St. Louis Blues Look for Another Inspiring Victory vs. Chicago

St. Louis Blues Game 17/82: Saturday, November 14, 7:00 PM vs. Chicago Blackhawks

It seems like a long while ago now, but just 10 days ago, the St. Louis Blues picked up one of their most impressive victories in recent memory, a Wednesday night win over the division rival Chicago Blackhawks. After going down 5-2 in the first period, with goaltender Brian Elliott exiting due to the combination of shaky performance and an apparent head injury after just 17 minutes, the Blues appeared to be dead in the water.

In an incredible turn of events, however, the Blues got goals from David Backes, Alexander Steen, and Jay Bouwmeester in a wild second period that inspired the viral #RoarBacon trend. Jake Allen held the Blackhawks scoreless for the final two periods, and the Blues sent the game to overtime, where Vladimir Tarasenko scored a game-winning goal, three minutes and 54 seconds into the five-minute extra period.

While they’d certainly prefer to avoid a three-goal deficit at any point tonight, the Blues will be looking for similar levels of energy and resiliency on Saturday as they face the Blackhawks again, this time at Scottrade Center. The Blues are coming off a 6-3 loss to the New York Rangers on Thursday night which was somewhat deflating, especially since it seemed to directly cause the departure of veteran forward Martin Havlat from the team on Friday, who defenseman Jay Bouwmeester said was just physically drained after two games with the Blues:

J Bouw. on Havlat: "I think it's more a physical sort of thing. His body's having a hard time with it or whatever. It's too bad." #stlblues
— Lou Korac (@lkorac10) November 13, 2015

The Blackhawks aren’t exactly surging, either, as they’re coming off a 3-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night. The Hawks have lost two of their last three games to the Devils, who the Blues shut out 2-0 on Tuesday night in New Jersey. Chicago has some ground to start making up if they want to contend for a playoff spot this season, as their 8-7-1 record puts them in sixth place in the Central Division.

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With Havlat out of the picture, Ryan Reaves will get back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch in three of the past four games. Unless the Blues call up another player before tonight’s 7:00 PM face-off, defenseman Robert Bortuzzo will be the only healthy scratch, as injured forward Steve Ott is still on the active roster. While Reaves’ return will bring some physicality to the lineup, it will break up a skilled fourth line of Magnus Paajarvi, Kyle Brodziak, and Dmitrij Jaskin that had been performing very well together.

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Jake Allen gets back in net after having the 166-minute shutout streak he brought into the Rangers game quickly snapped, then getting pulled after allowing goals on three of the first five shots he faced. The Blues will hope that Allen, who is still tied for the league lead in shutouts while ranking fourth in goals-against average and third in save percentage, can get right back on the horse and give them the opportunity to pick up a victory tonight.

Here’s how the Blues’ lineups are projected to look on Saturday night:

Alexander Steen-Jori Lehtera–Vladimir Tarasenko

Scottie Upshall–David Backes–Robby Fabbri

Magnus Paajarvi–Scott Gomez–Troy Brouwer

Dmitrij Jaskin–Kyle Brodziak–Ryan Reaves

Jay Bouwmeester–Alex Pietrangelo

Joel Edmundson–Kevin Shattenkirk

Carl Gunnarsson-Colton Parayko

Jake Allen

Next: Blues Forward Martin Havlat Walks Out on Team

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