The St. Louis Blues are hoping to start a new winning streak after coming up just short of keeping one going.
A visit from the struggling Toronto Maple Leafs could help them do just that.
St. Louis looks to avoid back-to-back home losses for the first time this season when it faces Toronto, which tries to avoid a winless four-game road trip Saturday night.
The Blues (27-13-4) are second in the NHL with 3.1 goals per game, and they proved all the more potent during a recent five-game winning streak as they outscored opponents 28-10. However, St. Louis saw that run come to an end in Thursday's 3-2 overtime loss to Detroit.
David Backes got the Blues on the board early in the third period and Alexander Steen tied things up with 48 seconds left in regulation, but the Red Wings scored 4:57 into OT.
"We showed a lot of character in coming back, getting a 6-on-5 goal which has eluded us for that first part of the year," Backes told the league's official website. "We need to close that out after a lot of good efforts to come back."
The Blues are 15-2-2 in their last 19 on home ice, tied for the NHL's most home wins since Oct. 25. They haven't dropped two in a row in St. Louis since closing the 2013-14 regular season with three straight defeats there.
"I think that's the best somebody's played against us in this building for a long time," coach Ken Hitchcock said. "I'm disappointed in some aspect, but I think there's some real good lessons here. This was like a playoff game."
This matchup doesn't figure to have the same feel given Toronto's recent efforts. The Maple Leafs are mired in a 3-11-0 funk and have been limited to a combined three goals in dropping all five road games in 2015.
Toronto (22-20-3) suffered back-to-back shutouts at Los Angeles and Anaheim before falling 3-1 at San Jose on Thursday. The Maple Leafs fell behind 2-0 before Roman Polak scored 11:57 into the game for Toronto's first goal in just over 133 minutes.
"We have to find a way to score, we have to figure it out," star forward Phil Kessel said. "It's not going in for us right now and that gets frustrating. ... We have to find a way to get back in the win column. We're close but we're just not there yet."
Kessel is tied with James van Riemsdyk for the team lead with 19 goals despite scoring twice in the last 14 games. He's been held pointless over the last five on the road.
The Maple Leafs are in sixth place in the Atlantic Division with 47 points, 10 behind Montreal and Detroit for the second and third playoff spots.
"In this league you can't go through stretches like this," Kessel said. "We're not out of it, there's still quite a bit of hockey left to play. We just have to stay positive and hopefully we'll get some results here."
Kessel has eight points in eight games against the Blues.
St. Louis is 5-0-2 in the past seven meetings behind Backes' 10 points, including five of the club's 11 goals in last season's two-game sweep. Backes has seven goals and four assists over a five-game point streak.
Polak, who spent the previous eight seasons with St. Louis, faces his former team for the first time since getting shipped to Toronto in exchange for fellow defenseman Carl Gunnarsson and a draft pick in June.
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From the bits and pieces I've picked up about the situation in Toronto, the team is currently a tire fire. Throw some gasoline on that shit. Kessel is a baby.
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From the bits and pieces I've picked up about the situation in Toronto, the team is currently a tire fire. Throw some gasoline on that shit. Kessel is a baby.
Not quite, but good enough!
Hopefully Tank is OK after blocking that shot and Steen didn't get concussed while getting punched after the 3rd goal..
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These GDT's are a lot quieter since the Blues have been winning again and there aren't people coming in demanding we trade and fire everyone.
Either way, Steen's goal and his assist on Oshie's were definite highlights of the night. Keep it rollin', boys. Good stretch here into the final game before out 9 day sabbatical.
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dmiles2186 wrote:These GDT's are a lot quieter since the Blues have been winning again and there aren't people coming in demanding we trade and fire everyone.
Either way, Steen's goal and his assist on Oshie's were definite highlights of the night. Keep it rollin', boys. Good stretch here into the final game before out 9 day sabbatical.
Don't you worry. They'll be back next time we lose.
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Wins are good. I will take all the wins they can get. Shutout wins are even better. I will take all of those they can find, too. This team is getting very good at dominating the games they are supposed to win.
I would like to see some wins against top teams that aren't in a tailspin, though. Detroit is the best team we have played recently, standings wise, and we didn't win there.
I feel like being a competitive team is not the expectation here - this is a team we expect to compete for a cup. I need to see more quality wins against the top five teams in the league before I can get on the cup train. That's all I am saying.
dmiles2186 wrote:These GDT's are a lot quieter since the Blues have been winning again and there aren't people coming in demanding we trade and fire everyone.
Either way, Steen's goal and his assist on Oshie's were definite highlights of the night. Keep it rollin', boys. Good stretch here into the final game before out 9 day sabbatical.
Don't you worry. They'll be back next time we lose.
I understand this, but I just find it hilarious that the Blues dominate the Leafs, win 3-0, get that goose egg, Ells moves within 1 shutout of the franchise record, Steener was a boss all night...and there are 13 posts in the GDT.
One loss and the thing will blow up with folks heaping 50 years of failure on this one single team.
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dmiles2186 wrote:These GDT's are a lot quieter since the Blues have been winning again and there aren't people coming in demanding we trade and fire everyone.
Either way, Steen's goal and his assist on Oshie's were definite highlights of the night. Keep it rollin', boys. Good stretch here into the final game before out 9 day sabbatical.
Don't you worry. They'll be back next time we lose.
... Blues dominate the Leafs,...
It was the Leafs. A team currently not in the Eastern Conference playoff picture which has been playing so poorly, they recently fired their coach. The Blues had better dominate and shutout a crappy team like the Leafs.
I'm on board with the whole - let's start beating top 5 teams in each conference before celebrating anything.
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dmiles2186 wrote:These GDT's are a lot quieter since the Blues have been winning again and there aren't people coming in demanding we trade and fire everyone.
Either way, Steen's goal and his assist on Oshie's were definite highlights of the night. Keep it rollin', boys. Good stretch here into the final game before out 9 day sabbatical.
Don't you worry. They'll be back next time we lose.
... Blues dominate the Leafs,...
It was the Leafs. A team currently not in the Eastern Conference playoff picture which has been playing so poorly, they recently fired their coach. The Blues had better dominate and shutout a crappy team like the Leafs.
I'm on board with the whole - let's start beating top 5 teams in each conference before celebrating anything.
Nowhere did I ask for a celebration. Rather, some positivity regarding winning 6 of 7 (gaining a point in the 1 loss) would be nice, however. That's my point.
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dmiles2186 wrote:These GDT's are a lot quieter since the Blues have been winning again and there aren't people coming in demanding we trade and fire everyone.
Either way, Steen's goal and his assist on Oshie's were definite highlights of the night. Keep it rollin', boys. Good stretch here into the final game before out 9 day sabbatical.
Don't you worry. They'll be back next time we lose.
... Blues dominate the Leafs,...
It was the Leafs. A team currently not in the Eastern Conference playoff picture which has been playing so poorly, they recently fired their coach. The Blues had better dominate and shutout a crappy team like the Leafs.
I'm on board with the whole - let's start beating top 5 teams in each conference before celebrating anything.
Nowhere did I ask for a celebration. Rather, some positivity regarding winning 6 of 7 (gaining a point in the 1 loss) would be nice, however. That's my point.
You want to get excited about meeting expectations?
It's not the 6/7 thing, it's the teams they beat. This is a complete dead zone in the schedule. The only reasonable teams in this stretch were SJ and Detroit. SJ has been struggling and we kept them there - very good. Detroit beat us in our barn - fail.
If you are just trying to get out of the West, we are 4-7-1 against CHI, ANA, LA, and Nash - we will play one of these teams in the first round most likely. This team is very good - clearly one of the best in the league - but the expectation is a cup and we aren't showing anything that would lead me to believe that we have that mythical "extra gear" to win big in the post season.
dmiles2186 wrote:These GDT's are a lot quieter since the Blues have been winning again and there aren't people coming in demanding we trade and fire everyone.
Either way, Steen's goal and his assist on Oshie's were definite highlights of the night. Keep it rollin', boys. Good stretch here into the final game before out 9 day sabbatical.
Don't you worry. They'll be back next time we lose.
... Blues dominate the Leafs,...
It was the Leafs. A team currently not in the Eastern Conference playoff picture which has been playing so poorly, they recently fired their coach. The Blues had better dominate and shutout a crappy team like the Leafs.
I'm on board with the whole - let's start beating top 5 teams in each conference before celebrating anything.
Nowhere did I ask for a celebration. Rather, some positivity regarding winning 6 of 7 (gaining a point in the 1 loss) would be nice, however. That's my point.
You want to get excited about meeting expectations?
It's not the 6/7 thing, it's the teams they beat. This is a complete dead zone in the schedule. The only reasonable teams in this stretch were SJ and Detroit. SJ has been struggling and we kept them there - very good. Detroit beat us in our barn - fail.
If you are just trying to get out of the West, we are 4-7-1 against CHI, ANA, LA, and Nash - we will play one of these teams in the first round most likely. This team is very good - clearly one of the best in the league - but the expectation is a cup and we aren't showing anything that would lead me to believe that we have that mythical "extra gear" to win big in the post season.
The playoffs are still 4 months away. So to even be thinking about winning a Cup right now is useless, at least for me. How you are playing in December and January doesn't mean that's how you will play come playoff time. It's irrelevant. My beef lies with the fact that we lose 2-3 games and people start saying this team is garbage, we'll never win anything, why do we do this to ourselves?, why can't the Blues field a competent team? Then we win 6 of 7, no one says anything, it's what you just said, 'We're supposed to beat these teams.'
So we are. Can't we enjoy the fact that this team is doing what it's supposed to be doing? If people can kneejerk to a bad loss or two (which tends to happen in a season that spans 6 months and 82 games), I can be positive that this team has looked good and is playing well against teams we should beat.
After the trade deadline and once the playoff picture becomes a bit more clear, that's when I start worrying about the playoffs (at least with a team this good).
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