Game #18: Minnesota Wild vs St. Louis Blues, Saturday November 22, 2008 at 7:00pm (CST), Xcel Energy Center (GAME PREVIEW)
Minnesota Wild (11-5-1) 23pts 2nd in Northwest Division
2.41 Goals per Game (26th in NHL)2.00 Goals Against per Game (1st in NHL)22.2% Power Play (3rd in NHL)92.6% Penalty Kill (1st in NHL)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 5G 13A = 18pts2. #20 Antti Miettinen ~ 6G 7A = 13pts3. #15 Andrew Brunette ~ 6G 5A = 11pts4. #25 Eric Belanger ~ 4G 5A = 9pts5. #67 Benoit Pouliot~ 5G 2A = 7pts
Top 3 Penalty Minutes:1. #2 Erik Reitz ~ 23PIM2. #24 Derek Boogaard ~ 16PIM3. #8 Brent Burns ~ 16PIM
Goaltenders:1. #32 Niklas Backstrom ~ (11-4-1) 1.99GAA .933SV%2. #29 Josh Harding ~ (0-1-0) 1.84GAA .927SV%
vs
St. Louis Blues (7-8-2) 16pts 5th in Central Division
3.00 Goals per Game (10th in NHL)3.24 Goals Against per Game (25th in NHL)25.0% Power Play (2nd in NHL)85.4% Penalty Kill (5th in NHL)
Top 5 Scorers:1. #10 Andy McDonald ~ 6G 12A = 18pts2. #22 Brad Boyes ~ 8G 7A = 15pts3. #9 Paul Kariya ~ 2G 13A = 15pts4. #57 David Perron ~ 2G 11A = 13pts5. #7 Keith Tkachuk ~ 9G 3A = 12pts
Top 3 Penalty Minutes:1. #92 David Backes ~ 53PIM2. #55 Cam Janssen ~ 42PIM3. #26 Brandon Crombeen ~ 31PIM
Goaltenders:1. #34 Manny Legace ~ (6-3-1) 3.11GAA .896SV%2. #50 Chris Mason ~ (0-5-0) 3.13GAA .893SV%
Enigma. According to Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, one definition of enigma is
“an action, mode of action, or thing, which cannot be satisfactorily explained.”
I can think of no better word to describe the team that is the St. Louis Blues. They are a team, that simply cannot be explained. If Leonard Nimoy was still hosting In Search Of, the St. Louis Blues could easily be one of the cases they investigated.
On one hand, you have a squad who can score, and score with regularity. The Blues are currently in possession of the tenth best ‘goals per game’ in the league. Of course, for Wild fans, any opponent in the Top 20 could be cause for some concern.
Where the questions are for St. Louis is when it comes to their overall team defense. They do have one of the worst ‘goals against per game,’ which of course is not surprising when you’re last in your division. The question arises when you look at their penalty kill. One has to ask themselves, how can they be so bad at keeping the goal out of their net overall, yet have the fifth best penalty kill in the league. Usually, those two stats go hand in hand. In the case of the Blues, you are looking at virtual polar opposites.
I suspect, one of the reasons for such a disparity has to do with goaltending. The Blues are another one of those teams that has had a “cast of thousands” when it comes to the role of goaltender. In the relatively short season thus far, the Blues have had 4 goaltenders in net. While Manny Legace and Chris Mason are the team’s regulars, they’ve also had to call on Ben Bishop and Marek Schwarz as well, of course as backups. However, you have to think something is up, when your backups who have been called up from your AHL affiliate, end up having to play. Either St. Louis has two goaltenders in Legace and Mason that are fighting the puck, or the skaters in front of them are letting them down. As in most cases however, it is most likely a combination of both.
Also feeding into all the questions in St. Louis is that the injury bug has bitten, and bitten hard. Tonight, the Blues will be without not just a player or two like Minnesota will be, but without six players: Erik Johnson, T. J. Oshie, D. J. King, Paul Kariya, Dan Hinote, and Andy McDonald. It makes it difficult to win when you’re consistently short players. You have to remember that six players is the number of players on the ice at full strength. If it wasn’t bad enough that you’re short six players, but you’re also short two of your best players in McDonald and Kariya.
One cannot stress enough how important it will be for the Wild to take full advantage of the Blues’ less than spectacular team def …
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