Bleedin' Blue - A St. Louis Blues Blog

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The St. Louis Blues come back home after losing to the Red Wings in Detroit last night to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins(27-17-4) for the second and last time this year. The Blues won the first contest between the two teams at the CONSOL Energy Center back on November 23th. It was one of the rare occasions this season where the Blues went into overtime and actually came out with a victory off of an Alex Pietrangelo goal.

The Blues are coming off a very disappointing loss on the road in Detroit. St. Louis managed to put themselves on the scoreboard first with a one-timer from Scott Nichol, but Howard made sure that would be the only goal to get past him. The Red Wings came out in the second period on a completely different level than the Blues and would play the remainder of the game with a clear advantage.  Jaroslav Halak would end up allowing 3 goals, but he is not to blame. Nonetheless, you should probably expect to see Brian Elliott in the net tonight for the first time since January 12th. Continue reading this post »

Blues close out their first half tomorrow night with a matchup with the Penguins.  Thanks to “Pick Your Price” from our partners @ TiqIQ you can get into Scottrade tomorrow night fore below face.  For the cheapest deal, make an offer of $40ea on two “1-star” tickets and save over $10 of the full price of each ticket.  If you want to take in the game from some better seats, make an offer of around $70ea on two “3-star” tickets and you can save more than $15 off the total price.  As with any “Pick Your Price” offer, this deal comes free of service & shipping fees. 

But act fast, this offer ends @ 8 PM ET.

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The St. Louis Blues and the Detroit Red Wings, the top two teams in the Central Division, square off for the 5th of 6 games against eachother this season. The Blues managed to win the first two behind goalie Brian Elliott, but have dropped the last two with the same goaltender. Some might think that Elliott would get the nod since he hasn’t played since January 12th, but Jaroslav Halak has yet to get an opportunity against Detroit this year and tonight might be the night.

There’s not much, if anything, that you can say bad about these two team. The Blues definitely have to come into this match with a different gameplan and perspective. This isn’t the same Edmonton and Buffalo teams that they just faced. This is the best team in the league. Regardless of St. Louis having the best home record in the league, look at what Detroit is doing right now. They’ve won 16 straight games at Joe Louis arena. The last time these guys lost at home was way back on November 4th against the Calgary Flames.  After four games against the Red Wings, you know they’ve caught onto the Blues plan and let’s just hope that St. Louis has done the same with them.  Continue reading this post »

If you look the Blues’ roster up and down, there is not a single person who played nearly as well as goaltender, Jaroslav Halak. In the past week, Halak has collected three wins, two of which were shutouts, a .67 goals against average, and a .968 save percentage. These are clearly remarkable numbers given the rather rough start to his season. He’s proven to everyone why he is the Blues number one goalie, despite Brian Elliott’s standout play while filling in during hard times. There’s no reason to think why anything should change the remainder of the year and I’m sure he’ll be make Bluenote of the Week many more times this season. Congrats Jaro on a stellar week!

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This game didn’t look too good at the start for the St. Louis Blues, who were facing one of the worst road teams in the NHL, the Buffalo Sabres. The Blues  may not have had a good start, but boy did they have a great finish.  Jaroslav Halak was chosen for the start in this one, despite speculation that it might be Brian Elliott in goal. I mean, how do you sit a guy who just came off back to back shutouts?

The first period was actually pretty neck and neck. Shots went back and forth, but no one was scoring, even with the struggling Ryan Miller in net for the Sabres. Heck, Buffalo would even get the first laugh in this contest. At 16:13 into the period, defenseman Mike Weber would shoot the puck past a nearly blinded Halak to give the Sabres a 1-0 going into the first intermission. This would snap Halak’s best career shutout streak at 164:38. Would this bring him down to a slump for the remainder of the game? Come on, he’s an NHL goalie. Continue reading this post »

The St. Louis Blues, coming off their second straight shutout game, will host the depressing Buffalo Sabres tonight at the Scottrade Center. Depressing is really the only word to describe Buffalo who has yet to find answers. Statistically, they’re much like the Edmonton Oilers, who the Blues faced Thursday night. They can’t do anything on the road. Currently riding an 11-game road losing streak, a 7-game stretch away from home doesn’t help, I’m sure. Unlike Edmonton, you can’t really blame injuries. Goaltending has atrocious on behalf of Ryan Miller who has yet to step up and play to the caliber that’s expected of him.

Again, the Blues are quite the opposite of Buffalo. Lets just knock out a quick couple of facts. A league best 20-3-3 at home. Four shutouts in the past 8 games(two straight by Jaroslav Halak). Undoubtedly the best goalie tandem in the NHL.  Every part of this team has just meshed well together. Offense, defense, special teams. You name it. Continue reading this post »

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The St. Louis Blues were at it again Thursday night at home to face the struggling Edmonton Oilers.  In layman’s terms, this was a matchup between the best home team and worst away team in the league. It sure didn’t play out like that, though. Yes, the Blues would walk away with the victory, but it wasn’t handed to them on a silver platter.

It seemed like the Blues were handed chance after chance, but had a really hard time capitalizing on any opportunities. Why do you ask? Because Nikolai Khabibulin was basically the only Oiler that gave his team a shot. He saved more than double the shots that Jaroslav Halak had to face the entire game. While Halak would eventually walk away with the shutout, he only had to save 15 shots. Khabibulin, on the other hand, saved 37 shots but finally gave up one nearing the end of the 3rd period.

After trying numerous times to score on this damaged Edmonton team, the Blues finally got the look they were looking for with 5:12 left in the period.  St. Louis just kept putting the puck towards the net, but that same puck was glued to the eyes of Khabibulin. It would finally reach the stick of Alex Pietrangelo, who would have two choices. He could have just put it towards the net again and hoped for a rebound or he could have attempted the wrap-around. Well, he made the right decision to say the least. The tall guy had just enough stick to wrap around the net and quickly beat the hustling goalie to put the Blues up 1-0 and put the game away. Continue reading this post »

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The St. Louis Blues continue their five-game homestand tonight against the struggling Edmonton Oilers. Yes, I said struggling, but they’re also the ones who almost knocked the Blues off their feet two weeks ago in St. Louis. With the Oilers obtaining a two goal lead entering the third period, the Blues unleashed the fury of David Backes, Alex Pietrangelo, and Matt D’Agostini who all made goals in the final 60 minutes to give St. Louis the win.

It doesn’t seem the Blues would have as hard of a time defeating the Oilers this time around, but you never know. One of, if not the worst teams on the road this year, Edmonton has lost 11 of their last 12 away games.  Oh yeah, being without your top three goal scorers doesn’t help much either. The Blues are the complete opposite at home. Tied for the best home record in the NHL, they currently stand at 19-3-3 on the year and have not lost one home game in the past 13 played.  A win tonight will put the Blues back at the number one spot in the NHL, tied with the New York Rangers. The Rangers, however, have played one less game than St. Louis and have that advantage for the time being. They do have a game tonight as well against the Pittsburgh Penguins. NHL standings show the Blues third in the Central division, but have played one game less than the Red Wings(61 points) and two games less than the Blackhawks(62 points). Continue reading this post »