So the Blues this week gave All-Star goaltender Brian Elliott a two-year contract extension. They've given nearly half the starts to the surprising goaltender. He's been at the top of the rankings for goals-against average and save percentage all season. Jaroslav Halak has responded with "I don't give a damn."
For the second consecutive game, Halak has posted a 1-0 shutout, this time against the shorthanded Edmonton Oilers. He has three shutouts in his last four games and has gone more than 148 consecutive minutes without allowing a goal. I don't know much about goaltending, but that sounds pretty freakin' good.
The only goal was scored by just turned 22 Alex Pietrangelo. The young defenseman scored his eighth of the season with under seven minutes to play in the game on a nice wraparound play where he saw Nikolai Khabibulin hugging the near post, so Pietrangelo skated around back to the opposite side and banked the puck into the net off of the goalie's still sliding skate.
Unlike the Blues who clearly emptied an entire clip with 19 shots in the first period, I have some bullets left. No Barney Fife here.
- If you aren't sure that Pietrangelo has some fire in his belly, take a look at the video of him celebrating after the lone goal of the game. He did the drop to a knee and uppercut the air, but he punctuated it with primal scream. With his week's of growth on his baby face, he almost looked like an All-Star defenseman. And he may have been frustrated that the Blues took so long to score after dominating so much of the game.
- Like I said, the Blues took a ton of shots in the first with 19. They slowed down to seven in the second and 13 in the third for a total of 39. The Oilers tried to keep pace. At one point they were being outshot 18-1. They managed just 15 shots on net for the game -- four in the third period.
- Did you see Taylor Hall's face on Thursday afternoon? In the Game Time paper, we jokingly did a lookalike thing with him and the demonic doll Chuckie. Damn, we didn't know how close we were. I was going to just go ahead and throw that photo up here, but then I thought some of you might be squeamish. So click this link to see the mess that is left behind when a teammate tries to jump over your head and instead lands on it. For some reason he was not available for the game here in St. Louis after this happened on Tuesday.
- Ben Eager is a bitch. He took a big hit on Roman Polak and knocked the big Blues defenseman down. Just a little while later he had another opportunity...and he pulled up. (If I got the Oilers player wrong, let me know down below)
- Blues have one more home game on this five-game bonanza and that's Saturday night with the sucking Buffalo Sabres. So far in January, the Blues have captured 15 of a possible 16 points this month. Dammit that overtime loss to Vancouver.