St Louis Blues

St-Louis-Blues

Shattenkirk vital to maturing Blues defense

NASHVILLE – Not too long ago, defensemen that were 22 years old and just breaking into the league weren’t relied upon to be anchors, per se, of a blueline. Times have changed, for the better, in the NHL. One team that has benefitted from the rapid maturation for defensemen is St. Louis, where youngsters Kevin Shattenkirk and Alex Pietrangelo are leading the way.When GM Doug Armstrong acquired Shattenkirk (and Chris Stewart) from Colorado last February in exchange for an underachieving Erik Johnson, they obtained a young blueliner that was drenched with potential. So far this season, Shattenkirk has put that potential on full display due to his speedy maturation.“I feel a little more confident and poised out there. For me it’s a matter of playing more games and feeling better game in and game out,” said Shattenkirk, who has valued playing alongside veteran Barrett Jackman this season.“There hasn’t been anything different I’ve done preparation wise, but playing with Jackman has be…

Rinne earns 11th straight win, turns aside 41 shots to stop Blues

Martin Erat had a goal and two assists and Pekka Rinne made 41 saves
as the host Nashville Predators moved past the St. Louis Blues into
second place in the Central Division with a 3-1 victory on Saturday.Rinne has won a franchise-record 11 consecutive starts in goal for the Predators.
Sergei Kostitsyn collected a goal and an assist for the Predators. He
secured the win with his 13th goal of the season into an empty net.

Mike Fisher gave the Predators a 2-0 lead at 12:30 of the first
period after receiving a pass from Kostitsyn from behind the net. Fisher
then toe-dragged around a defenseman at the top of the crease and
wristed his 15th of the season past Halak.
Earlier in the opening session, Erat scored his 12th of the season with a power-play blast from the point.
Rinne’s bid for a fifth shutout this season was spoiled at 4:01 of
the third period when Chris Porter picked the pocket of defenseman Roman
Josi and wristed a shot passed the surprised goalie. It w…

It’s time for your Preds and Blues LEFTGOVERS…

Nashville Predators 3, St. Louis Blues 1
Bridgestone Arena; Nashville, Tennessee
February 4, 2012
***
LEFTOVER THOUGHTS:
* Before we get to our notes on the game, you have to see THIS. Head Coach Barry Trotz was joined at his press conference by his son. What other NHL coach would do that? It was a tremendous moment. Thanks to Preds On The Glass for supplying the video.
* Jerred Smithson, Jack Hillen and rookie Gabriel Bourque were the scratches for the Preds on Saturday.
* Brian McGrattan was in the Nashville lineup for the first time since January 17.
* McGrattan would end up dropping the gloves against Ryan Reaves in the second period.
* Blues forward Kevin Shattenkirk had five shots in the first period alone.
* Halak turned aside all 17 shots he faced in the second period.
* Nashville is now 17-2-2 when leading after two periods.
* With 29 games remaining Pekka Rinne needs just four more wins to set a new career high.
* Rinne is now 4-0-0 against St. Louis this season.
* Rinne h…

Rinne’s third period acrobatics key to Predators 3-1 win against Blues

On Saturday night the Nashville Predators beat the St. Louis Blues 3-1 in front of another sold out crowd at Bridgestone Arena. It was Pekka Rinne’s 11th straight win, and on Saturday night he earned it making 42 saves.

“It was a party,” Rinne said about the high volume of rubber thrown in his direction, adding, “It is always fun. It keeps you in the game and keeps the flow going. It gets easier. But at the same time, the next game I might get 15-20 shots and I need to be ready for that. I need to be ready every night.”
On Saturday night, Rinne was game ready. Nashville grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Martin Erat and Mike Fisher but the Blues cut the lead in to one goal when Chris Porter scored 4:01 into the third period when a turnover left the forward all alone in front of Rinne.
Then, five minutes later, Predators rookie Craig Smith took an untimely delay of game penalty when he shot the puck over the boards. With three saves ma…

Preds 3, Blues 1: Decibel levels chart

How loud did Smashville get tonight? Courtesy of our new decibel meter, you can find out right here…Decibels (dB)Moment108 dBPreds come onto the ice110Martin Erat 1st period goal103Jordin Tootoo hit on Chris Porter109Mike Fisher 1st period goal102Jaroslav Halak save on Fisher97Dierks Bentley vs. Shea Weber video103Brian McGrattan vs. Ryan Reaves fight99TV timeout ovation105Pekka Rinne save on Kris Russell109Sergei Kostitsyn 3rd period goal108Predators win, 3-1To give you an idea how loud it was, here are some comparisons:85dB Beginning of hearing damage range, earplugs should be worn100dB Normal average car or house stereo at maximum volume110dB Car stereo with two 6 x 9” speakers and 100 watts116dB Human body begins to perceive vibration from low frequencies120dB Front row at a rock concert

Rinne makes 41 saves as Predators top Blues 3-1

Pekka Rinne made 41 saves, and Martin Erat had a goal and two assists to lead the Nashville Predators to a 3-1 win over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night.

The Predators have won six of seven, while the Blues have dropped three of four.

Mike Fisher and Sergei Kostitsyn also scored for Nashville

Chris Porter had the lone goal for St. Louis.

It was the fourth meeting of the season between the Central Division rivals, with Nashville winning all four matchups so far. The Predators are 12-2-2 against the Central this season.

Erat scored the game’s first goal at 6:59 of the opening period. With the Predators on the power play, Erat moved away from the right point before firing a slap shot over the glove of St. Louis goaltender Jaroslav Halak.

Fisher doubled the Nashville lead with 7:30 to go in the first. Sergei Kostitsyn had the puck behind the St. Louis goal and found Fisher in the low slot. After a quick toe-drag, Fisher beat Halak with a wrist shot high to the stick side.

Fisher has six goals in his last five games.

One night after recording his fifth shutout of the season, Halak was again strong in goal for St. Louis in making 34 saves. He is now 12-2-3 in his last 17 starts.

Porter cut the deficit to 2-1 at 4:01 of the third period. Inside the Nashville zone, Porter picked the pocket of Predators rookie defenseman Roman Josi in the slot. After the takeaway from Josi, Porter fired a wrist shot by a surprised Rinne.

With intense St. Louis pressure in the late minutes, Rinne showed why he is the league’s reigning Third Star of the month.

Rinne twice denied defenseman Kris Russell late in the third, first with 8:42 remaining and then again 5 seconds later. On the second save, Rinne dove to his left after being knocked out of position making the first save on Russell.

Kostitsyn concluded the game’s scoring on an empty-netter with 22.1 remaining.

Notes: St. Louis C Jason Arnott missed the game with a shoulder injury. Arnott, who captained the Predators for three seasons, has missed just two games this season, both in Nashville. … Nashville RW Brian McGrattan played after being a healthy scratch for six consecutive games. … Predators RW Matt Halischuk played in his 100th career NHL game.

The Best Defensive Team

The team with the best goals against in the NHL right now is the St Louis Blues. They have a low 1.92 goals against average. This is quite amazing from a team that fired its coach in early November. It wasn’t that Davis Payne was horribly failing as much as Ken Hitchcock is a top coach who brought in a strong defensive system. Hitchcock has been a strong reason why the blues have been a top team so far this season. His effect on the Blues is an example of the maximal effect a coach can have on his team. Rarely does a coach make this big a difference. One wonders where the Columbus Blue Jackets would be if they had hired him as was rumored when the Blues hired him.
The biggest strength of the St Louis Blues is goaltending. Brian Elliott is having an outstanding comeback season. He is posting a .938 saves percentage and a 1.69 GAA. Jaroslav Halak has recovered from a slow start and he is posting a .921 saves percentage and a 1.96 GAA. This is one of the best goaltendi…

Blues C Arnott dealing with shoulder issue

St. Louis Blues center Jason Arnott left Friday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings with a shoulder injury.
Arnott was hurt in the third period, although coach Ken Hitchcock said the injury did not appear to be significant.
He has 12 goals and 12 assists in 49 games this season. The Blues play at Nashville on Saturday.

Blues Forward T.J. Oshie gets taken out by NHL referee (Video)

In the first period of last night’s NHL game in St. Louis, Blues forward T.J. Oshie ran straight into the back of one of the referees. Oshie went down so hard that it made the accidental collision look like a blindside hit by the ref.

Oshie was chasing the puck and was so focused on it that he couldn’t see the referee. Hopefully he’ll be more careful. As we’ve seen before, those NHL referees can hit pretty hard without meaning to – just ask Flyers forward Kimmo Timmonen. Video via NHL Network. H/T Puck Daddy. Holdout Sports is now a member of the Yardbarker Network. Visit us at holdoutsports.com.

Blues preparing for long road ahead

ST. LOUIS The schedule makers were more than kind to the St. Louis Blues for the first four months of the season. It’s about to even out in a painful way.

The Blues returned to the ice Friday night after an NHL-long nine-day layoff for the All-Star break and beat the Los Angeles Kings 1-0 at Scottrade Center.

The other 29 teams all played at least one game and 23 teams played two games following last Sunday’s All-Star Game before the Blues hit the ice Friday night.

But they showed little rust, out-shooting the Kings 33-22 and scoring the only goal on a Jamie Langenbrunner one-timer midway through the second period.

Jaroslav Halak earned his fourth shutout in the past seven games and improved to 12-1-3 in his last 16 games to help the Blues improve to 22-3-4 at home this season.

“Obviously it was important after the break to come out strong and get the two points,” said Halak, who has lost just one game in regulation since November 22.

“Obviously right now its’ going to be hard for the rest of the season because most of the games are on the road but we just need to make sure we play one game at a time and don’t think too far ahead.”

The Blues have taken full advantage of their 29 home games, earning 48 of a possible 58 points at the Scottrade Center. But the home cooking will soon come to end, with 20 of their final 32 games on the road to end the regular season.

Saturday night’s game at Nashville starts a three-game road trip that also includes stops in Ottawa and New Jersey.

And the Blues know the plethora of road games only make it more important to take care of business in the few home opportunities they have left.

“We’re not going to have a whole lot of opportunities here after the next week,” said Langenbrunner. “We’re going to have to transfer how we’ve played at home to the road and I think we can do that.

“It’s not going to go well every night. Teams are for whatever reason a little better at home, but if we continue to play the way we are capable of, we’re going to pick up our fair share of wins on the road.”

The Blues actually play five of seven games at home following their three-game trip before the schedule takes a steep uphill climb.

The first of two lengthy road trips starts Feb. 23, a six-game trip that takes the Blues to Nashville, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and San Jose in just ten days.

They return home for three games before hitting the road for a seven-game road trip to Columbus, Chicago, Carolina, Tampa Bay, Anaheim, Los Angeles and Phoenix from March 11-25.

“You’re going to have to win on the road,” said coach Ken Hitchcock. “If we expect to get into the playoffs, we’re going to have to be a .500 team on the road. We can’t just keep winning all the home games because there’s going to be games that we come back to where we are tired and banged up a little bit and we’re not going to have the advantage of being the rested team like we did in January.

“We’re really going to have to win road games here and no better place to win at that barn down there in Nashville.”

The Blues are just 8-10-3 on the road this year. Friday’s win gave them 67 points, tied for the second highest total in the league. But with 32 games remaining, they know the schedule only gets tougher from here.

“We’re trying to take advantage of the home games and I think we did that for the most part in January,” said forward Matt D’Agostini. “Every game from now on, whether it’s on the road or what, is going to be a game like tonight, one goal games.

“Everyone is fighting for their lives now. It’s playoff hockey from here on out.”

And for the Blues, their journey towards the playoffs appears to still be a long road ahead.