Photo by Ryan Leopando – Arch City Sports
After a 3-2 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators, St. Louis is at home to take on the Edmonton Oilers. Through 15 games, the Oilers produced a western conference worst six wins and just 15 points. In addition, Edmonton has not registered a win since November 9th as they defeated the New York Rangers 3-1. In that stretch, Edmonton has gone 0-6-2.
For the Blues, it has been a bit brighter of late. St. Louis currently sits at fourth in the western conference with a record of 14-6-2 and second in the central division behind Nashville. However, St. Louis suffered a large blow after goaltender Brian Elliott went down due to a lower body injury sustained in the second period against Ottawa. Elliott is said to be week-to-week and will not be available for tonight’s game. General Manager Doug Armstrong announced Wednesday that the Blues recalled Jordan Binnington from the AHL. Binnington posted a .922 save percentage and 2.35 goals against average in 40 games in the ECHL before being sent up to the Chicago Wolves in the AHL last season. So far in 2014, Binnington has been stout in nine games with six wins, a goals against average of 1.89 and a save percentage of .925.
There has also been quite a bit of buzz circulating St. Louis after the team announced Wednesday that 42-year-old goaltender Martin Brodeur would begin practicing with the team. The future hall of famer certainly brings a lot of notoriety to St. Louis, but is the talent still there? All signs point to no as the aging goaltender has seen his statistics slip in all categories in his final seasons with the New Jersey Devils. In the 2012-2013 season, Brodeur lost the starting job to Cory Schneider and played just 29 games with a save percentage of .901. The next season was not much better as Brodeur put up the same save percentage in 39 games as the Devils missed the playoffs.
Regardless of if Brodeur progresses in practice or how Binnington has performed in the AHL, it will be up to the 24-year-old netminder Jake Allen to fill the void left by Elliott. In nine games so far this season, Allen has six wins and has allowed just 18 goals this season on 226 shots on net. Although inexperienced, Allen has provided to be here to stay in the NHL in a back up role. The real question is whether or not he can perform at this level with an increase in minutes.
It will be up to the offense to help out the young netminder, and so far it has been the Scwartz-Lehtera-Tarasenko line putting up the offense as the trio has combine for 37 goals in 22 games. To put that into perspective, the rest of the St. Louis roster has boasted just 22 goals in the 22 games.
Although the second line is producing, St. Louis needs to find offense from its “top” line if the Blues are going to keep pace after losing Brian Elliott. In 15 games T.J. Oshie has just one goal and two assists for three points in 15 games. David Backes has not been much better with just ten points and a -4 rating over 21 games. Luckily, the Blues now have forward Paul Stastny in the lineup. However, after an early-season injury after just four games into the season, Stastny has just seven points this season. Allen and the Blues will need production from this trio, which is set to receive a combined $15.675 million this season. That number makes up 46.1 percent of the money St. Louis is spending on its forwards this season, yet combined they produced just 16.9 percent of the team’s goals this season. The Blues need more production from these three if they are going to keep pace at the top of the western conference.
Although the Blues have obstacles to overcome, the Oilers present a perfect opportunity to get the offense going. So far the Oilers are 29th in the league averaging 3.35 goals against per game. The offense has not been much better for Edmonton as they are 26th in the league with just 2.22 goals per game providing an excellent opportunity for Allen. Tonight’s game serves to be a favorable matchup for the Blues before they head on the road to take on Minnesota.
Tonight’s game is set to go at 7 p.m. CT.
