Season series: Brian Elliott made 28 saves and stopped both shootout attempts as the St. Louis Blues defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 1-0 on March 12 to earn a split of two games last season. Michael Del Zotto, Wayne Simmonds and Michael Raffl scored in the third period for the Flyers in a 3-1 win March 5. Jaden Schwartz scored for St. Louis. Steve Mason allowed one goal on 65 shots in two games for the Flyers.
Flyers team scope: Philadelphia is expected to have Radko Gudas back in the lineup after the defenseman served a three-game suspension for an illegal hit to Ottawa Senators forward Mika Zibanejad. Coach Dave Hakstol didn't disclose who would come out. "I've got an idea, but we'll talk about the lineup on game day," Hakstol said to Philly.com after Wednesday's optional practice. "Radko is ready to go." Philadelphia is 4-1-1 in its past six games but has lost the past two. It begins a quick two-game trip against the top two teams in the Central Division. "This will be a very good challenge for us heading into St. Louis and Dallas [on Friday]," forward Brayden Schenn told CSNPhilly.com. "It's not an easy back-to-back we are going into here." The Flyers haven't won in St. Louis since Dec. 17, 2005.
Blues team scope: Elliott will start for St. Louis for the fifth time in 17 games but second in the past four. The Blues, who play the third of a five-game homestand, started a stretch on Tuesday of playing nine games in 15 days and will likely rely on both Elliott and Jake Allen in goal. Left wing Magnus Paajarvi will remain on the top line with center Paul Stastny and right wing Vladimir Tarasenko for a second straight game. "We need just real good 5-on-5 play," coach Ken Hitchcock said. "... If [Paajarvi's] able to do the things 5-on-5, that's a real good base to build from, so we're trying to build a consistent base here with Magnus." The Blues have allowed one goal in the past four games against the Flyers in St. Louis.
The St. Louis Blues snapped a season-high three-game losing streak their last time out. They're now looking to win a second straight for the first time in a month by sending the Philadelphia Flyers to a third straight loss.
The Blues hit the midway point of a five-game homestand trying to break a stunning streak of recent offensive futility against the Flyers on Thursday night.
Alexander Steen and Vladimir Tarasenko scored in the second period to help the Blues (16-8-4) rally for a 4-1 win over Arizona on Tuesday. Kevin Shattenkirk and David Backes also scored and Jake Allen made 22 saves for St. Louis, which scored one goal in each game of the three-game skid.
''We have a solid hockey club, a very mentally strong (group). We take care of stuff in here,'' Steen said.
''There's going to be lulls and times where for whatever reason things aren't in sync like they usually are. We had a couple games, but we just regrouped. We've been better in practice and kind of grabbed it. Today was good."
The Blues had been 2-2-3 over the past seven and 4-5-3 in 12. They're looking for their first back-to-back victories since a three-game run Nov. 4-10.
''We needed to get back on the right track, and we needed our best players to be our best players and if you look at who scored the goals, you look at who played well, it's all the guys that have been through this before,'' said coach Ken Hitchcock, whose team improved to 8-0-1 when leading after two periods.
Hitchcock's club continued to struggle on the power play, though. St. Louis went 0 for 3 to leave it at 0 for 10 in the past four games and 2 for 17 in eight. It's converted 16.5 percent of its chances this season, near the bottom of the NHL.
The penalty killing has helped make up for it. The Blues have killed off 12 straight short-handed situations and are among the league leaders at 86.9 percent.
Philadelphia (11-11-6) had been rolling along until its last two games, carrying a four-game winning streak into matchups with struggling Columbus on Saturday and the New York Islanders on Tuesday. The Flyers are now left trying to avoid an extended skid, having lost 4-1 to the Blue Jackets and 4-3 in a shootout to the Islanders.
Philadelphia fell Tuesday despite a 46-26 shot advantage, including 17-5 in the second period when it scored only once.
''We deserved better tonight,'' coach Dave Hakstol said. ''Everybody was moving, jumping, playing with tenacity. It's a good formula.''
Hakstol pulled Steve Mason early in the second period after he gave up three goals on 10 shots, and Michal Neuvirth provided a spark by stopping all 16 he faced. Despite that effort, Mason is expected to return to the net Thursday.
He'll try to extend the Blues' recent offensive struggles in the series. St. Louis has gone 2-2-0 in the past four meetings despite totaling two non-shootout goals. The last two matchups at Scottrade Center have been decided by 1-0 scores in a shootout.
Brian Elliott, who gets the nod in goal Thursday, earned the win in the most recent of those March 12 with 28 saves. He bested Mason, who stopped 35 shots and has gone 3-0-1 with a 0.62 goals-against average in his last five games against the Blues.
St. Louis has won four in a row at home over the Flyers.
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I hope the Blues win the hockey game convincingly, with much goals and wows!
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Got Tarasenko, Shatty and Elliott in my fantasy lineup. Let's go Blues
Blues 4
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If anyone who went to the game has an extra Pronger Bobblehead, I'd be willing to buy it and pay for shipping. I'm also looking to buy one of the posters given out on Saturday. Pm me.
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Kreegz2 wrote:If anyone who went to the game has an extra Pronger Bobblehead, I'd be willing to buy it and pay for shipping. I'm also looking to buy one of the posters given out on Saturday. Pm me.
Well unfortunately I was there. The one thing I realized (well I knew it two years ago) is that Paarjvi is worthless in physical games. Holy crap was he bad tonight. Not sure his plus/minus but he had to be at least -2
The level of ineptitude is mind boggling. Trade someone, fire someone, throw benches on the ice, whatever. Fix this. Losing to the Flyers is, on some levels, as bad as losing to the Maple Leafs and I'm convinced the only reason they beat Arizona was because Jake Allen was that good and Mike Smith is that bad.
I was kind of disappointed to wake up today and not see an alert that Hitch had been fired. This is garbage. Same ol' listless, lethargic play. Getting beat in battles all over the ice. Getting knocked off the puck with relative ease. Passing into traffic and turning it over. Shooting into shins.
This team has lost 3 of 4, and newsflash, the Central is one of the tougher divisions to play in. I'm so tired of the Blues talking about how they're going to 'fix it.' They sound like Jeff Fisher. This team has been playing in the same system for how many years? What is there to fix?
On top of that, Petro is actively disagreeing with Hitch on the ice. Has he lost the locker room or am I making a big deal of something because this team sucks all kind of nuts right now?
I'm not a kneejerk type of fan. I don't call for a firing every two weeks and this is the first time I've reached this stage with Hitch. But here's a guy who had to sit and wait while the Blues actively pursued other coaches, then came back when they couldn't fire anybody. You can almost see in the players' effort that they believe they have a lame duck coach.
It's just time for a change. It's been 4-5 seasons with Hitch at the helm and the ceiling is there. If he pulls them out of it and gets them on a run? I'll gladly eat crow. But through 30 games this year, only the first month felt like they could be something big. They've played mediocre hockey since the beginning of November.
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dmiles2186 wrote: You can almost see in the players' effort that they believe they have a lame duck coach.
And they're right. It's pretty clear that Armstrong will happily retain Hitchcock on one year deals until the end times, even allowing the coach to have the team twist in the wind while he makes a decision. Until one day when he doesn't feel like it anymore he'll retire, never to concern himself with the Blues ever again.
Hard to ask players to commit to that if you ask me.
Old dog and new tricks and all that. As long as Hitchcock is the coach this team will never win a Stanley Cup.
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Haven't watched the game, yet, but the shot charts are ugly. One would think the Blues would have won given where the Flyers were shooting from most of the game and the disparity in shots on goal.
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I suppose the question is who would replace Hitch midseason? Everyone here knows my preference is Dave Lowry but he's currently employed in the WHL so I think it would be a bit difficult to pry him away from an existing job during the season. On an interim basis, Kirk Muller obviously makes sense, though replacing the head coach with the assistant coach is equivalent to saying "the guy we already employ has all the answers, but now that he's head and not assistant things will be different." Kind of silly. Guys like Randy Carlyle are currently unemployed and he, like Hitch, has a Cup on his resume, albeit more recently than Hitchcock.
On the plus side, there's no likelihood of Tortorella getting an offer (thanks, Columbus!). Transitioning from Murray to Hitchcock to Tortorella (sorry, Davis Payne) would be going from the frying pan to the fire to the core of the damn sun. This team needs a coach with an offensive mindset. I think we all agree on that. The players would agree on that too, I'm sure. They know they're being stifled and as the NHL becomes a more offensive minded game, the Blues (Hitchcock) style is becoming less and less relevant by the season.
