St. Louis Blues Morning Links: Load Up On Buckshot, It’s Duck Season
By Todd Panula
Good morning Blues fans! It’s another gameday and the team should be refreshed with an extra day off between game despite Bernie Federko’s claim that the first game after a road trip is tough.
The St. Louis Blues better not pull an Elmer Fudd tonight. They need to realize it is Duck season and not wabbit season…I mean rabbit season.
The Blues need to come to bare with everything they have. Surprisingly, Anaheim has fewer goals scored than the Blues do, but they defend much better.
The Ducks have allowed the fourth fewest goals in the conference. Making matters worse, they are on a bit of a winning streak.
Like the Blues, the Ducks have won two in a row. Unlike the Blues, they are 6-4 in their last 10 and shutout the mighty Chicago Blackhawks in their last game.
So, the Blues need to do some major hunting. If St. Louis brings a game similar to how they played against the Minnesota Wild, everything will be fine and the team will have every opportunity to win.
Unfortunately, those are famous last words this season. There have been many times we have said if they just play like the last game it’ll be fine and they don’t play like the last game.
Consider us fans scorned at this time. We want the team to win, we hope they will win but even when they play well, we don’t expect them to win.
How sad is that? It seems against the personal nature of most fans to actually think your team might not win, unless you support one of the cellar dwellers.
That’s how it is with the 2016-17 Blues though. By now, we always expect the other shoe to drop in the next game.
We don’t have great reason to right now. The Blues played well against Anaheim the last time they played and the Blues won 2-1 during an excellent west coast road trip.
St. Louis has a chance to build even more momentum if they get points in this mini-home stand before they head out west again. Even more important is to have a good game against Anaheim since the two teams will face each other again in less than a week – thank you NHL schedule makers…
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The bottom line is St. Louis needs to show up and get some continuity going. We can’t have another great game followed by garbage.
Vladimir Tarasenko needs to score again and get on one of his rolls instead of returning to the shadows like Batman. The Blues need another good goaltending performance like they have been getting recently.
Mistakes are still there, but the switch to a more zone scheme as opposed to man-vs-man seems to be helping the defense. No lapses boys.
This isn’t a must win game tonight. There have been and will be much more important games. That’s why it is a must win for me.
Put some importance on these games simply because you need to show that you’re a good team again. Show you aren’t going to yo-yo the rest of the season and limp into the playoffs.
The Blues have not had success against west coast teams recently until this season. That’s a trend they need to continue.
Here are your St. Louis Blues Morning Links to get your day started off right.
Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with Jeff Gordon the writer. Like most columnists, he either makes complete sense or makes you hate every word. In one of his pieces that he makes sense, Gordo looks at ten players that should (and perhaps will) make up the Blues nucleus going forward. (STLToday)
Perhaps echoing the sentiment I had above about the Blues always hitting a wall when things are going good, the opposite is true as well. As Tom Timmerman points out, the team has found ways to win just when you thought all was lost for the year. As Mike Yeo said, perhaps we should not give up yet. (Post-Dispatch)
Hopefully the Blues and Chicago Wolves aren’t going on opposite paths again now that the Blues have turned things around a bit. Chicago got a point, but ultimately fell to the Cleveland Monsters. (Daily Herald)
Fan reaction was very harsh considering the hit itself. Tom Sestito of the Pittsburgh Penguins will be suspended though for a fairly reckless boarding call against the Winnipeg Jets. (NHL)
Say what you will about the NHL, but it is a league that is generally quick to act. With a lot of complaints about the bye-week, the league is already tweaking that and they will also listen to their GM’s and potentially make a big change regarding when timeouts can be used. (ESPN)