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St. Louis Blues Beat: Week 8 2015

By Brandon J. Griffin |

In the St. Louis Blues’ seventh week of the season, there was plenty to be thankful for. The Blues went 2-0-1 last week, still chasing the Dallas Stars for the Central Division, but only down five points now.

Blues fans should be thankful for the return of Paul Stastny, who had two points in the game against Pittsburgh. His return has solidified the team’s depth up front and makes those lines look a lot better. Stastny solidifies the top line, now Hitch can focus his shuffling on the bottom nine and try to find that secondary chemistry.

Another thing to be thankful for is the active eight game point streak that Kevin Shattenkirk is on. He has scored ten points in the last eight games as he continues to dominate after returning from an injury. The only people upset by this are Colton Parayko fantasy owners, as expected his numbers have slowed down drastically with the return of Shatty.

Last week’s team MVP, Alex Steen, also gave Blues fans something to be thankful for. He led the team in scoring in their three games, scoring four points in the Columbus and Pittsburgh games. Steen now has 21 points on the season and continues to score those points in crucial situations.

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In week eight for the St. Louis Blues, there are three games slated. All three games are against Eastern Conference teams, one being cake and the other two being against formidable opponents.

Tuesday the Blues welcome the Florida Panthers to town in their first of two match ups this season. These cats have claws, they spread their scoring around quite a bit. Jaromir Jagr leads the team in scoring with 18 points, which may seem like a low scoring team but the Panthers have three lines capable of putting pucks in the net.

Unfortunately for Florida they aren’t one of the Blues back-to-back games and will no doubt be seeing Jake Allen. After going scoreless in 2/3 games last week, look for Vladimir Tarasenko to open up the scoring; with Paul Stastny attached as he continues to shake off the rust.

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Friday’s game is on the road as the Blues take a trip to Brooklyn to face the New York Islanders. This will be the toughest match up of the week, NYI are a lot better than their wild card place in the standings would suggest.

On October 24 the Islanders handed the Blues a 3-2 OTL when they visited Scottrade Center. Since then the Islanders have reunited Kyle Okposo with John Tavares and moved Brock Nelson to the top left wing and that line has been torching opponents.

In the first game of a back-to-back, Jake Allen with most definitely be in net against the superior opponent of the two. This game will be a tough one, both team’s top lines have the potential to be one of the best trios going forward; not to mention the offensive talent throughout the rest of the team. If the Blues are going to lose a game this week, this would be the most likely.

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Finally the Blues welcome the Toronto Maple Leafs to St. Louis in what should be an easy win. The Leafs are at the bottom of the Eastern Conference with just seven wins on the season.

There is cause for concern with the Blues playing a tough game before flying back home for this the next night, but Toronto is exactly the match up you want in this situation. Brian Elliot has been awful this season and hasn’t won a game since October 18. Hopefully this easy start can get him back on track by finally putting a fifth W in his record this season.

There’s no real reason to think the Blues can’t go 3-0-0 this week, like I said before Paul Stastny solidifying that top line does wonders for Hitch as he figures out the rest of the lineup.

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