Hurricanes Vs. Blues Recap

Blues Lineup:

Jaden Schwartz - Ryan O’Reilly - Vladimir Tarasenko

Robby Fabbri - Robert Thomas - David Perron

Zach Sanford - Tyler Bozak - Alexander Steen

Pat Maroon - Ivan Barbashev - Oskar Sundqvist

Defensive Pairs:

Carl Gunnarsson - Alex Pietrangelo

Vince Dunn - Colton Parayko

Joel Edmundson - Jordan Schmaltz

In Goal: Chad Johnson

Game Highlights:

Two names you didn’t see in tonight’s lineup were Brayden Schenn and Jay Bouwmeester. Schenn was dealing with an issue from Saturday night’s game. Bouwmeester was still having hip issues. Yet the guy keeps getting top pair minutes on the blue line. Again what do I know, I’m just a blogger for a website that badly recaps hockey games. ANYWAY, Jake Allen took a night off, so Chad Johnson got the start. For the Canes it was Curtis McElhinney.

Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly got things started for the Blues just over half way through the first. The Hurricanes turned the puck over right in front of McElhinney. Tarasenko took control of the puck. Tarasenko fed the puck to O’Reilly who promptly buried it in the net for a 1-0 lead.

The Hurricanes almost tied it up just moments later. A combination of Chad Johnson and a very loving post denied them that honor. It did give the Blues a break the other way. On that break Fabbri Thomas and Perron dashed up ice. Thomas got the puck to Perron. Perron moved the puck to Fabbri who finished off the break with a nifty little move. Fabbri scored his first goal since December of 2016. That goal gave the Blues a 2-0 advantage.

With literally seconds left in the first, the Hurricanes get one of those two goals back. Justin Williams (greatest name ever by the way) and Jaccob Slavin combine for the power play goal. Justin Williams misplayed the puck at first, but gathered himself and got it back to Slavin. Williams then went to the front of the net. Slavin fired a shot on net, and Johnson had no chance to see it. Williams (and maybe even Petro) were blocking Johnson from seeing the shot. 2-1.

The Blues have scored power play goals in the last five games. Again, one of the few things going right so far for the team. Tonight wasn’t going to be any different. O’Reilly scored his second of the night with just four seconds left in the first.

Good news: The Blues didn’t give up the lead in the second. The bad news was they didn’t improve upon it either. In fact the Blues were outshot 13-3 in the second. Not great Bob. However, Chad Johnson made some timely saves including this one with the Hurricanes on the power play.

O’Reilly seals his hat trick with an empty net goal from the parking lot. If you look closely you might even see Mike Yeo getting into his car after being fired...Wait, what? That didn’t happen tonight? Well a guy can dream. At least O’Reilly actually scored.

Despite taking a good 35 minutes off, the Blues pull this one out 4-1. Final shot totals were 39-20 in favor of the Hurricanes. The Blues only gave up one goal. Jay Bouwmeester was not on the ice. I will let you draw your own conclusions on this fact. It’s happened twice now. The Blues cannot do this when San Jose comes to town. Hockey is good again until Friday, or the Blues announce Joel Quennville’s new contract tomorrow.

From the Twits.

Here we go again.

Well then.

I’m totally reading too much into this, but shouldn’t the owner be a little more happy about O’Reilly’s third goal?

No, it sure doesn’t. It feels like they’re doing the same shit over and over and over and over...

Player of the Game.

Coach Q for uniting Blues Twitter for once. At least until tomorrow. #MakeQBlueAgain.