RECAP: Backes Scores Four, Blues Eviscerate Coyotes

I do believe this is the team we fell in love with this offseason.

The line of Alexander Steen, David Backes and T.J. Oshie is clicking much in the way the line of Jaden Schwartz, Jori Lehtera and Vladimir Tarasenko was earlier in the season. Backes turned that production into a four-goal game. Extra markers by Paul Stastny (!) and the aforementioned Schwartz and a 23-save shutout from Brian Elliott and a suffocating Blues defense led to an easy 6-0 victory over a hapless, disoriented Arizona Coyotes squad Tuesday night.

I'm not even gonna bother with individual highlights, because really . . . if you want to spring a man-boner/woman-boner over some highlights, well, just lock yourself in your room and click play on THIS video:

That's sexy.

Load the shotgun . . . I've got some 50 cals for you. BULLETS:

• 13 goals in the last two games for the Blues. Is that good? Asking for a friend.
• Everyone will talk about the performance of Backes, and rightfully so. But other guys shared the sugar to make sure that kind of performance could happen. Stastny made a BEAUTIFUL secondary assist pass to set up Backes' first goal. David's linemate, Oshie, netted three assists, including the secondary on the aforementioned first. And what about . . .
  
• Patrik Berglund, man? I thought I wouldn't say this at any point, but he's playing like a man possessed since being put on a line with Stastny and Dmitrij Jaskin, a line that seems to mesh very well with each other. Also . . .
  
• Schwartz. Did the Blues miss him, or did the Blues MISS him? His return has basically brought peace and stability to Hitch's line-blender tendencies up front. And that's not a bad thing.
• Remember when a certain sect of Blues fans were asking . . . nay, DEMANDING . . . that Alex Pietrangelo be traded? He's been arguably the team's steadiest and . . . dare I say . . . BEST . . . defenseman in the last couple games. He's 24 years old and has most of his best years ahead of him. I'm, relatively speaking, not too worried.
• I say this as the proud owner of a Shane Doan shirsey, but . . . seriously, Fuck Shane Doan, man. That whatever-the-fuck-it-was on Berglund toward the end of the game was bullshit.
  
• Tweet of the game, courtesy of our own J-Mill (BTW . . . RIP, J-Mill's laptop):

I thought David Backes was this huge animal rights activist but here he is, just slaughtering Coyotes...

— Jason McAdams (@JMill1120) January 7, 2015

Yeah, he went there.

The Blues head back home for a seven-game home stand, starting with perhaps the strongest of all the opponents they'll face in this stretch (which, considering what happened Saturday, isn't saying much) . . . the Sharks.

Vote for your player of the game! And if it's anyone other than David Backes, you may get the Forest Whitaker Eye from me and several others here.

LET'S GO BLUES.