St. Louis Blues Look To Take Down A Top Team In Wes...er Pacific

The St. Louis Blues are riding a big win streak nearing the end of the year. Yet, they have to end the year with a team they’ve had issues with.

As the St. Louis Blues ride a wave of momentum into the final game of 2019, they have a rather odd opponent standing in their way. The Arizona Coyotes stand before them as a rather interesting road block.

On name value alone, the Blues should be able to wipe the ice with the Coyotes. These are the Stanley Cup champions after all.

St. Louis is riding an eight-game win streak into the desert. The Coyotes are a franchise that has been in free fall or limbo for most of the decade. Easy pickin’s right?

Unfortunately, that is not the case. Regardless of their overall record over the last few seasons, Arizona has had the Blues number.

St. Louis has gone 2-4-1 against the Coyotes over the last three seasons, including one game this season. The Blues have not won a season series against Arizona since 2016-18. Making matters worse, the Blues have not only one once in Arizona over the last three seasons, including this one so far.

The one thing on the Blues side in that equation is they were dominant in that one win. That was a 4-0 victory in February of 2019, when the Blues were playing some of their best hockey of that season.

Luckily, the Blues are playing some of their best hockey of this season. There are still things they have to clean up, but this eight game winning streak has not had many wins that were backed into. The Blues earned most, if not all of them.

Still, knocking off the Coyotes will not be easy. The Blues already lost to Arizona back in November, 3-2, in a shootout.

How they stack up

The Blues come into the game in first place in the Central Division with 58 points. They lead the next closest team to them by eight points.

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The Coyotes were in first place prior to the weekend, but have slipped up with three straight losses. Now, they enter the final game of 2019 tied with Vancouver with 46 points and two points behind the Vegas Golden Knights.

The Blues have been doing things the Jedi way, which is to say it’s all about balance. Their offense isn’t the highest, but 127 goals is getting it done. Their defense is not the best, but only the Dallas Stars have allowed fewer goals in the conference.

On the flip side, the Coyotes are having a good season, but it is definitely not because of their offense. Arizona has scored 115 goals, which is not terrible, but only five teams in the conference have less.

For comparison, the last place team in the Central, Chicago, has only two fewer goals with 113. Like the Blues, the Coyotes get it done defensively. They have only allowed 107 goals, which goes to show they are playing a lot of close games.

Darcy Kuemper was having a stellar season and voted as an All-Star. However, the Blues will likely face Antti Raanta since Kuemper picked up an injury that could keep him out of the All-Star Game.

Raanta has started 16 games and only won six. Meanwhile Jordan Binnington and Jake Allen are both in the top 10 for goals against average for goaltenders playing double-digit games. Allen is in the top two for save percentage and Binnington is technically out of the top 10 in that category, but he’s sixth for goaltenders that are actually their team’s starter. Regardless, the Blues are good to go in net while it is a question mark for the Coyotes.

As far as scoring, the Blues are led in goals by Brayden Schenn‘s 17 and David Perron‘s 40 points. The Coyotes are led in points by Nick Schmaltz with 31.

Conor Garland leads the team with 13 goals. Taylor Hall is one to watch out for as he has two goals and four points since being traded to Arizona.

As mentioned, the Blues are riding an eight-game winning streak and have won their last three road games. The Coyotes have lost three in a row and are 8-10-1 at home this season.

Projected Lineup

According to the team website, it is likely Binninton will finish the calendar year with his 59 wins. It appears as though the road warrior Allen will play against Arizona.

Forwards

Sundqvist – O’Reilly – Perron
Schwartz – Schenn – Kyrou
Steen – Thomas – Bozak
MacEachern – de la Rose – Barbashev

Defense

Faulk – Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester – Parayko
Dunn – Bortuzzo

Goalie

Allen

Prediction

The Blues had a rather heartbreaking defeat to end the last decade. Interestingly enough, that game was against a fellow Pacific Division team, the Vancouver Canucks.

The Blues are in a different place now than then, however. Despite a decent start to the year, the Coyotes of 2019 are not the Canucks of 2009 either.

With all that in mind, I think the Blues keep their roll going and end the decade with a W.

The Blues have a few struggles, but win 4-3.

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St. Louis Blues Look To Take Down A Top Team In Wes…er Pacific

By Todd Panula | Dec 31, 2019