On a night where the Jay Bouwmeester trade stole all the headlines, the Blues won a very big game against the Minnesota Wild by a score of 4-1. Fans cringed near the first intermission when Jaroslav Halak left with an undisclosed injury, but Brian Elliott came in and was solid in relief.
The win snapped the team’s three-game skid and placed them back in a playoff spot (for the time being).
Both Jaden Schwartz and Andy McDonald contributed a goal and an assist tonight. McDonald’s tally was his first since February 17th against Vancouver.
Jaden Schwartz (1g, 1a, +2) and Kevin Shattenkirk (1g, +1) were the first and second stars of the game.
David Perron took a boarding penalty in this one. For those of you keeping track at home, that’s now 36 PIM for Perron on the year. He’s tied for 3rd on the team in PIM with Chris Stewart, trailing only Ryan Reaves and David Backes. Troubling, to say the least.
Jordan Leopold’s debut: Two shots, two hits, +1, one blocked shot, 16:43 minutes. Not a bad performance on a night where another defenseman – Bouwmeester – stole the show without even playing.
With Bouwmeester, the Blues have nine defenseman. Doug Armstrong said the team would role with eight the rest of the way, but that was before the trade. At least one current defenseman is on his way down or out.
Solid night for the St. Louis PK. The Wild went 0-for-5 with the man advantage.
The Wild outshot the Blues 25-24. Blues move to 5-7-0 on the year when they’re outshot.
The Blues are now 1-3-0 since the debut of the Notes & Stats column. Here I was thinking of putting this column on ice if the Blues kept dropping games. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) for you, they picked up two points.
Maybe it was just on my end, but the broadcast had some noticeable sound issues tonight. During the intermissions, the words were ahead of the broadcasters’ mouths. Pretty bizarre. Might have been a Dish issue or an issue caused by Fox Sports Midwest running the baseball pre-game / game at the same time.
Oh, that reminds me. The Cardinals and baseball are back. I thoroughly enjoy baseball, but it’s always disappointing to see the Blues vanish from the mainstream media coverage once the Cardinals get rolling.
This was Brian Elliott’s first NHL win since January 31st against Columbus.
Five of the team’s next six games are on the road. They visit Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, Minnesota and Columbus.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
