St. Louis Blues Desperately in Search of Win Against Improving Anaheim Ducks
Can the St. Louis Blues finally snap a deeply concerning four-game losing streak against the improving Anaheim Ducks?
The St. Louis Blues face the Anaheim Ducks in a rare Friday night game, and they’ll be hunting hard for a win in a bid to save any shred of momentum that might be remaining from the team’s 11-3-1 start to the season. The Blues have lost four straight (though their last two losses have come in overtime), and they really need to get back in the win column against Anaheim to get back on track and earn their first victory of 2016. A win would restore some much-needed confidence in head coach Ken Hitchcock, who seems to be on increasingly thin ice as the team keeps blowing third period leads, and it would do good things in terms of morale for a team that has just not looked very poised on the ice lately.
The Ducks were more intimidating in late December, when they rattled off three straight victories to end the calendar year, than they do right now. Anaheim still has an opportunity to salvage its season at 16-16-7, sitting in fifth place in the Pacific, but the team needs to figure out how to create some offense in order to become a legitimate playoff-caliber club.
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Anaheim has definitely turned things around since the last time they faced the Blues, at which point they had scored nine goals through their first nine games. Their 73 goals through 39 games are still by far the worst in the NHL, but they’ve shown as much or more of an ability to put up an occasional big-scoring performance than the Blues have, as both teams have played nine games in which they’ve scored at least four goals (the Ducks have done it through 39, while the Blues have played 43).
The Ducks endured a bit of humiliation on Wednesday that was even worse than the embarrassment that the Blues recently suffered, as they were shut out 4-0 by the Toronto Maple Leafs at Honda Center. The Blues have lost twice by a score of 4-1 to the Leafs, who sit seventh in the Atlantic Division, and suffered the away loss this past Saturday in Toronto. As deflating as that loss may have been, at least they got a Vladimir Tarasenko goal.
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The Blues didn’t practice on Thursday, so any possible lineup changes that could be in store for Friday are still unknown at this point. Rookie defenseman Joel Edmundson was a minus-2 in 11:37 of ice time on Wednesday, so it seems possible, if not likely, that he could be replaced by Robert Bortuzzo for Friday’s game, allowing Colton Parayko to move back into the top four alongside Kevin Shattenkirk or Alex Pietrangelo.
After Jake Allen had a rough start on Wednesday at Colorado, recording a less-than-impressive .879 save percentage and allowing the game-winning goal by making an irresponsible decision to field the puck way in front of the net, it would make sense for Hitchcock to give Brian Elliott the start against Anaheim. Elliott has gotten the win in just one of his past eight starts, but the primary issue for the Blues’ all-time leader in shutouts has been a lack of offense in front of him, rather than poor performance on his part. Perhaps giving Allen, who started out in dominant fashion but has been more inconsistent of late, a short break to reset wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
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Here’s how the Blues’ lineup could look Friday evening against Anaheim:
Robby Fabbri–Jori Lehtera–Vladimir Tarasenko
Alexander Steen-Paul Stastny–Troy Brouwer
Magnus Paajarvi–David Backes–Patrik Berglund
Scottie Upshall–Dmitrij Jaskin–Ryan Reaves
Jay Bouwmeester–Alex Pietrangelo
Colton Parayko–Kevin Shattenkirk