GDT: Defending Stanley Cup Champs St. Louis Blues vs. Dallas |First "Big" Game of the Season?|

[The Note]

When: Friday, Feb. 21 at 7:30 p.m. CT
Watch: FOX Sports Midwest, FOX Sports GO
Listen: 101 ESPN, NHL App

PROJECTED LINEUP

Schwartz - O'Reilly - Schenn
Sanford - Thomas - Perron
Steen - Bozak - Kyrou
Barbashev - Sundqvist - Blais

Gunnarsson - Pietrangelo
Scandella - Parayko
Dunn - Faulk

Allen (likely)

vs.



Hintz-Seguin-Perry
Benn-Dickinson-Gurianov
Janmark-Pavelski-Radulov
Cogliano-Faksa-Comeau

Lindell-Klingberg
Heiskanen-Johns
Oleksiak-Sekera

Bishop

Battle for first with 21 games left. 4 point game. Entering the stretch run. All the cliches apply. A win and a little breathing room would be nice. As an added bonus it's Jamie Benn bobblehead night so hopefully the Blues can ruin that.

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[Ranksu]

This is true test where we're at currently.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

This will be a playoff intensity game. I’m glad Binnington has a couple shutouts, but Allen should start this one.

 

[Stealth JD]

Man, I hope Allen takes some inspiration from Binner and keeps this shutout streak in-tact. Dropping this game in Big-D would evaporate the good feelings the team is starting to build.
Keep the train on the tracks and start to build some speed and momentum.

Let's Go (again) Blues!

 

[Ranksu]

This will be a playoff intensity game. I’m glad Binnington has a couple shutouts, but Allen should start this one.

I'm not comfortable with Allen starting. He has been bit shakey last game and let couple easy goals.

 

[execwrite1]

The playoffs begin tonite. Let's Go Blues!

 

[TK 421]

I'm not comfortable with Allen starting. He has been bit shakey last game and let couple easy goals.

Binner played last night, we need Jakey tonight unless we're interested in overworking our starter. Now really isn't the time to ask Binner to go B2B.

 

[MissouriMook]

Binner played last night, we need Jakey tonight unless we're interested in overworking our starter. Now really isn't the time to ask Binner to go B2B.

I haven't gotten caught up yet on the GDT from the Coyotes game, but did they show or mention anything last night about an injury to Binnington? He obviously finished the game and seemed to look fine towards the end, but he got rolled up on early in the game and was favoring his left knee for the batter part of the first period. I'm around the faceoff dot on the end he defends twice, and it didn't seem to affect him when the play was in front of him, but he was frequently twisting and stretching that knee when play was down in the Coyotes' zone, which was obviously a lot of the time.

 

[TK 421]

I haven't gotten caught up yet on the GDT from the Coyotes game, but did they show or mention anything last night about an injury to Binnington? He obviously finished the game and seemed to look fine towards the end, but he got rolled up on early in the game and was favoring his left knee for the batter part of the first period. I'm around the faceoff dot on the end he defends twice, and it didn't seem to affect him when the play was in front of him, but he was frequently twisting and stretching that knee when play was down in the Coyotes' zone, which was obviously a lot of the time.

Unfortunately I worked through last evening and missed the game entirely so hopefully someone can answer that.

 

[LetsGoBLUES91]

Slow day at work. Since the all star break we have 379 shots on goal and the mostly no-name or average at best goalies we have gone up against have saved 353 of them. That is a .931 save percentage.

There are some serious concerns about this team's offensive firepower without Tarasenko, but damn that is also some brutal luck.

 

[KingBran]

This will be a playoff intensity game. I’m glad Binnington has a couple shutouts, but Allen should start this one.

No.

 

[Joshuar56]

Still don’t like the lines, but we’ve won a couple against bad teams so he’ll keep running them out...

 

[MissouriMook]

Unfortunately I worked through last evening and missed the game entirely so hopefully someone can answer that.

It did come up in the GDT, but as it appeared in person it became a non-issue by the time the 2nd period rolled around.

 

[MissouriMook]

Slow day at work. Since the all star break we have 379 shots on goal and the mostly no-name or average at best goalies we have gone up against have saved 353 of them. That is a .931 save percentage.

There are some serious concerns about this team's offensive firepower without Tarasenko, but damn that is also some brutal luck.

We've also run into some really bad puck luck on goals against. I have to think our PDO over that limited time frame is somewhere between 90-95.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

The only team in the west that troubles me is the Dallas Stars.

Big test.

 

[Brian39]

I haven't gotten caught up yet on the GDT from the Coyotes game, but did they show or mention anything last night about an injury to Binnington? He obviously finished the game and seemed to look fine towards the end, but he got rolled up on early in the game and was favoring his left knee for the batter part of the first period. I'm around the faceoff dot on the end he defends twice, and it didn't seem to affect him when the play was in front of him, but he was frequently twisting and stretching that knee when play was down in the Coyotes' zone, which was obviously a lot of the time.

Panger mentioned it as it happened, but there wasn't any further discusion/analysis (unless it was mentioned durging the post game that I didn't watch).

 

[Brian39]

There should be zero question about Allen starting tonight. If you felt you needed Binner to play tonight, that is a decision that needed to be made yesterday morning. Under no circumstances should you start the most worked goalie in the NHL 3 times in 4 nights, with the final game being the 2nd half of a back-to-back in a different city than the first half. If you wanted Binner to go tonight, you had to play Allen last night.

I'm happy Binner got the B2B shutouts. He played well in each game and despite not getting tested much he was seeing the puck well. That doesn't change the reality of how workload impacts play. Completely remove his extended slump prior to those 2 starts and the math is the same. No matter how your goalie is playing, you don't play him 3 times in 4 nights in the regular season unless it is at/near the end of the season and the games are literally do or die. Even then, the data says you shouldn't do it because he is likely to give you a brutal game.

Your backup has a .922 on the season. He had a rough outing against Nashville after sitting on the bench for 2 full weeks. He had 3 quality starts before that 2 week break (.912, .920 and .952). This isn't a question.

I've had issues with the way this organization has overworked the #1 guy since we traded Elliott. Playing Binner tonight would probably be the most egregious example of overworking your starter that I can recall in that time frame.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

I'm not comfortable with Allen starting. He has been bit shakey last game and let couple easy goals.

I’m not comfortable with running Binnington into the ground. He needs to be fresh and healthy for the postseason. If they can’t win the division with using their backup goalie for a significant percentage of starts, then it’s better to not win the division and optimize Binnington’s usage.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

No.

Why don’t you think it will be playoff intensity?

 

[President Skroob]

The only team in the west that troubles me is the Dallas Stars.

Big test.

The St. Louis Blues scare me sometimes.

 

[TheGoldenGod]

When: Friday, Feb. 21 at 7:30 p.m. CT
Watch: FOX Sports Midwest, FOX Sports GO
Listen: 101 ESPN, NHL App

PROJECTED LINEUP

Schwartz - O'Reilly - Schenn
Sanford - Thomas - Perron
Steen - Bozak - Kyrou
Barbashev - Sundqvist - Blais

Gunnarsson - Pietrangelo
Scandella - Parayko
Dunn - Faulk

Allen (likely)

vs.



Hintz-Seguin-Perry
Benn-Dickinson-Gurianov
Janmark-Pavelski-Radulov
Cogliano-Faksa-Comeau

Lindell-Klingberg
Heiskanen-Johns
Oleksiak-Sekera

Bishop

Battle for first with 21 games left. 4 point game. Entering the stretch run. All the cliches apply. A win and a little breathing room would be nice. As an added bonus it's Jamie Benn bobblehead night so hopefully the Blues can ruin that.

​

Man Dallas looks deeper than ever. Overlooked by many on the main board. Wouldn’t be shocked to see them make some noise this spring. Great test for us tonight.

 

[The Note]

We've also run into some really bad puck luck on goals against. I have to think our PDO over that limited time frame is somewhere between 90-95.

96 at all strengths, 99 at 5 on 5. So, you’re pretty much right.

 

[Brian39]

Man Dallas looks deeper than ever. Overlooked by many on the main board. Wouldn’t be shocked to see them make some noise this spring. Great test for us tonight.

They got off to that brutal start, which led a lot of people to write them off 10 games into the season. I think that initial impression caused people to overlook how well they have played since. Pavelski's lack of production has also made it easy to discount the roster changes made over the summer.

They started 1-7-1. They are 34-12-5 since then. They are for real.

 

[MissouriMook]

96 at all strengths, 99 at 5 on 5. So, you’re pretty much right.

Given how our PK looked last week, it doesn't surprise me that our 5-on-5 would be that much better than our all-strengths PDO. Thanks for the info. Where did you find that, by the way?

 

[The Note]

Given how our PK looked last week, it doesn't surprise me that our 5-on-5 would be that much better than our all-strengths PDO. Thanks for the info. Where did you find that, by the way?

Went to Natural Stat Trick team table. Then you can add the date range under the filters drop down.

Team Season Totals - Natural Stat Trick