GDT #43: 1/13/15 | 7:00PM CST | v Oilers | FSMW/KMOX

[dmiles2186]

David Backes, Vladimir Tarasenko and the St. Louis Blues finally had to work to prevail during this win streak.

They may not have to work as hard to score against an opponent enduring its longest road slide in franchise history.

The Blues will be heavily favored to notch a fifth straight win and hand the Edmonton Oilers a 13th straight road defeat Tuesday night.

St. Louis (26-13-3) has totaled 24 goals during this win streak which featured victories by at least five goals in the first three games before Saturday's 5-4 shootout win over Carolina.

''It's not always going to be pretty,'' defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. ''It's not always going to be easy to win.''

The red-hot Backes had two assists to give him eight points in his last three games. Tarasenko scored his 23rd goal, placing him second in the Western Conference to Dallas star Tyler Seguin.

T.J. Oshie's point streak ended at seven games. The winger had 13 points with six goals during that stretch.

Oshie could quickly get back on track since he has back-to-back three-point efforts against the Oilers and 12 points in the last eight meetings.

St. Louis is 15-2-1 in the last 18 matchups with Edmonton (10-24-9), and has outscored the Oilers 21-7 in winning the last four. Tarasenko scored the winner in a 4-3 overtime home victory Nov. 28, in the lone meeting this season.

Edmonton starts a four-game trip as it tries to end a 0-6-6 road slide since a 3-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Nov. 9.

This figures to be a tall task since the Blues are leading the West with 3.14 goals per game while the Oilers are allowing a conference-worst average of 3.30.

Edmonton completed a 2-2-0 homestand with Sunday's 4-2 defeat to Florida. Taylor Hall assisted on a goal by Jordan Eberle to extend his point streak to four games in a contest in which the Oilers held a 33-27 edge in shots.

''We had some very costly errors at bad times,'' Hall said. ''That was our downfall. I don't think we played bad. I just thought there were some really key moments in the game where we didn't do our jobs.''

Mistakes have been a theme for the Oilers, who are averaging 10.95 giveaways for the league's second-worst mark.

St. Louis starting goalie Brian Elliott still leads the NHL with a 1.95 goals-against average even though he was pulled in the first period Saturday in favor of Jake Allen after allowing three goals on 10 shots. Elliott has never started against the Oilers at Scottrade Center.

Edmonton's Ben Scrivens is 0-4-5 with a 3.60 GAA in nine road starts. The other option is Viktor Fasth, who is 0-8-1 with a 3.67 GAA in his last nine starts overall.

St. Louis has won nine straight with Jaden Schwartz in the lineup. Schwartz, who missed seven games Dec. 18-Jan. 2 due to a broken right foot, has 11 points in a seven-game run.

The Blues' power play is a league-best 26.2 percent, going 7 for 14 in this win streak.

[gaijin]

Don't get cocky.

2 points, please.

[glen a richter]

On paper, this should be a blowout. We'll see. Edmonton beat Chicago, so anything can happen. Nevertheless I'll go with a 6-2 final.

[drwoland]

Was a tough game last time, though they are now Perron-less (fwiw My buddy who is a diehard Oilers fan was very unhappy that he was Traded)

Blues 5
Oil 3

Backes with the empty netter to seal it.

[ComradeT]

Tonight's matchup:

Louie


vs.

the Fish Oil

[STLADOGG]

Gotta extend the Oilers road losing streak.
LGB.
Blues 3(Kariya with the hat trick dressed up as Berglund)
Oilers 1

[glen a richter]

This would be a great night for padding some stats.

[dmiles2186]

http://us19.chatzy.com/81225078408489

[WaukeeBlues]

slightly OT: How about the Oilers robbing the Penguins blind with that David Perron trade?

I can't believe the Oil got a first rounder for him.

[dmiles2186]

Nothing yet?

I love the way the offense is clicking right now. The puck movement on the power play has been sensational lately. Backes is on fire. Senko is scoring again. Allen looked good when he had to make the saves. 2 points. 5 in a row. Keep it rollin' boys.

[glen a richter]

2 goals on 15 shots. Lehtera said they got lazy at the end but still won. I don't know what to think. This team has the firepower to embarrass Edmonton. Did they get lazy because they didn't want to embarrass them, because they didn't take them seriously or because they feel like it's okay to get lazy at times? The true test is coming up anyway. I'm just not happy Jimmy How-weird is out because I wanted to face Detroit at full strength. Still, tough opponents coming up. Can the boys keep the pedal on the floor or will they "get lazy" at the end against teams who have a better likelihood of coming back and winning when 2 or 3 goals down in the third? You need to play 60 against any team, not just the ones with the more talented rosters. Bad habits form fast.

[ViPeRx007]

2 goals on 15 shots. Lehtera said they got lazy at the end but still won. I don't know what to think. This team has the firepower to embarrass Edmonton. Did they get lazy because they didn't want to embarrass them, because they didn't take them seriously or because they feel like it's okay to get lazy at times? The true test is coming up anyway. I'm just not happy Jimmy How-weird is out because I wanted to face Detroit at full strength. Still, tough opponents coming up. Can the boys keep the pedal on the floor or will they "get lazy" at the end against teams who have a better likelihood of coming back and winning when 2 or 3 goals down in the third? You need to play 60 against any team, not just the ones with the more talented rosters. Bad habits form fast.

F-

Blues need to score 7+ all day err'y day or they might as well not show up. Lazy freakin jerks.

[cprice12]

2 goals on 15 shots. Lehtera said they got lazy at the end but still won. I don't know what to think. This team has the firepower to embarrass Edmonton. Did they get lazy because they didn't want to embarrass them, because they didn't take them seriously or because they feel like it's okay to get lazy at times? The true test is coming up anyway. I'm just not happy Jimmy How-weird is out because I wanted to face Detroit at full strength. Still, tough opponents coming up. Can the boys keep the pedal on the floor or will they "get lazy" at the end against teams who have a better likelihood of coming back and winning when 2 or 3 goals down in the third? You need to play 60 against any team, not just the ones with the more talented rosters. Bad habits form fast.

It's always interesting when we hear "we need to play 60 minutes". Which you would think would mean playing 60 minutes with 100% effort the whole game.
But then come playoffs, teams say they need to "step it up" or "find that next gear". So where is that extra gear during the season and why aren't they shooting for that?

So, I guess what they are saying is, that in the playoffs they need to play a full 60 minutes + find another gear that is apparently there but they weren't aiming for it during the regular season for some reason.
But in the regular season the goal is to play 60 minutes, with never mentioning this mysterious and magical "extra gear" that is apparently reachable only when you try really, really hard but only in the playoffs.

[ComradeT]

2 goals on 15 shots. Lehtera said they got lazy at the end but still won. I don't know what to think. This team has the firepower to embarrass Edmonton. Did they get lazy because they didn't want to embarrass them, because they didn't take them seriously or because they feel like it's okay to get lazy at times? The true test is coming up anyway. I'm just not happy Jimmy How-weird is out because I wanted to face Detroit at full strength. Still, tough opponents coming up. Can the boys keep the pedal on the floor or will they "get lazy" at the end against teams who have a better likelihood of coming back and winning when 2 or 3 goals down in the third? You need to play 60 against any team, not just the ones with the more talented rosters. Bad habits form fast.

It's always interesting when we hear "we need to play 60 minutes". Which you would think would mean playing 60 minutes with 100% effort the whole game.
But then come playoffs, teams say they need to "step it up" or "find that next gear". So where is that extra gear during the season and why aren't they shooting for that?

So, I guess what they are saying is, that in the playoffs they need to play a full 60 minutes + find another gear that is apparently there but they weren't aiming for it during the regular season for some reason.
But in the regular season the goal is to play 60 minutes, with never mentioning this mysterious and magical "extra gear" that is apparently reachable only when you try really, really hard but only in the playoffs.

Pathetic excuses. Explains nothing. F-.

[Oaklandblue]

2 goals on 15 shots. Lehtera said they got lazy at the end but still won. I don't know what to think. This team has the firepower to embarrass Edmonton. Did they get lazy because they didn't want to embarrass them, because they didn't take them seriously or because they feel like it's okay to get lazy at times? The true test is coming up anyway. I'm just not happy Jimmy How-weird is out because I wanted to face Detroit at full strength. Still, tough opponents coming up. Can the boys keep the pedal on the floor or will they "get lazy" at the end against teams who have a better likelihood of coming back and winning when 2 or 3 goals down in the third? You need to play 60 against any team, not just the ones with the more talented rosters. Bad habits form fast.

It's always interesting when we hear "we need to play 60 minutes". Which you would think would mean playing 60 minutes with 100% effort the whole game.
But then come playoffs, teams say they need to "step it up" or "find that next gear". So where is that extra gear during the season and why aren't they shooting for that?

So, I guess what they are saying is, that in the playoffs they need to play a full 60 minutes + find another gear that is apparently there but they weren't aiming for it during the regular season for some reason.
But in the regular season the goal is to play 60 minutes, with never mentioning this mysterious and magical "extra gear" that is apparently reachable only when you try really, really hard but only in the playoffs.

Pathetic excuses. Explains nothing. F-.

I think there is a big difference between playing at the level of the skills that we have and playing inconsistant hockey.

One, you're going to have a better chance of winning and if you lose, it'll be due to running into a better team and the other, well, you just don't care.

In regards to why we didn't obliterate the Oil, it could be because Hitch put the brakes on that and decided to have them play conservatively. Mind, this is the first time that we have had the entire team healty and maybe no one there wanted to risk an injury while playing a bottom-dweller, which is very understandable, if that's the case. In the end, it was still a win.

It wasn't the best win (a best win against Edmonton is defined as anything where we are in the lead by at least 10 goals), but it wasn't a win by luck after poor play.

The team has rarely played a full 60 and has been benefitting greatly from having ridiculous amounts of firepower and a guy named Frank who'll score when no one else is. I think that extra gear in any team's case has to do with those who view this as a job and those who view this as a passion.

You have plenty of players who view playing hockey a job. Chris Stewart is one of them. There is an article about that somewhere that when I find it, I'll post it. There are other players who see playing as a passion and even a calling. I think those who have the passion and the skillset are the ones who possess that extra gear. Those who look at this sport as a job have a level they stop at to try and not get injured but also post statistics that will gurantee their next paycheck, and we have seen these players in and out of the Note over the years, you can't miss them. But those with the skills + passion, we never forget them. You know their names off the top of your head. Get enough of them or a few of them with some luck and opportunity and you can make it all the way. Very, very few who look at the sport as a job, in my eyes, go all the way and when they do, they are either surrounded by those with passion or those who are passionate about the team or the opportunity to play for a player or player turned coach or team they idolized in their youth.