St. Louis Blues Look to Finish Road Trip Strong Against Montreal Canadiens
St. Louis Blues Game 6/82: Tuesday, October 20, 6:30 PM at Montreal Canadiens
The St. Louis Blues face their most difficult opponent yet during the 2015-16 season on Tuesday night, heading into Montreal to face the Canadiens, the NHL’s lone remaining undefeated team. The Habs have thrived off the dominant goaltending of NHL First Star of the Week Carey Price, who has a 1.20 goals-against average and a .957 save percentage in five starts. Price’s first shutout of the season came on Thursday against the New York Rangers, when he stopped all 25 shots he faced.
On the other hand, the Blues’ offense can definitely hang with Montreal’s based on their respective performances thus far. The Blues have 21 goals and are averaging 32.2 shots per game, while Montreal has 20 goals and averages 34 shots. The Blues will have to hope that Vladimir Tarasenko can sustain the incredibly productive pace he’s been on through the first six games, during which he’s scored five goals and added nine assists.
Unlike the Blues, who have dealt with multi-game injuries to three of the players from their opening night lineup, the Canadiens have been fortunate enough to be able to utilize the same 18 skaters for all six games thus far, so perhaps the Blues’ best strategy is to rough them up and see how hard they are to break.
—
For the first time all season, the Blues are expected to utilize the same group of skaters for two straight games, with the only change in the lineup being the insertion of Jake Allen in goal. It was a relief for the Blues to emerge from Sunday’s game against Winnipeg, one of their most physical opponents, without any injuries. That’s especially true considering that Troy Brouwer appeared to take a skate to the wrist that briefly took him out of the game, but the impactful 6-foot-3, 213-pound forward quickly returned to action.
More from Arch Authority
- St. Louis Cardinals: Randal Grichuk to begin Double-A rehab stint
- John Brebbia deserves a shot as the St. Louis Cardinals’ closer
- St. Louis Cardinals place Randal Grichuk on DL, recall José Martínez
- St. Louis Cardinals release RHP Corey Baker from organization
- St. Louis Cardinals activate Kolten Wong and Kevin Siegrist from DL, option Luke Weaver and Alex Mejia to Triple-A
Here’s what the Blues’ lineup is scheduled to look like on Tuesday night:
Alexander Steen-Jori Lehtera–Vladimir Tarasenko
Jaden Schwartz–David Backes–Troy Brouwer
Dmitrij Jaskin–Scott Gomez–Scottie Upshall
Steve Ott–Kyle Brodziak–Ryan Reaves
Alex Pietrangelo–Jay Bouwmeester
Carl Gunnarsson–Colton Parayko
Joel Edmundson–Robert Bortuzzo
Jake Allen
Next: St. Louis FC: Year One in the Books
Check out our Arch Authority Blues page for more up-to-date coverage.