GDT Game 28: 12/9/18| 2:00 PM CT| vs Canucks | FSMW/KMOX

[theohall]

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues are coming off arguably their most impressive win of the season Friday night.

The big question is can they build on it when they host the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday afternoon.

Goalie Jake Allen starred in the 1-0 win at Winnipeg on Friday, stopping all 26 shots in career shutout No. 17, which moved him past Glenn Hall for third-most shutouts in franchise history.

"It's pretty cool," Allen told NHL.com last season after tying Hall with 16 shutouts. "I think it was a lot harder for Glenn to get shutouts back in the day than it is for us now. But I'll take it. It's pretty cool to have that under my belt and hopefully I'll get a lot more over the years."

It was Allen's first shutout since Dec. 7, 2017, a 3-0 win over Dallas.

Defenseman Colton Parayko scored the lone goal in a game that played out much differently than the last time the Blues faced the Jets. The game resulted in an 8-4 Jets victory at Enterprise Center in which Patrik Laine scored five goals.

"It's something we definitely want to take pride in is being a good defensive group, and we weren't happy with what happened at home last game, obviously," Blues defenseman Robert Bortuzzo told NHL.com. "Guys stepped up and made hard plays in hard areas and tried to take a lot of their shooting areas away."

While blanking the Jets on the road is impressive, the Blues have been down this road before this season but have failed each time to back up an impressive result with another.

The last time the Blues won consecutive games was Nov. 6 against Carolina and Nov. 9 against San Jose. The Blues have yet to win three straight this season. After their last three wins, they lost by scores of 6-1, 8-4 and 4-0.

"You don't just talk about a win," Blues interim coach Craig Berube told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "It's a process. We've got to come out and have the same mindset. You've got to come out and play hard and compete hard and do things right."

This is the first meeting between the Blues and Canucks this season. St. Louis has won the last five games against Vancouver dating to Oct. 18, 2016.

But Vancouver is coming off of a 5-3 win over Nashville on Thursday, snapping a four-game skid.

"I think we played good some games that we lost," Canucks center Elias Pettersson told NHL.com. "It's good to finally be rewarded, get some bounces with us. We played really good today. This is what it's going to take from us to be successful. Hopefully, we can build on this."

Pettersson scored on a penalty shot and right winger Jake Virtanen and center Bo Horvat each had a goal and an assist in the Canucks' win.

"It was a highly skilled move by a highly skilled player," Horvat told NHL.com of Pettersson's penalty shot. "It was a huge goal for us at the time, especially towards the end of the period. You expect him to do those kind of things and it's nice to see that go in for him."

[crazyhorse]

What's the lineup look like today?

[theohall]

Based on practice yesterday

Sanford-O’Reilly-Kyrou
Steen-Schenn-Tarasenko
Maroon-Bozak-Thomas
Nolan-Barbashev-Sundqvist.

Edmundson-Parayko
Dunn-Bortuzzo
Bouwmeester-Butler.

Interestingly, Perron was skating w/Blais (extra) and Schwartz (injured).

[Robb_K]

I don't understand The Blues, at all. They play listlessly all early season, getting their coach fired, putting themselves in a desperate situation regarding the playoffs. Then, they get a coach who stresses hard-checking, gritty play. They finally put together a whole game playing that way, have their best game this season, a 1-0 shutout. Then, basking in the glory of that game, they come out lazy and flat in their next game. It makes no sense. Now, knowing that the only way they can compete is to play hard and gritty, and to stress defence, they go back to their bad habits. They have a very fragile mental state, that breeds a false confidence. When they play a good game and win, the next game, they feel that they have "made it all the way back to "a good groove", and they "think that all they have to do is step out onto the ice, and they will play well. They forget to play hard like the last game. They have an average NHL roster talent level, but a lousy mix of mental makeup (work ethic, ego, realistic/unrealistic confidence, motivation, leadership). It's VERY frustrating for fans. MOST of The Blues players could, individually, go to other teams and play very well. But as a team, under this coaching, they don't play as a team.

[Robb_K]

Nice to see Kyrou score his first NHL goal, despite this awful game for The Blues. Maybe the confidence from this will get him on a hot streak that will keep him up for the rest of this season.

[gaijin]

You could pretty recycle the preview of this game as the post-game recap.

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues are coming off arguably their most impressive win of the season Friday night.

The big question is can they build on it when they host the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday afternoon.

Guess not.

While blanking the Jets on the road is impressive, the Blues have been down this road before this season but have failed each time to back up an impressive result with another.

Understatement of the year.

After their last three wins, they lost by scores of 6-1, 8-4 and 4-0.

Stop me if you've heard this song before.

[glen a richter]

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2018 St. Louis Blues.

[flyingnote38]

brutal

[glen a richter]

I saw Binnington was recalled after the game. Allen traded or Allen hurt? I’m leaning towards the former, and we’ll hear the details tomorrow.

[theohall]

Neither. Blais was sent down. If Allen were traded, Blais stays. If Allen were injured, Blues don't have to send Blais down.

And it's not like Johnson was any better.

at one point, Canucks had a total of 7 scoring chances. The puck went in the net on 6 of them - only 3 of those went behind Allen.

[glen a richter]

So why carry 3 goalies? All three can play an equal amount of shit in the next game? I don’t understand the move. Does this move Fitzpatrick to San Antonio for the time being?

[theohall]

So why carry 3 goalies? All three can play an equal amount of shit in the next game? I don’t understand the move. Does this move Fitzpatrick to San Antonio for the time being?

They did this last season for about a week. But the majority of the problem isn't Allen. It could be Johnson, but mostly it's the crap play in front of them. I mean - another one deflected in off Bouwmeester, because he and Bortuzzo couldn't figure out what the F to do. How is that Allen's fault. That was the 2nd goal. 1st goal - bad luck. 3rd one - 2 on 1 and the pass got across after Edmundson failed to hold a puck in at the offensive blueline. When the pass crosses the slot line, most goalies don't make that save. That's bad play by the guys in front. Pulling Allen was to get the morons to pull their collective heads out of their butts, which they didn't.

I have no idea what the Binnington recall is about, but suspect it's because Johnson 100% sucks as a backup.

Chad Johnson in his first five appearances: 1.83 GAA, .941 SV%

Chad Johnson last five appearances: 5.06 GAA, .832 SV%

So if Allen is starting, the team is playing like crap in front of him, and you want to get them to pay attention by pulling him, you've already lost the game, because Johnson isn't going to play better. I could see Johnson being waived if Binnington plays well at all, but not convinced Binnington is an answer, either.

[abc789987]

This team blows.

[WaukeeBlues]

I'm so incredibly disappointed. We get the summer offseason overhaul we've all been screaming for, we get a #1 center in ROR, we have depth at forward, younger guys coming up on D to support the likes of Pietro and Parayko and then... this.

It's not all Allen, not even close. Frustrating, maddening, saddening, all the "ings."

What do you even do? Pietro, Steen, Bouwmeester and most of the FA acquisitions have NTC's of some kind or variety. Bribe them to waive it? Swing for the fences for a goalie? Just trade as many as you can regardless of what you get?

Ugh. Whatever we do I'm still vehemently against trading Tarasenko. Best pure consistent goal scorer we've had since Brett Hull that we'd been whining for for years and we finally get on a fluky drop in the draft.

[glen a richter]

I'm so incredibly disappointed. We get the summer offseason overhaul we've all been screaming for, we get a #1 center in ROR, we have depth at forward, younger guys coming up on D to support the likes of Pietro and Parayko and then... this.

It's not all Allen, not even close. Frustrating, maddening, saddening, all the "ings."

What do you even do? Pietro, Steen, Bouwmeester and most of the FA acquisitions have NTC's of some kind or variety. Bribe them to waive it? Swing for the fences for a goalie? Just trade as many as you can regardless of what you get?

Ugh. Whatever we do I'm still vehemently against trading Tarasenko. Best pure consistent goal scorer we've had since Brett Hull that we'd been whining for for years and we finally get on a fluky drop in the draft.

First time I've heard of Tarasenko being a "consistent" goal scorer. He's streaky like an old pair of underpants. Totally under-performs expectations on the regular, I'd trade him and guaranteed the haul coming back would be more than enough to justify it.

[gaijin]

I'm so incredibly disappointed. We get the summer offseason overhaul we've all been screaming for, we get a #1 center in ROR, we have depth at forward, younger guys coming up on D to support the likes of Pietro and Parayko and then... this.

It's not all Allen, not even close. Frustrating, maddening, saddening, all the "ings."

What do you even do? Pietro, Steen, Bouwmeester and most of the FA acquisitions have NTC's of some kind or variety. Bribe them to waive it? Swing for the fences for a goalie? Just trade as many as you can regardless of what you get?

Ugh. Whatever we do I'm still vehemently against trading Tarasenko. Best pure consistent goal scorer we've had since Brett Hull that we'd been whining for for years and we finally get on a fluky drop in the draft.

First time I've heard of Tarasenko being a "consistent" goal scorer. He's streaky like an old pair of underpants. Totally under-performs expectations on the regular, I'd trade him and guaranteed the haul coming back would be more than enough to justify it.

If I had to choose today between keeping/trading Tarasenko, I would reluctantly go with trade. I love that he scored 40 for us, and nearly 40 twice more. I love that he blames himself before he blames others. I love that he personally thanks St. Louis fans for their support every chance he gets (yeah, we're suckers for that). But his production has really dropped off for no visibly discernable reason, and I fear those reasons why are probably not fixable here in St. Louis. He has been streaky before, and we thought if he had a better center he would be more consistent, and move from being a 40-goal scorer to a 50-goal scorer. Didn't happen- he is on pace for 23 goals this year. We thought he would be among the Ovechkins and Crosbys and McDavids of the league. That also has not panned out. If there was one Blues player who was supposed to be Blues' perennial All-Star, it was supposed to be Tarasenko. He didn't even make the All-Star team last year, and he sure as hell won't this year either.

He is trending down right now, and has been for a year and a half. His name does not instill the same fear it used to. I hate to blame it on the Yeo system, which probably had something to do with it, but his play hasn't been any better since Yeo was fired.

So what to do? Hope it gets better? We as Blues fans have relied on hope before. It's pretty much all we have, since we have 0 Cups.

[theohall]

How many offensive minded coaches have been on the Blues staff since the end of the lockout? I can only think of one - and that's Kirk Muller. We saw how, given the opportunity from the head coach, he got players to perform.

The past 2 years - nothing but defensive coaches in every position. With Yeo gone, the power play hasn't changed and Tarasenko continues to be mis-used on it. That points to Berube as the one behind misusing Tarasenko.

Yes, the Blues could get a haul for Tarasenko. At the same time, given the right offensive-minded coach, he could be a top goal scorer in this league again.

I'd much rather see the 30+ year old forwards who aren't getting it done moved out of this team while whomever isn't the interim coach, who'd better be an offense first kind of guy, and not another defensive player/former goon, can do with a younger, faster, more skilled roster - vice the older, slower one we currently have.

Of course, that means dumping big contracts and getting guys to waive NTCs and probably having to give up some prospect/draft pick to even make the trade happen.

There isn't an answer for this season. Write it off, move who they can, lose for Hughes, and bring in a completely different coach than the same type of coaches who haven't gotten it done for the past 13 years. The only re-tread who should even be considered is Quenneville.

Want a radical outside the box thought... Bannister is turning around the Rampage in spite of the expansion roster he was dealt at the beginning of this season and the inevitable up/down NHL roster moves. 7-4 in the last 11. He isn't a former goon, nor a defense first coach, nor anything to do with the Blues organization until this year coach.

[gaijin]

Interesting.

https://thecomeback.com/nhl/the-st-loui ... oming.html

[WaukeeBlues]

I'm so incredibly disappointed. We get the summer offseason overhaul we've all been screaming for, we get a #1 center in ROR, we have depth at forward, younger guys coming up on D to support the likes of Pietro and Parayko and then... this.

It's not all Allen, not even close. Frustrating, maddening, saddening, all the "ings."

What do you even do? Pietro, Steen, Bouwmeester and most of the FA acquisitions have NTC's of some kind or variety. Bribe them to waive it? Swing for the fences for a goalie? Just trade as many as you can regardless of what you get?

Ugh. Whatever we do I'm still vehemently against trading Tarasenko. Best pure consistent goal scorer we've had since Brett Hull that we'd been whining for for years and we finally get on a fluky drop in the draft.

First time I've heard of Tarasenko being a "consistent" goal scorer. He's streaky like an old pair of underpants. Totally under-performs expectations on the regular, I'd trade him and guaranteed the haul coming back would be more than enough to justify it.

I guess I meant annually, not weekly/monthly.

[WaukeeBlues]

Interesting.

https://thecomeback.com/nhl/the-st-loui ... oming.html

When I clicked on that story, I got a scary "spam/malware" pop-ups. I think my computer is fine but just wanted people to be aware.