After a pathetic season last year, the St Louis Blues have rallied to start of the season with a 3-1-1-0 start. After Pittsburgh put up a surprising battle in their season opener to grab a point of St Louis, Jamie Langenbrunner was the star for the Blues that game, assisting on all three St Louis goals.
After being raked over the coals, the Blues returned home to face the San Jose Sharks, with the talent of Ovechkin, Staal, Horton and Lidstrom the Blues would have to limit their effect on the game. They held the quartet to just 2 points and 9 shots on goal. Nabakov was solid in net for the Blues saving 22 of 24 shots but it was Foote's first goal of the season that eventually became the game-winner. It came at 16:50 of the third period, two seconds after Eric Brewer finished a double minor penalty for boarding.
Coach Vigneault was hoping to remain undefeated for a while longer, but the New York Rangers, led by Brendan Morrison with two points and a 19 save performance from Tim Thomas shut down the St Louis offence, only allowing one goal. The Blues ended up losing 4-1, the only major notes of interest was that Jamie Langenbrunner and Nik Antropov continued their point streaks.
In their next game, Nik Antropov continued his point streak to four with a pair of goals. However, Jamie Langenbrunner's ended that night, but while the top lilne hadn't produced. Saku Koivu scored his first and second of the season in the game against Washington, Frolov added a couple of assists while Recchi chipped in with one. Koivu had sat out the gane against San Jose with an injury, and to see him score twice two games later is a good sight to see. The second goal by Koivu was also the overtime winner, Nabakov was solid with a 27 save performance.
In the most recent game, a home and home series against the cup champs, the Blues took the first game. Tampa had taken an early lead in the first scoring twice with goals from Briere and Kariya in an open first game where the shots were 13-11 for St Louis. The second period was completely dominated by the Blues, outshooting the Lightning 12-6 and outscoring them 3-0 to take a 3-2 lead. McLaren and Cullen got their first goals of the season, while Langenbrunner sandwiched between them with his second of the year. The three goals were scored in a span of 1:55 near the end of the period. In the third, Tampa continued to press, opening up the game with the shots going 14-13 their way, but Koivu struck first with his third of the year. Briere later scored to make the end interesting, but the Blues managed to hold out thanks to Nabakov who once again was solid with a 28 save performance. The only downside to the game was that Antropov's four game point streak ended, as he was held without a point but still managed 5 shots in 16 minutes of icetime.
INTERESTING FACTS: Despite currently being 7th in the league, they are 3rd in their division behind Detroit and the undefeated Chicago Blackhawks.
Next games for the Blues Tuesday October 16th @ Tampa Bay Monday October 21st @ New York Islanders Tuesday October 22nd v. Anaheim Thursday October 24th @ Philly
It seems that the second line for the Blues is doing exactly what GM Gareth Evans thought it would do. Provide secondary scoring, although not rated as highly as some other second lines, it provides a mix of big players in Malone and Antropov and skill in Langenbrunner. Through 6 games, they have combined for 20 points, with Langenbrunner and Malone both having 2 goals and 5 assists. Antropov leads the team in goals with four, Frolov is rebounding after a slow start, with his 2 points in last night's game, he's up to 5 on the season.
The second half of the home and home took place in Tampa in front of another sell-out crowd. The game got rough quickly, with Frolov taking a roughing penalty just 23 seconds into the game. But through the period Tampa could not convert on any of the chances given to them, only managing 6 shots on net. However, they did make one count, Jamie Heward took a point shot past a screened Nabakov for his first of the season at 15:54. Considering how wide open the game was two night's ago, it was surprising to see the shots level at 6 apiece after the first period ended.
Two nights ago, St Louis scored three times in a 1:55 to lead them to an eventual 4-3 win and yesterday the Blues scored twice in 11 seconds to give them a 2-1 lead after the second. The shots again were even at 11 apiece, giving each team 17 shots each after two periods of play. Kubina, brought in for his puckmoving ability, scored his first of the season with the assists from Langenbrunner and Malone. While Cullen chipped in his second in as many games against the Lightning, Cleary and Gleason had the assists on the goal.
In the third, the Blues enjoyed all the powerplays of the period, but did not like the sight of Chris Higgins with a vicious elbow to Saku Koivu sending him butt first into the boards. Higgins was ejected, while Koivu left the game with a lower back injury and is listed day to day. However, there is plenty of time for Koivu to recover ahead of the Blues next game. Frolov took 6 games, but finally scored his first of the season. After scoring 7 in 8 games, the Blues had hoped that Frolov would continue his hot streak, but some great goaltending and coverage had denied him until last night. Kubina chipped in his second point of the night with an assist, while Antropov (who saw his point streak end two nights ago) had the other. Tampa tried to press on the attack, but at 18:36 Ryan Malone broke out on a breakaway after a perfect feed from Klesla and tucked a backhand between the legs of Turco to put the game completely out of reach.
They may not look pretty doing it, but the Blues second line is getting the job done. While the top line of Koivu-Frolov-Recchi gets the most minutes and takes up 12.42 million dollars in cap room, they've only responded with 13 points through 7 games. Frolov being the only bright spot having 7 of those 13 points. However, the line of Malone-Antropov-Langenbrunner, a line GM Evans was gambling on producing this season has outplayed the Blues top line. Combining for 29 points through 7 games, the missile line (LAM) earns less than half of what the top line makes.
The second line continued their streaks into last night's game with the Islanders, the first period dominated by the Blues, limiting the Islanders to just 3 shots in the period. But after Pavel Kubina scored his second of the season (assisted by Malone and Langenbrunner), Evengi Nabakov let in a weak goal by Mike York. Blues coach Alain Vigneault felt that if the Islanders were actually putting shots on net, Nabakov would have been more prepared and saved the weak shot.
In the second, Robert Lang cross-checked Stephane Robidas in the back sending him face-first into the boards. A skirmish ensued and Lang was slapped with a 5 minute major for cross-checking, which the Blues capitalized on just 25 seconds later. Langenbrunner and Malone combined again, this time Langenbrunner scoring his 3rd of the year on the powerplay. The Blues remained on the powerplay, and before the announcer could finish his spiel on the goal, just 12 seconds later the Blues scored again. The Missile Line was in on the goal again, Antropov's 5th of the season was assisted by Malone and Langenbrunner.
In the third, Lang paid back some of the fault that was his on the penalty by scoring his 4th of the year on a powerplay just under 4 minutes into the period to make things interesting. At least, for another 3 minutes, then Frolov scored his second of the year assisted by Recchi to put the Blues ahead 4-2. Again, 13 seconds later Nik Antropov scored his 6th of the year to cap the game off. The Missile Line finished the game off with 9 points, combined +6, 14 shots on goal while averaging over 23 minutes of icetime.
INTERESTING FACTS: When St Louis has scored a goal, they sometimes have scored quickly after. They scored 3 goals in 1:55 against Tampa, 2 goals in 11 seconds against Tampa, 2 goals in 12 seconds against the Islanders and 2 goals in 13 seconds against the Islanders.
....last night's game with the Islanders, the first period dominated by the Blues, limiting the Islanders to just 3 shots in the period... Nabakov let in a weak goal by Mike York.
All goals by York these days in ANY league are weak.
The Blues just keep getting better and better at scoring in quick succession, and continue on their current 6 game winning streak. Second to only Chicago, St Louis is surely the surprise of the league thus far. After Jonathan Cheechoo clipped Daniel Cleary with a high-stick drawing blood, the Blues went on a powerplay for four minutes. However, just 5 seconds later, Pavel Kubina who was riding a three game goal scoring streak, now rides a four game with his 4th goal in as many games. Koivu won the faceoff to Recchi, who knocked it towards the goal taking a deflection to the point where Kubina slapped it home with Luongo out of position. Just ten seconds after that goal, Frolov scored his third of the season. This time after Koivu won the faceoff quickly to Klesla, who sprung Recchi with a breakaway, Luongo stopped the initial attempt, but couldn't control the rebound that went straight to Frolov. Cullen then added a third goal late in the first to make it 3-0, assisted by Devereaux and Robidas. The assist from Robidas was the first point for the season for him, now making every regular member of the Blues has registered at least one point with the exception of Nabakov.
Period 2 began with some rough stuff, with Langenbrunner already in the box, Foote took a cross-checking penalty leaving the Blues shorthanded on a 5 on 3. Things didn't improve when Gleason got himself penalized for boarding soon after. Although being down to just three men for 2 minutes and at 4 for 56 seconds, inspired penalty killing from Matt Cullen and Alexander Burrows kept the Philly offence from scoring. However, late in the period when Antropov was already going to be called for high-sticking, Jarret Stoll took out his frustration on Nabakov. After making a save Stoll crosschecked Nabakov on the back, a minor scuffle broke out with Antropov getting a 5 minute major and Stoll ejected for his actions.
Looking for some payback, Foote took a run at Zherdev but was called for charging just 11 seconds into the period. With the 5 minute major still in effect, once Stoll's minor penalty expired, the Flyers had another 5 on 3 powerplay. This time however, they managed to sneak one by David Aebischer who had come in for Nabakov. Marty Reasoner's first of the season put Philly back into the game, and a minute and a half after that goal, Reasoner scored again putting the game in serious jeopardy. However, strong defensive work by the Blues limited Philly to just 7 shots on net and were able to close out the game.
After the game, coach Vigneault had this to say about the cross-check on Nabakov. "That was completely uncalled for, if Nabby was hurt I would be after the league for a suspension. I tell you what though, all the teams saw what Stoll did last night and they'll be prepared for him next time."
Nabakov had arguably his best game of the season thus far, stopping all 20 shots he faced before being replaced. Nabakov was given the win, so his record continues at a sparkling 7-1-1. Nabakov currently has a 2.40 GAA and a .907 SV%. Nabakov was taken out of the game for precautionary reasons, but is expected to play the next game against Edmonton.
