St. Louis Blues Game Preview: Team Looks to Snap Losing Streak Against Pittsburgh Penguins
The St. Louis Blues will finish their two-game season series with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday evening, seeking revenge on a Pittsburgh team that beat them 4-2 in St. Louis on February 21. The Blues, who still have a grip on first place in the Central Division, will be looking to take down a Penguins squad that sits in third place in the Metropolitan Division with 90 points on the season.
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Tuesday’s game will present a chance for the Blues to face recent former teammates Ian Cole and Maxim Lapierre, who were moved to Pittsburgh in separate trades during the course of this season. Lapierre, a fourth-line center who scored two goals and added seven assists in 45 games for the Blues, has two assists in 25 games since being traded to Pittsburgh. Cole, who is one of just six healthy defensemen on the Penguins’ roster, has one assist with a rating of minus-3 in 10 games with Pittsburgh. Those numbers are a bit of a drop-off from the ones he had in St. Louis, as Cole had four goals, five assists, and a plus-minus of plus-16 in 54 games with the Blues.
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Though both of them were out of the lineup for Sunday’s overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings, former Penguins Marcel Goc and Robert Bortuzzo will both get an opportunity to play against their former team for the first time on Tuesday. Goc was acquired for Lapierre right after the All-Star break, while Bortuzzo was acquired in exchange for Cole at the trade deadline. The Blues have also added a third former Penguin since the last time the two teams met, as recently-acquired defenseman Zbynek Michalek played for Pittsburgh in 2011 and 2012. The guaranteed presence of Goc and Bortuzzo on Tuesday should minimize the drama over the construction of the lineup against Pittsburgh. The biggest question will be whether defenseman Carl Gunnarsson will get into the lineup, as the injured blueliner was said to have made some progress following an upper-body injury that he suffered on Saturday against the Minnesota Wild. If Gunnarsson sits out again, rookie Petteri Lindbohm will probably remain in the lineup. That would leave Chris Butler the lone healthy scratch among the defensemen, while Chris Porter and Olli Jokinen figure to be the healthy scratches among the forwards.
Jake Allen will get his first set of back-to-back starts in net since he played two straight games against the Carolina Hurricanes and Edmonton Oilers on January 10 and 13. After Allen collected a shutout against the Dallas Stars on March 15, he also experienced a high level of success against the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday, stopping 22 of 23 shots in regulation before giving up a goal on the second Detroit shot of overtime.
Next: Blues Should Stick with Petteri Lindbohm Going Forward