St. Louis Blues: November Rolls In, Doesn’t Get Easier
The St. Louis Blues finished up one of their best opening months in team history with a victory over a former rival. Now they look forward to the month of turkey and pie with some appetizing matchups on the slate.
The St. Louis Blues are not going to have much time to bask in the glow of their fabulous October record. Despite coming up with a big win over the Los Angeles Kings, the Blues had one day to practice and now it’s looking forward to November.
St. Louis cannot simply look forward to turkey and pie – or whatever interesting dishes the Swedes and Russians on the team choose to partake in – either. The Blues have to flip the page, focus on November and hit the ground running again. They’ve got some difficult games right at the start and toward the end.
The Blues start things off with a couple Eastern Conference foes, packed with a lot of offense. That’s going to test the Blues defense and make sure they are not getting too full of themselves.
In the middle of the month, you’ve got the dreaded western Canada trip slipped in there before the holiday. Fortunately for the Blues, the schedule did not cram those games too close together. There will be time to have bonding trips around the towns instead of catching red-eye flights each time.
Then, St. Louis ends the month with some home games against teams they have had issues with over the last few years. It will be interesting to see how they roll out against those squads this year.
With that in mind, let’s take a quick moment to break down each team.
Philadelphia Flyers – Nov 2
The Blues open the month with a game against the Philadelphia Flyers. These are not your dad’s Flyers, the same way the Blues are not the same Blues of old.
Gone are the days of the Broadstreet Bullies as the Flyers are trying to transition to a more speed game similar to the Blues. Playing in the Eastern Conference, you’ll never completely loose that physical style, but there is not quite the same nastiness we’ve seen in past orange and black teams.
Gone is Brayden Schenn (thank you, very much). Colin McDonald and Andrew MacDonald are both out for the foreseeable future with “lower body injuries”.
Nolan Patrick is still getting his feet wet as he has shown flashes, but picked up an injury here and there to slow him down. He’s a lock to miss the Blues game as they just placed him on IR with a head injury. That’s somewhat disappointing as it is always fun to see the new blood of the league.
Valtteri Filppula has been what the Flyers wanted offensively, starting November as their number six scorer. He’s been somewhat of a defensive liability though, so the Blues might want to get their top line going against whichever line he is on.
And finally, we get to see old Moose come back. Brian Elliott is on the Flyers now, for those who were not paying attention.
As usual, Elliott is doing well in the win/loss column but not very good elsewhere. He comes into their first game of the month (in Chicago) with a .884 save percentage and a 3.23 goals against.
Not all of that is his fault as the Flyers’ defense is not littered with household names. Still, the Blues are coming out ahead with that trade as time goes on.
Toronto – Nov 4
The second game of the month will be against the offensively potent Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs enter November as the second leading goal scoring team in the entire NHL.
Their problem is they cannot keep the puck out. To end October, they had 47 goals as a team. They allowed 43.
Toronto is a fun, dynamic team to watch but as much as everyone kisses their behind that is not a recipe for success come playoff time. Just ask the Washington Capitals how far offense alone has gotten them.
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Toronto is similar to the Blues in that their top two lines are doing the bulk of the scoring. The Leafs are just getting a little more out of their bottom two lines than St. Louis.
Patrick Marleau is settling into his new home pretty well after being in San Jose forever. The 38 year old is getting some new life playing with all these kids.
In goal, Frederik Andersen is getting the bulk of the work. Like Elliott, he’s getting the job done but it is not statistically clean with sub-.900 save percentages and a goals against above 3.00.
New Jersey – Nov 7
This is going to be an interesting one. The Devils are off to their best start in years after finally hitting the reset button not too long ago.
The question for the Devils is are they for real or are they just off to a good start?
Right now the Devils are doing their scoring by committee, so you don’t have to worry about any one player going cold. On top of that, Taylor Hall is dishing out way more than he’s putting in. If he can keep that up and get back to his scoring goals in the mid-20’s, then the Devils’ offense should be alright.
The Devils have quality goaltending, if not the necessarily the best you’re going to see. Corey Schneider has always been serviceable and Keith Kinkaid, a former member of the St. Louis Bandits, is finally getting a chance to be the backup all year.
I’d expect the Devils to cool off a little bit, but without the travel rigors Western Conference teams face, maybe New Jersey will sustain things a bit longer. After all, nobody is looking like they’re going to suddenly spring to life in the Metropolitan Division.
Arizona – Nov 9
The Coyotes are having a really rough go of things. Rick Tocchet is in his first season as their coach and people are already calling for his job in the desert.
Arizona played 13 games in October. They won one. When you think about it, that seems hard to do. You should be able to luck into at least three.
The Coyotes have a few veterans, but for the most part they tried to turn things over to their younger core. It clearly has not worked out yet.
Mike Smith, the longtime backbone in goal for Arizona was traded to Calgary in the offseason in a questionable move. It has not paid dividends as Arizona is giving up the most goals in the NHL.
There doesn’t seem to be any way out of this rabbit hole for the Coyotes this season. It’s going to be a year of a lot of growing pains.
New York Islanders – Nov 11
We’ve already faced the Islanders earlier this season. The Blues came out on top in Brooklyn with a 3-2 shootout win.
New York is still doing alright in their division, entering November in third. They have Pittsburgh on their heels though and they still don’t seem to have that right mix to be a danger yet.
Calgary – Nov 13
The Blues also already took care of business against the Flames with a 5-2 win on October 25. It really should not have been that close as the Blues contributed to their opponent’s success with some turnovers and sloppy play.
You can’t take the Flames lightly because they have way too much speed and scoring potential to light you up. They can be had defensively though, which we already saw.
Edmonton – Nov 16
Anybody who predicted the Oilers start has to be raking money in in Las Vegas. I’m not saying they need to be a first place team at this point in their development, but they were a dark horse Cup winner for some analysts.
The only reason they are not in last place is because Arizona is in their division.
The Oilers had one of the league’s best offenses last season. In one month of play, they have the fewest goals in the NHL. Let that sink in for a moment. Arizona and Buffalo have scored more goals than the Edmonton Oilers.
They are an oddly backward team right now. Cam Talbot has been between good and fantastic the past year and a half and he has been just OK to start this year. In the past they’ve been Swiss cheese defensively, but through October they only allowed three more goals than the Blues. Then they only sink 22 goals? Something is amiss in the Great White North.
Vancouver – Nov 18
The Canucks are a pleasant surprise this season. They’re coming along quicker than most had predicted.
They’re relying on two guys at opposite ends of their careers for scoring. Veteran Derek Dorsett leads the team in goals, while newcomer Brock Boeser leads the team in points.
This will be a tough matchup for the Blues from a special teams perspective. Vancouver has one of the league’s better penalty kills and the Blues struggle on the power play.
The big question mark for the Canucks will be in goal. They have two career backups splitting time. We’ve seen it work (Halak and Elliott anyone?), but it is not usually going to sustain for an entire year.
Edmonton – Nov 21
This game will be in the comforts of the Scottrade Center (or whatever it is called by that point). Edmonton will be on the first leg of a back-to-back, so their mind might be on trying to get to Detroit for the next night.
The Oilers will also be playing their sixth game in 11 days when they drop the puck against the Blues that week.
Nashville – Nov 24
Let’s hope the Blues aren’t still bogged down by too much tryptophan for this one. The Friday after American Thanksgiving – yes, I am aware Canadians had theirs in October – the Blues face rival Nashville.
The Predators had a slow start to the year, very similarly to what they experienced in 2016-17. This year it was not about gelling though. The offense is struggling.
Like the Blues, after their own trip to the conference finals, the Predators had some key players depart. Blues fans should know how much leadership in the locker room can mean, but when it comes to opponents they only look at offseason signings.
So, Blues fans were in despair at how the Predators had added pieces to a team that already almost won it all. Clearly, you can’t spend every offseason making large scale changes because it is harder to find that chemistry again.
By the time the Blues see the Preds, they will likely have their feet under them and it will be the usual divisional scrap. Fortunately, this game is at home where St. Louis went 4-2 last year. The Blues lost all five in Nashville.
Minnesota – Nov 25
No rest for the weary as the Blues play the next night against the Wild. It’s another home game, so no travel is involed, though sometimes you might want to get away from all the post-Thanksgiving activity.
The Wild are stumbling and might not be able to get up. However, there is still talent there. They just are not getting the most out of it right now and holes that were smoothed over with their hot start last year are more glaring now.
As an example of how things are going for the Wild, Chris Stewart leads them in scoring. Blues fans know all too well that won’t hold up.
The thing keeping the Wild in it is the tightness of the division. While the Blues have some space, the Wild – currently in last – are only four points out of second place.
Anaheim – Nov 29
The Ducks don’t present the same difficulties they have in recent memory, but it’s still always a difficult game for St. Louis. Luckily this game is at home. The Blues have not lost to the Ducks in St. Louis since 2014.
Looking at their roster, the Ducks actually have a lot of players in their mid-20’s. However, their main core is still getting up in years and their own personal window is closing.
The Ducks are clearly going with John Gibson in goal as he’s played all but one game in October. Even at 37 though, you have to wonder how comfortable Ryan Miller is being a true backup.
Overview
November should be another good month for the Blues. The schedule is not too cramped. Even the usually difficult western Canada swing has some decent gaps in it so you can get more acclimated.
Next: Despite Injuries, Blues Have Made No Excuses
At rough estimation, the Blues should go no worse than 7-5. 8-4 or better is definitely within grasp.
If the Blues do better than 8-4, we have to start considering them to be true contenders and not just a team off to a good start. We’ll worry about that little detail when November is done though.