Blues/Pittsburgh

The first few minutes of the the game against Pittsburgh were pretty uneventful. A few shots and a few good hits, but no goals and no penalties. Elliott is in goal today and my hopes were high that he will do a great job.

At 9:00 Backes got a minor for interference. Pittsburgh is the number one power play team, but the Blues did a great job of killing it, they didn't even get a shot.  At 5:04 Elliott makes a great glove save and at 4:45 he makes another great save, which ends up being the best chance for Pittsburgh the whole game. At 3:32 Elliott makes an under the pad save and for a minute everyone thought it went in, but he saved it. Great job Elliott! The last two minutes of the first the Blues had some trouble making some strong passes and turned the puck over a few times, but do a good job at keeping them from getting a goal. At :28.5 Oshie gets a minor for hooking after he lost the puck and reached to get it back.  At :06.3 Schwartz gets a minor for tripping making it 3 on 5 At the end of the first it was scoreless and the Blues have three minors. 

We start the 2nd with a 3 on 5 for 1:32. Shot by Crosby, saved by Elliott right to the midsection. The Blues killed the 3 on 5! They made 5 shots but didn't get any goals, Elliott had some great saves. At 15:06 Bortuzzo gets a penalty for interference by knocking Reaves down. Steen shoots during the power play but it is saved by Fleury. Pittsburgh killed the penalty. At 8:20 the shots are 14-15 in favor of Pitts. At 7:07 Glass hits Reaves, hard and Lapierre starts a scrap with him that ends up being more of a wrestling match, and Lapierre gets 2 minutes for charging and 2 minutes for roughing, which is a strange call. Elliott has two good saves in a matter of seconds. The Blues killed another penalty! The last two minutes Elliott had some more great saves! At 1:07 Stempniak breaks away and shoots but Elliott saves it again! As the horn sounds Colaiacavo shoots and barley misses it. 

Going into the third we are still scoreless. In the first few seconds Sobotka and Backes both shoot, but still no goal. At 15:20 Ott shoots it hard but cannot get it past Fleury. Berglund has a good chance to score, but once again it doesn't get past Fleury. At 13:44 Elliott makes a great glove save!!!! The Blues block three shots in a matter of seconds, and right after that Elliott has another save. GOAL!!! AT 11:20 Steen shoots but it hits Backes' knee on the way in so it's Backes' goal with Steen and Pietrangelo assisting. At 6:11 Elliott saves another, he is on fire! Pitts has two great chances but Elliott saves on and they miss the other by like an inch. At 4:44 Boumeester gets called for tripping, giving Pitts the 5th power play of the game. Oshie gets a shorthanded shot, but misses, then Steen also shoots and misses. The Blues killed another penalty. At 1:20 Pitts has an empty net. At :16.3 Elliott has another great pad save! 

Blues win and Elliott gets the shutout, making 33 saves!!!!!

Top Ten Teams

The game against Pittsburgh will be starting in about ten minutes so I will post about that later today, but right now I wanted to give you the top ten teams as of right now. 

*Edited....after the game with Pitts. we are tied for first

Points                               Team

103                                   Boston

103                                   ST. LOUIS

100                                   San Jose

97                                     Anaheim

97                                     Pittsburgh

97                                     Chicago

94                                     Colorado  

86                                     LA

86                                     Tampa Bay

85                                     Montreal 

Surgery and the Oilers

Tarasenko had to have surgery on his hand after the game with Nashville on March 15. Poor guy! I'm so bummed because I will be at the game against the Wild and he won't be there, what a bummer. The Blues have recalled Jaskin from the AHL to take Tarasenko's place while he is recovering. Vladdy will be reevaluated in six weeks and they are hoping to have him back for the Playoffs, and of course when we go for the Stanley cup. Yesterday Tarasenko tweeted "all done, surgery went well." Get well soon Vladdy.


On the 13th we were driving back home so we had to listen to the game on the radio (which I don't like doing.) It was a great game! Sobotka was back and he hit the ground running and Miller made 23 saves making him 7-0 against the Oilers. In the first period Perron scored giving the Oilers the lead, but we weren't too far behind. Sobotka scored with Tarasenko and Oshie assisting. In the second Tarasenko scored with Oshie and Sobotka having the assists (sound fimliar?) Also in the second Fraser scored for the Oilers tying the score. The third was all Blues, 42 seconds in Pietrangelo scored with Sobotka having the lone assist, Schwartz scored with Steen and Backes assisting, Oshie got a powerplay goal with Steen and Shattenkirk assisting, and finally Schwartz scored and Lapierre and Paarjarvi assisted. 

Great game!

We won't talk about the game against the Blackhawks, it was rough, but we are still NUMBER ONE IN THE LEAGUE!!!

Trades and Wins

Well, as we all know Halak and Stewart have been traded, so sad. A lot of people have been talking about Halak getting traded, but especially since he had such a terrible game at the Olympics. I for one, was really sad to see him traded. I don't like when our players get traded, because now they are "bad guys" (my sister in law calls all other teams' player bad guys.) I do think that Halak has had some trouble lately, but overall I think he was a fantastic goaltender. In our 2013-2014 season he has had 1002 shots against and 919 saves. He was good, but didn't do well under pressure and was super inconsistent (I know, it's hockey, everyone is inconsistent.) He also was very predictable in a shoot out, he played far from the net so the player shooting, knew to go around and hit him from behind. 

My first choice for a new goaltender would be Henrik Lundqvist, who plays for the Rangers, but since we didn't get him, I'm glad it was Miller. He is a strong, technical goaltender and I think he will be great for our team. Miller has had 1453 shots against and 1341 saves.  

Welcome Miller

  We also got Steve Ott, who is seeming to be a very strong player.

Welcome Ott

So far Miller has done a good job, although the game on Sunday against Phoenix didn't get off to a great start. Miller let two shots in in the first period and the rest of our boys were not looking so great. They were doing sloppy passes and missing the net, A LOT. Finally Berglund made a goal and the game changed, it was like we were a completely different team, Berglund scored another one, Shattenkirk scored, and so did Paajarvi and ended up winning 4-2. 

Paarjarvi celebrating!

Last night was kind of the same thing, but not quite as bad, Tampa Bay scored the first two, but we weren't too far behind them. Berglund scored our first one again, which once again changed the whole dynamic of the game. Oshie had a beautiful shorthanded goal, Steen scored, and let's not for get Tarasenko's empty net goal. We once again won 4-2. Oh, and I was pretty sure Backes was going to punch a ref, whom, would not let anyone fight, lame!

JaxJaxJax

Oshie's shorthanded goal!

We play Nashville tomorrow and I'm hoping we can keep the momentum going.
LGB!







All pictures are from stlblues.com