St Louis Blues

[bondon]

Line combinations from practice earlier this morning saw Sobotka bumped up to the top line:

Sobotka-Backes-Oshie
Perron-Berglund-Stewart
D'Agostini-Arnott-Langenbrunner
Steen-McDonald-Porter


Andy McDonald participated in a full contact practice today, but makes sure that it is known that he is still not FULLY symptom free.
Steen has been DTD for what seems like ages, he is still not quite ready.

Also for those of you that are interested in Blues info, I recommend following @jprutherford (if you have Twitter), he does a fantastic job covering the Blues and is always on the ball with line-combos and player/coach quotes.

[bondon]

Interesting note, Hitch has a ton of confidence in Vlad Sobotka's play, and which line Sobotka plays on is irrelevant to him as long as he's playing against the other teams' top lines.

"I think Sobotka's role is going to depend on the opposition," Hitchcock said. "I think it's going to depend on whether I'm able to get a matchup I want. He's good on any of those three lines, but ... we're going to have a difficult time getting a matchup on the road, so there might be a change.
"We would prefer to use him against other teams' top players regardless of the line he plays on. So whether he plays with (Jason) Arnott or (Patrik) Berglund, we prefer the hard match coming from him individually. We feel like he's got a real impact on the game. I think you might see him with Backes and then if we play on the road, you might see him with Berglund or Arnott."

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/hocke...#ixzz1lLY2ZmYo

Blues return to action tonight against the Kings, after a nine day lay-off (largest break for any team in the NHL). Halak will get the start and it sounds like lines will be the same as the morning skate on Monday.

[bondon]

Quick game notes:

Halak took a huge dump all over that game. 3 goals on 12 shots, the first two being very stoppable. Elliott stepped in and was a pure stud. Made 15 saves to eventually win it 4-3 in the shootout, including a couple of breakaway chances (most notably a huge glove save on a breakaway for Henrique)

Chris Stewart scored a goal and added an assist, overall solid game numbers wise but I didn't really notice him standing out. Probably because again despite his solid game statistically he only received 14:07 TOI

Grachev was minus-one and played 11:50 in the game. Wasn't very impressed and I'm pretty sure was replaced from his spot on the second line pretty early.

Captain David Backes logged 26:24, and had a pretty solid roto night:1A, +1, 2PIM, 6SOG, 3Hits, 13FOW

The Blues were handed a gift as the referees assessed a five minute major for boarding on this hit by Kurtis Foster http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z2cTxiWsy4 (Personally didn't think he deserved it, wasn't much of a hit really IMO). In any case it didn't matter because the Blues' PP was just brutal. Pretty sure the Devils got more chances on that five minute major than the Blues did, and it was eventually cut short as David Perron tripped up Zach Parise in the offensive zone with approximately 1:30 left in the powerplay.

[Dutch]

McDonald back against Sharks

[bondon]

McDonald back against Sharks

Aye, thanks for the update Dutch.

McDonald was seen in practice lined up with Patrik Berglund and Chris Stewart, here is to hoping that they can find that magic that they had to finish last season. At this point of the season, for Berglund and Stewart, the introduction of McDonald to the lineup can only be a good thing as to say that their campaigns thus far have been disappointing would be a massive understatement.

This most notably is a big help to Chris Stewart, who had been starting on the third line in the past few games. Clearly Hitchcock sees something that he doesn't like with Stewart, and he hinted early this season that Stewart was being too passive on the ice. Here's to hoping that the reintroduction of McDonald will remind Stewart of all the things that he did well last season that allowed him to register 23 points in 26 games (and yes I know his shooting% was a ridiculous .224, but even his harshest critics couldn't have seen this big of a drop off to only recording 22 points in 50 games played).

[CaptainK]

Hey guys,
wondering what the blues lines were last game, most importantly stewart and mcdonald. i see that they were suppose to play together but stewart had only about 14mins played and andy mac over 17.5mins?
basically trying to figure out if i should drop stewart for andyMac.
thx

[wendelclark17]

http://www.dobberhockey.com/frozenpo...3gamelines.php

this is all i got but looks like he has been playing with Andy Mac ...

edit: just did some looking on twitter and Stewart is on the 4th line in practice today I would defiteily drop him for Andy Mac

Jeremy Rutherford @jprutherford
Hitch on Stewart playing on 4th line: "You've got to work. Before you can think about scoring goals, you've got to start to work." #stlblues

Jeremy Rutherford @jprutherford
Stewart skating on fourth line with Nichol and Porter. #stlblues

[wendelclark17]

some injury notes from twitter:

Jeremy Rutherford @jprutherford
Colaiacovo leaving practice holding his right wrist. #stlblues


Jeremy Rutherford @jprutherford
Colaiacovo went for X-rays on right wrist. Huskins will play Thursday if Colaiacovo can't play. #stlblues

Jeremy Rutherford @jprutherford
Arnott (shoulder) is ready to go and will be in the lineup Thursday. #stblues

[CaptainK]

http://www.dobberhockey.com/frozenpo...3gamelines.php

this is all i got but looks like he has been playing with Andy Mac ...

edit: just did some looking on twitter and Stewart is on the 4th line in practice today I would defiteily drop him for Andy Mac

thx for the info!

[wendelclark17]

some more tweets re Stewart

Lou Korac @lkorac10
More on Stewart from Hitch: "We need him to have more impact on the game. He's a good player that needs to have more impact on the game."

Lou Korac @lkorac10
Last Hitch on Stewart (read about it later): "He's too good a player to just go quietly by the night." #stlblues

[Bomm Bastic]

Why did the Blues recall Bishop??

[valec]

I'm going with Halak still being sick with the flu and not able to backup.
I've heard Elliott starting again tomorrow.

Jeremy Rutherford @jprutherford
Halak will not make trip to Chicago. Elliott starter, Bishop backup. #stlblues

[Bomm Bastic]

I'm going with Halak still being sick with the flu and not able to backup.
I've heard Elliott starting again tomorrow.

Thanks valec. Was wondering if they were prepping for a move of some sort.

[ross10019]

Any Blues fans have feedback on how Perron has been doing lately? Got to make a lineup decision and noticed he's slowed down a bit, not taking as many shots, etc. Playing with McD/Berglund which is not bad, but not getting as much ice time as he has in the past and less PP time.

Any thoughts? Here is the separate thread I posted on the subject: http://www.dobberhockey.com/forums/s...618#post918618.

[mister_mcgoo]

What do you think the chances are for the Blues to make a splash in the playoffs this year? You gotta love the way that the team plays defense as a cohesive unit, they've got a system and they stick to it. You also have to like the fact that they have Halak as their starter, we've all seen what he can do when the pressure is on and he has to face tons of rubber.

Where I'd be worried though is there lack of scoring and inability to score in bunches when needed. I think if they can stick to low scoring games and/or get out to early leads that they build on by capitalizing on opponents mistakes they will do well but if they get into situations where they are down 2-3 goals in the 3rd I think they're screwed, they lack that dynamic big play ability to play that kinda game I think. They kinda remind me of Nashville in a lot of ways.