St. Louis Blues Morning Links: Precious Practice Time

Good morning Blues fans! It’s another off day today as the team has a rare three consecutive days off. They are not resting on their laurels though.

The St. Louis Blues rarely have more than one day off in a row these days, let alone three. They have not been just relaxing though. They’ve been doing their best to stay sharp and get to work.

The Blues took Monday off for rest following their journey across eastern Canada. St. Louis capped off their trip with four wins in a row, tying a season best.

Now they look east again, though not quite as far this time. An old foe stands between them and setting a new mark for consecutive wins in 2016-17. It is the Detroit Red Wings that stand in their way now.

While the players are not the same and the teams no longer reside in the same conference, let alone division, there is still bad blood. It’s hard to erase almost 20 years of animosity even separating the teams along conference lines.

The Blues need the win to placate fans who still remember the old days where it turned your stomach to lose to the winged wheel. Even more than that, they simply need to win to keep pace.

Despite the team’s recent winning ways, their awful December and January has put them in a position with no room for error. By no means must the Blues win every single game, but they cannot afford to drop more than a handful the rest of the way.

St. Louis is currently only a point up on the Nashville Predators for the third Central Division guaranteed spot. Both teams have played the same number of games as well, so neither has the game-in-hand advantage at this point either.

Additionally, the Blues have to keep winning to keep any hope of home ice advantage alive. Despite their winter woes, Scottrade Center has been kind to St. Louis over the course of the entire season.

That’s a stretch though unless they string together a lot of wins coming up. St. Louis is currently 12 points behind Chicago and while the Blackhawks have been beatable lately, they have a good cushion on the Blues.

So, as it has been for quite awhile, the Blues can only focus on themselves. They are doing just that with this brief off time.

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Mike Yeo has been looking for time to actually practice. That time is rather rare and precious this time of year and the Blues are looking to get some things ironed out.

Their special teams have some holes remaining, which has not reflected well on Yeo since he was in charge of the power play. The penalty kill has been up and down, though more consistent lately. Defensively, there have been troubles all year long no matter who was in charge.

A couple days to work on those things cannot solve them, but the Blues will get an idea of what changes their new boss would like. As long as the team keeps listening instead of ignoring the bench boss, then things could continue to go up.

Here are your St. Louis Blues Morning Links to get your day started off right.

Time has a way of making everything seem like it worked out for the best even if we thought the world was ending at a certain point. Such is the case for the Blues and for Mike Yeo. A year ago yesterday, Yeo was removed as head coach of the Minnesota Wild and, as of this moment, it seems to have worked out for all involved. (STLToday)

One of the big reasons the Blues have righted the ship lately has been Jake Allen getting back on track. It was not easy and you cannot link it to one thing, but if you ask the man himself, the confidence of a particular fan helped a lot. The funny thing is his biggest fan might be one of the smallest. (NHL)

The St. Louis Blues held their annual Casino Night last night. Fittingly, since St. Louis has one of the biggest Mardi Gras, that was the theme of the night. As usual, fans had a great time and helped fund St. Louis Children’s Hospital. (Blues)

Thankfully, all the talk surrounding Kevin Shattenkirk has not involved the Anaheim Ducks. I say thankfully, because Ducks GM Bob Murray came out and said the team has no interest in rental players, of which may apply heavily to Shattenkirk. (NHL)

Whether or not Gustav Nyquist will be in the lineup for the Red Wings or not might have to do with how quickly the NHL gives him a hearing. He will have an in-person hearing to deal with his high stick against Jared Spurgeon and those usually result in suspensions. (ESPN)

Have a great day Blues fans!