Blues At Predators Recap: Tarasenko Has Three Point Night, Halak Pulled, McDonald Hurt

It was a strong performance by the Blues, though not a dominant showing like Saturday night's. Nashville got their licks in and forced this game to be a lot closer than either team would have liked it to have been.

Vladimir Tarasenko Scores Goal, Adds Assist In First Period Against Predators

The legend of Vladimir Tarasenko grows. Like Johnny Appleseed scattering trees behind him, Tarasenko scatters goals in front of him. Well, that's a little bit of hyperbole, but you get my drift. In the first period of Monday night's game against the Nashville Predators, with the Blues down 1-0 Tarasenko shot the puck in stick-side on Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne. It was nearly the same move that befuddled Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard, and it had the same effect on Rinne:

Shortly after that highlight reel goal, Tarasenko assisted on Andy McDonald's first of the year, a power play goal. Both of the Blues' goals give credit somewhere to Tarasenko, McDonald, and Kevin Shattenkirk. Shattenkirk assisted on both, and then obviously Tarasenko and McDonald assisted on each other's. Will Tarasenko light the lamp again next period? Sure. Why not? Apparently this is what this kid's paid the big bucks to do.

Game Day Thread: Blues At Predators, Jan. 21, 2013

Game two is about to start between two Central Division rivals with less animosity than most. These two teams just tend to frustrate each other's scorers, but the Blues have loaded up on oomph and firepower. Can Pekka Rinne handle that?

Road Music: 01/21 @ Nashville Predators

NHL Central Division Leading (kinda) St Louis Blues Take on Nashville Predators 01/21

Blues At Predators GameDay Preview: Can Blues Keep The Scoring Up?

The Predators gave the Blues offense fits last season, holding them to 11 goals over 6 meetings. Will Pekka Rinne make it tough on Vladimir Tarasenko and the rest of the Blues' offense?

On The Forecheck's Blues At Preds GameDay Preview

From Dirk Hoag and our friends at On the Forecheck come their preview for this (early) evening's matchup between the Blues and the Nashville Predators. Remember, Dirk's a stats guy, so you'll see all sorts of number things and terms like "Fenwick" and "corsi" that a humble social sciences major like myself can't compute. That's why I communicate totally through words. I can throw a number out (3.71! -2!) but Dirk's one of those masters at actually comprehending them.

So stop on by to say hello, and make sure that you check back here around noon for your game day preview and back again around two for this season's first edition of Road Music. Game Day Thread should be up around 4:30.

Let's go Blues!

Blues At Predators - Game Day #2: Let's Go HockeyTonkin'

After the wild 6-0 stomping of the Detroit Red Wings, chances are strong that this afternoon's game will be more subuded with the Blues facing off against Pekka Rinne and the rest of Barry Trotz's defensive brick walls.