ST. LOUIS, Missouri – The St. Louis Blues opened the week on a high point. With a win over the Calgary Flames, St. Louis found themselves two games over .500 and starting to consistently find better ways to win hockey games. Then they would make an unfortunate road trip to Chicago. It would be at that point then that things would crash back down to .500. With two straight losses to Chicago and Tampa the Blues have closed yet another week out at the .500 mark and find themselves with yet a large uphill fight. Despite all the negatives that could be thrown around, it should be noted that the Blues are a mere eight points out of a playoff position and are rumored to looking to make a roster move to shake things up a little bit. The St. Louis Blues began the week on a solid note beating Calgary on home ice for their 14th win this season. Brad Boyes led the way with three assists raising his season total to 12. The veteran forward has 20 points this season and has begun to be rumored in trade talks due to his slow play. T.J. Oshie, David Backes, Alexander Steen, and Andy McDonald would each score a goal in the winning effort for the Blues. Chris Mason was once again reliable in net stopping 20 shots for his ninth win this season. It was Chicago’s young stars that assisted the Blackhawks to the victory Wednesday night as Cristobal Huet would stop 27 pucks for his second shutout this season and Patrick Kane would garnish the score board with three assists. The Blues gave little support to Ty Conklin as they would fail to score on 27 shots, being shutout for the second time this season. At the 17:21 mark and the 19:40 the game broke into high rivalry mode as multiple infractions were handed down for misconduct and roughing. For the first two and a half periods Friday evening, the St. Louis Blues appeared to be on the path to success. They successfully executed special teams play, scoring twice on the power play and they successfully shut down Tampa when they were down a skater. Yet Through it all, the Blues did not place their best effort forward. St. Louis once again failed to step up on their defense and assist their goalies, and they did not make adequate usage of their offensive abilities. Near the midway point of the third period, Tampa would begin to take control of the game as Jeff Halpern would score his second goal of the evening to place the Lightning ahead for good which would be finalized in the waning moments by an empty net goal from Steve Stamkos for his second goal of the evening. Schedule Results of the Past Week: December 15, 2009 (14-12-5) Blues 4, Calgary 3 Scoring – 1st Period 03:56 STL David Backes (7) – Assists: A. McDonald (10) & B. Boyes (10) 09:16 CGY Rene Bourque (10) – Assists: D. Phaneuf (9) & M. Giordano (10) 18:51 STL Andy McDonald (7) – Assists: B. Boyes (11) & M. Weaver (2) 2nd Period 02:13 CGY PPG – Daymond Langkow (10) – Assists: R. Bourque (17) & J. Iginla (16) 10:25 CGY Dustin Boyd (5) – Assists: A. Johnson (2) & R. Regehr (11) 17:23 STL PPG – Alex Steen (2) – Assists: C. Colaiacovo (9) & B. Boyes (12) 3rd Period 15:02 STL T.J. Oshie (6) – Assists: P. Kariya (7) & D. Backes (8) Goalies StL – Chris Mason (W, 20/23) CAL – C McElhinney (L, 30/34) December 16, 2009 (14-13-5) Chicago 3, Blues 0 Scoring – 1st Period 14:33 CHI Troy Brouwer (8) – Assists: J. Toews (11) & P. Kane (21) 17:36 CHI PPG – Brian Campbell (2) – Assists: K. Versteeg (9) & P. Kane (22) 2nd Period 16:54 CHI Marian Hossa (5) – Assists: J. Toews (12) & P. Kane (23) 3rd Period none Goalies StL – Ty Conklin (L, 32/35) CHI – Cristobal Huet (W, 27/27) December 18, 2009 (14-14-5) Tampa 6, Blues 3 Scoring – 1st Period 10:04 STL PPG – Brad Winchester (1) – Assists: D. Backes (9) & P. Kariya (8) 10:37 TBL Martin St Louis (7) – Assists: A. Tanguay (14) & V. Lecavalier (22) 2nd Period 00:36 TBL Steven Stamkos (19) – Assists: K. Foster (5) & M. St Louis (30) 06:24 TBL Kurtis Foster (5) – Assists: V. Hedman (8) & R. Malone (13) 3rd Period 03:58 STL T.J. Oshie (7) – Assists: P. Kariya (9) & D. Sydor (5) 04:12 TBL Jeff Halpern (6) – Assists: V. Lecavalier (23) & A. Tanguay (15) 09:03 STL PPG – Keith Tkachuk (7) – Assists: B. Boyes (13) & A. McDonald (11) 11:15 TBL Jeff Halpern (7) – Assists: R. Malone (14) 19:02 TBL EN – Steven Stamkos (20) – Assists: M. St Louis (31) Goalies StL – Chris Mason (L, 18/23) TBL – Antero Niittymaki (W, 23/26) Upcoming Week’s Schedule: December 20, 2009 at Vancouver (Blues 3 – Canucks 1) December 21, 2009 at Edmonton (Blues 7 – Oilers 2) December 23, 2009 at Calgary December 26, 2009 at Minnesota Team News: Recent news reports have the St. Louis Blues on the verge of terminating head coach Andy Murray and bringing in Erik Cole from Carolina. However, this is all been reported as “fodder.” It seems that the Blues would like to make a roster move to jump start the offense, but no one believes the Erik Cole rumors. On the other hand, the Blues have said that they will make a roster move prior to the release of head coach Andy Murray and specifically called out the Ottawa Sun for releasing unrealistic information only useful in selling newspapers. While it seems that the Blues are going to make some moves here in the coming New Year, it does not seem like they will be giving up way too much in order to do so as the team “believes” in their home grown products and wants them to reach maturation before they ship them off for overpriced veterans. Blues Clues: The coming week offers four road games encompassing the Christmas season. This will be the longest road trip for the Blues this year as they venture to Western Canada prior to ending the week in St. Paul, Minnesota against the Wild after Christmas. Quote of the Week: from Brett Hull on the team’s web site on his honor night: “We talk about it all the time, but think about the players that came through here,” Hull said about his time in St. Louis, where he played from 1988-1998. “From the greatest player that ever walked the face of the earth in Wayne Gretzky, to Brendan Shanahan, to Scott Stevens, to Adam Oates…to Chase and Twist…good luck. You couldn’t beat us.” You may contact the author at: John.Strathman@prohockeynews.com
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