
Wild: Marcus Foligno: out (leg), Nick Bjugstad: day to day (upper body).
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The Wild came to play tonight. The Blues giving up a late goal in The 1st, as the first score in the game is not good. I'm also wondering if Husso can be a regular back-up goalie in The NHL.
Husso is following Allen's old style of oversliding and having to make an athletic move to stretch back. And now he gives up the lead goal again. Yet another late-period goal against given up by The Blues.
The Blues 2nd Period effort would have been better than their First Period, IF they hadn't given up their second consecutive late-period goal. They have had hardly any non-power play shots on goal. This is a total change from last night's game. Let's hope THAT game wasn't the anomaly!
What a comeback!!! Great win!! Now, I don't think The Blues will risk tossing away this new chemistry. I don't think ANYONE will be traded off. The Blues need Hoffman's shooting, and Schwartz's hustle and puck stealing. The only thing they really need is a more consistent back-up goalie; but they're not going to be handed one. So, I think they'll stand pat, and let the chemistry continue to solidify.
I don't see it as validating the Hoffman signing, it was one game,. This team is clearly much better without him in the lineup.
What I do see it as is that he just bumped up his trade value two days before the deadline so the return can be better than it would have been a week ago. I'd like to see him get traded for a backup goalie not named Husso. Hoffman to Florida for Chris Driedger could work, both UFA's.
1st goal against - 3 almost stationary forwards at the opposing blueline waiting for Walman and Parayko to do all the work to get the puck in the zone. Prior to that play, the Blues forwards had been doing a good job of coming back to support the defenseman and working the puck up ice together. I blame that on lazy forwards - even if it was Schwartz, Schenn, and Tarasenko. Schenn had started to work back as did Tarasenko, but none of them are in a position to receive a pass and the forward checking Walman took away the lane to Parayko. Not so suprisingly, the turnover leads to a goal with no one in a good defensive position when Parayko fell.
Blues PPG - pretty much the only time Hoffman is effective when given that much time and space to shoot. Kind of surprised Minnesota didn't cheat more to defend him given who was on the ice for the Blues.
2nd Wild goal - not much to say, but the hooking calls in this game have been weak. Had they actually been calling it consistently, Zuccarello would have been sent off before Dunn started slashing him when the 4-on-4 right before this power play happened.
2nd Blues goal - plenty of hard work and Hoffman with time and space again. As long as the Blues don't have to rely on Hoffman as the last guy touching the puck on zone entries or zone exits too often. Reason I mention that is his decision making on zone entries - the 4 of them I remember - were not good. Soft chips to his side instead of cross ice where the other winger is entering the zone, stick handling instead of dumping when he has someone right behind him ready to enter the zone with speed. Zone exits were somewhat better, but of the 5 I remember, 3 resulted in neutral zone turnovers. Playing him is always going to be a challenge and have to hope the opponent gives him the time and space to shoot. Clearly having Robert Thomas is much more valuable than having Hoffman - even if he scored the 2 goals in this one. I still don't get why Kyrou isn't somewhere on at least the 2nd PP unit.
Blues 3rd - Beautiful shot from ROR in OT!!
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the second blues' goal was one that always seems to go against us rather than for us -- off the goalie, off the defenseman, off the goalie's pad and in
the OT winner was a perfect shot. I think it hit both the post and crossbar. and with 2 seconds to spare!
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