St. Louis Blues at Vancouver Canucks
St. Louis starts the stretch run tied with Chicago for second in points in the NHL and were a team playing pretty good hockey before the Olympics. The only problem was goaltending: In the 18 games they played in 2014, Jaroslav Halak had ten starts and Brian Elliott had eight. This wasn’t a case of 2011-2012 when they combined to win the Jennings Trophy, this is a case where neither goalie has played particularly well over a long stretch at any point this season. That’s worrisome on a site that counts plus/minus among their statistics.
Vancouver was another one of those teams that desperately needed the break as they had lost seven straight games in regulation before the Olympics and had just four wins in their last 19 games. Like other teams that had a goalie over in Sochi, it’s likely that Eddie Lack gets the start in net for Vancouver tonight. That’s not especially great news as Lack had allowed at least three goals against in six of his last ten games. The good news is that the Canucks are expected to get Henrik Sedin back tonight and that should bring balance to their top two scoring lines.
Projecting how teams will do out of an extended break like the Olympics, especially considering where they took place, is not easy. In a typical game, I would expect St. Louis to win this one but I’m not entirely sure. I won’t be stacking either side but will be picking apart players to use in cash games. Of all the games tonight, this has the potential to be the highest-scoring one.
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Top RW Value |
Top LW Value |
Top C Value |
Top D Value |
Bargain Bin |
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(STL) $8203 |
(STL) $9966 |
Patrik Berglund $6307 |
Jason Garrison $8274 |
Alexandre Burrows $4823 |
Good luck!
