T.J. Oshie (Timothy Junior if you must know) is a popular ice hockey player in the city of St. Louis, Mo. He's not the biggest guy on the team, but he plays hard, he can hit, he can skate, he can pass the puck a little bit and as he showed tonight he can finish too. Oshie probably played one of his most complete games in recent memory in the 4-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks tonight.
Oshie's first goal came on a turnover in the neutral zone. The right-handed shooting Oshie skated in all alone and let go a hard wrist shot to the upper right corner. Because Jonas Hiller is an opposite handed goalie and his stick is in his left instead of the customary right, his glove wasn't there to keep the puck from going over his shoulder and into the net.
With the score 3-2 late in the third, Oshie got the puck in the neutral zone near the penalty box area. He was in tight to the boards and had a Ducks player nearly on top of him. Oshie flipped the puck high above the ice and it bounced into the empty net to seal the win. Before games and after practice Oshie has been known to practice flipping the puck high into the empty net from center ice. Practice pays off, young players who probably shouldn't be reading our site. It pays off.
Bullets? I have but a few.
- The Blues continued their trend of keeping shots at a minimum by allowing Anaheim to only get 23 in the game. Of course the Blues only got 24, but a win is a win. That meant that goaltender Jaroslav Halak didn't have to work exceptionally hard for the win tonight, but he played solid nonetheless.
- Regardless of Halak's play, here's hoping Brian Elliott gets the start Saturday night. When the worst team in the Western Conference gets to face Halak and the Sharks, one of the best, hopefully get Elliott, does that tell you who the starting goalie is for this team right now?
- Chris Porter got his second goal of the season. A shot trickled through Hiller's pads and was laying in the crease behind his right leg. Somehow the referee didn't blow the play dead and a little whack by Porter jarred the puck free and into the net.
- I like the Christmas lights on the scoreboard. There are some icicle lights below the large screens and some strands above. No, they didn't get a really big ladder out, the scoreboard can be lowered to the ice.