It was almost storybook. ALMOST.
The Blues had a lead at 2-1, fell behind 3-2 and tied it up with just under six minutes to play in the third at 3-3. They were scoreless in the overtime. T.J. Oshie did a slow motion move in the shootout to score on the Blues' first attempt. Two saves by Brian Elliott put former Devils captain and really disliked in New Jersey Jamie Langenbrunner on the ice shooting third second for the Blues to win the damn thing. And he got stoned. So Elliott just had to go ahead and stop all three shots he saw in the shootout. Damn fine effort.
The Blues are near the top of the standings. When I make pronouncements about where they are, late games always come back and bite me. I know they're still behind Detroit. But it's a horse race.
Blues come back for games Saturday and Sunday at home. Colorado and then San Jose. Should be a fun little weekend down at the rink.
Gallagher's working on some paper or something, but I've got many bullets, some of them babies. Call them BBs.
- The Blues remain unbeaten in regulation against the Eastern Conference. Any radical realignment by the NHL in the future should take this into account. Thanks.
- T.J. Oshie skated like his hair was on fire tonight.
- Nice to see David Perron with his third goal in two games. The French Canadian had been quiet with zero points in four straight games before this little scoring binge. If Perron can get going, we can kind of forget some of the scoring problems.
- Passing. The Blues are struggling right now passing the puck. I'm not talking about the turnovers (Alex Pietrangelo, clearing the puck up the middle of the ice is something you learned not to do when you were 10). I'm talking about players getting the puck in their skates or just out of their reach. Next game watch how many awkward positions players are having to contort into to accept the puck. To me, that's a big part of the scoring problem.
- Did the Devils make a huge mistake building their arena in Newark? No wonder they're going bankrupt, the attendance looks horrible. According to ESPN, the Devils are drawing an average of 15,113 at an 85 percent capacity. I'll put money on the under if Thursday night is any indication.
- Huge power play after Chris Porter bled on a boarding call. Unfortunately the five minute major was only four minutes because of a Blues penalty, but it's not like they had a ton of good chances with the man advantage.
- Darren Pang, a tiny goaltender in his day, had a long dissertation on goaltender interference after David Backes was pushed with two arms into Johan Hedberg. Backes was called for interference. Yes, it had to be bullshit for a goalie at heart to say there's no way Backes interfered with a fellow netminder.
- The lines got shuffled. A lot. Often even.
- I believe we saw the first goaltender change of the Ken Hitchcock era. After Jaroslav Halak gave up his third and the lead, Hitchcock went to the bullpen and Brian Elliott was All-Star quality stopping every shot he faced in regulation and the overtime.
A win on the road? In the shootout? Well I think that might be cause for some celebration. How you feeling? Let us know down below.