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Tuesday night's victory over the Jets was described by Jake Allen as a "character win." I would certainly say so. Character wins are better than moral victories, because the latter means you lost. The former means that you dug deep, realized what you were doing wrong, fixed your issues, and played.
Boy howdy, did they ever. They were helped by the Jets' amazing ability to take a nearly constant stream of penalties, which more than likely won't be the case tonight against the Nashville Predators. But if the Preds do take a few trips to the box, the Blues' power play is picking up steam and could make them pay. Skewed by a rash of ineffective play at home, the Blues' power play is clicking at 20.2%, tied with Nashville for the ninth best in the league. They are, after making the Jets pay several times, the best road power play in the league.
Perhaps they finally had "that practice." I'm assuming that's a thing this season.
The Predators will have a hard time scoring against the league's best penalty kill, and one of the league's top ten goaltenders, but the Blues shouldn't sleep on Shea Weber. Weber is second on the Preds in goals with 9, eight of which have come on the power play, and the team's defense total has 35.
The Preds haven't had a strong December, much like the Blues. Tonight could be key in getting St. Louis back on track and able to string together victories, but it could also be key to righting Nashville's ship as well. That translates into the typical, hard fought game that we expect from these two teams. Last month's game was an aberration. The Blues and Preds play each other closely, which should lead to a quality game for the return of Barret Jackman.
The Blues should be rolling with the same line-up that fought back in Winnipeg. If they begin tonight's game with the fortitude that they showed in the last two periods against the Jets, and if they continue the pressure, the Blues should win this game handily.