GDT 48: 1/11/20 | 7:00 PM CT | vs Flyers | NBCSN/101ESPN

[theohall]

The St. Louis Blues will try to extend their home winning streak to 10 games when they host the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday.

The Blues are 17-4-3 at Enterprise Center this season heading into the finale of their five-game homestand.

"I thought that last year, we struggled at home at times," Blues coach Craig Berube recently told reporters. "I really don't have the right answer for it. Different scenarios, different times. But I think we're more consistent for sure this year. And we're doing a better job of sticking with what works."

Last year the Blues were 17-15-2 at home on March 12 before winning their last seven regular-season games in St. Louis.

"At times last year, we were too cute at home, maybe, I don't know, trying to impress the fans," Berube said. "But I don't find we're doing that this year. We're just playing our game, the same as we do when we're on the road."

Overall the Western Conference-leading Blues are 12-2-1 in their last 15 games.

"We're finding different ways to win -- and each night different lines, different guys are chipping in, whether it's offensively or defensively," said winger Jaden Schwartz, who has seven goals and nine assists in his last 13 games. "Both goalies are kicking. Doing the little things right, playing well as a team."

The Flyers are 9-13-2 on the road this season. Overall they are 2-4-1 in their last seven games, but they are coming off a wild 6-5 shootout victory over the Boston Bruins on Monday night.

They rallied from a three-goal deficit to force overtime.

"It's a big positive for us," Flyers forward Travis Konecny told reporters. "We went through a little stretch where we were struggling, so to come back against a team like this, it puts us right up there. We know we can win against these teams."

This game caps a rugged four-game stretch that sent the Flyers against some of the NHL's best teams: the Washington Capitals, Tampa Bay Lighting and Bruins before the Blues.

"You knew they were going to be three tough games, we had to take those games one at a time, which we did," Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said. "I liked our game in all three of them, they were all different. The Washington game, coming back home and having to play that night, that was out of the ordinary. Tampa was a tight-checking game from both teams and they got a bounce on their (winning) goal. Tonight it was just a little bit more wide open.

"They're three different games where I think everybody enjoyed it and now we've got to go to St. Louis and find a way to win that road game."

This is the first meeting between the teams this season. Last season the Blues beat the Flyers 3-0 in Philadelphia -- in goaltender Jordan Binnington's first victory, which spawned "Gloria" as the team's theme song -- and 7-3 at home.

Binnington figures to be back in goal after watching backup Jake Allen beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-1 Monday night. Binnington is 15-3-3 at home this season with a 2.11 goals-against average and .926 save percentage.

In five starts this month, No. 1 Flyers goaltender Carter Hart has a 3.73 GAA and an .879 save percentage. He left Tuesday's practice early with an undisclosed injury.

[glen a richter]

I'm getting a little worried about Binnington. He's winning and all, but there's never a night where I think he's going to just go out there and get a shutout. His GAA and save % are kind of pedestrian. I'd hate to say the team is winning in spite of him and maybe the numbers are so-so because of a couple of bad games. If you took some outliers out maybe those stats would be better and maybe it's just a function of being his first full season as the #1 but I'd like to see some better numbers, especially on the road.

I could also be overreacting because I'm comparing to last season which was otherworldly and as long as the team's winning I shouldn't care.

Since tonight's at home, I'm going to go ahead and call it a win.

[theohall]

I think the pedestrian numbers are a consequence of two things:

1) Incorporating Faulk into the defense. It's taken half a season before Berube figured out where to play him while trying to balance the left/right thing as best he can, and for Faulk to finally look comfortable in the system, although he still occasionally makes bonehead blueline plays like Pietrangelo did the first half of last season.

2) The Blues starting the regular season and not consistently playing their system which won so many games the 2nd half of last season. The past 6 weeks, outside of a couple of bad games, the Blues have been playing that system consistently and winning as a result. When they've gotten away from it at all, not even goaltending can save them. Allen's loss - only one of those goals did it look like he could have saved, but it would have been a monumental effort and when that save was needed, the entire team had fallen apart in front of him. That game when Sanford failed so spectacularly in a 3rd/4th line role.

Put it this way - take out the stinker vs Colorado in Binnginton's last 8 (well 7, since we took one out) games he has a .929 SV% which would be good for 6th in the league and a GA of 1.63. Even with the stinker game - it's still a .911 SV% (yeah kinda pedestrian, but exaggerated by one really bad game) and a GAA of 2.51, which is again inflated by one really bad game. I'll take #2 in wins and a top 10 GAA any time. His only overall pedestrian number is SV%, because the Blues started the regular season adjusting to one new defenseman in a regular role, losing Tarasenko and adjusting to him not being there, while finally working back to playing within the system that works so well. Berube specifically mentions the success at home is because the team isn't trying to do things outside the system any more, but playing the way that wins. Heck, even Lundqvist mentioned it after the Blues-Rangers game and what Lundqvist said about the Blues now, wasn't true about the Blues in November.

You get pretty impressed when you watch them play because it's almost not a single play where they beat themselves. They're so patient. You might think that you're holding on to pucks, but they don't give us much in the middle and they just wait for mistakes. They play very smart hockey, mature hockey. It doesn't matter if they are down or up a goal. They know when to chip in pucks. They know when to go to the net. It just smartness. They win for a reason. I thought it was pretty impressive to see how poised they were all the time.

[StL Dan]

re: Binner. I know what you mean. He's been solid but not necessarily lights out. Fortunately, he is solid and fits perfectly into the Blues' system playing behind arguably the best D-core and back checking forwards (as a group) in the league.

Getting a SO tonight would be poetic, though. I hope he and the team can do that. Would be a great way to cap the home stand before heading west to Kroenkeland.

[gaijin]

I've mentioned it before but since we're discussing it- it could be that Binnington is a high-pressure goalie and his best performances are when the stakes are at their highest (ie playoffs). Since there is not really much pressure right now (still regular season, Blues are in a comfortable place in the standings), Binnington may not be feeling any pressure. Allen has shown the opposite- we've seen him collapse under pressure. But since he is no longer the #1 and the pressure is off him, his numbers have been pretty good. So it could be that our current goalies include one low-pressure guy and one high-pressure guy, which is not a terrible situation to find yourself in.

Counterindications: to be fair, there is some evidence that may show my theory to be completely wrong. For example, Binnington's mad numbers from last season largely came during the regular season when the Blues were last or nearly last in the league. If there's ever a situation where the pressure is not on the goalie, it's that. No one expected anything out of him during that time, but he totally rocked it.

[JCShutout]

Binner's had a couple of stinkers, and is a sophmore in his first full year as starter. I'm sure some combo of fatigue/grind, the aforementioned Blues not playing their system early/Faulk issues, as well as a couple of really statistically bad stinker games (Colorado and Toronto at home in late Nov iirc where he got pulled) explain Binner's "pedestrian" stats. (But I remember seeing or hearing somewhere that his high danger save % is pretty great) Before the Colorado game his save% was over 92% iirc. He'll be fine. He's a fundamentally sound goaltender, which means his slumps aren't as low as some other goalies, and we know what his hot streaks can look like.

Also, re: the playoffs, his overall numbers may have been pedestrian, but there were also a handful of high scoring games. I'd be interested to see his stats in the Blues wins in the playoffs.

[theohall]

Playoff wins only Binnington had a 1.52 GAA and .943 SV%. He had some real stinkers for losses, which is what Binnington is proving to be. A great goalie most nights, but every once in a blue moon, he's really bad. The good thing is those bad games are one and dones, usually, followed by stretches of really good play.

[Portland Blues]

Nice PP goal!

[glen a richter]

Someone let Robb know we’re back up and running!