St Louis Blues Nhl Hockey News andd sports betting analysis
| Blues-Oilers | 21st February 2006, 19:05 | |
| Mike Morrison was perfect in shootouts. Now he has a blemish. The Oilers rookie goaltender suffered his first loss in six shootout tries after Dennis Wideman scored to lead the St. Louis Blues over Edmonton 5-4 on Sunday. ``He went East, I went West,'' said Morrison, who had returned for the shootout after being pulled for allowing two goals on the opening five shots. ``I wanted to get in there and make up for it and keep the streak alive.'' Lee Stempniak scored twice and Keith Tkachuk and Jay McClement also scored for St. Louis, which improved to 5-1-1 since trading Doug Weight. ``Happy going into the break,'' said Wideman, who broke in on Morrison and kicked his leg before deking to the backhand for his second goal in four shootout attempts. ``The puck is starting to go in the net of us.'' Blues captain Dallas Drake finished with two assists. Smyth, who will join teammate Chris Pronger on the Canadian Olympic men's hockey team, tipped Marc-Andre Bergeron's point shot past Curtis Sanford in the first period, and shoveled a puck past Sanford in the third for his team-leading 27th goal heading into the Olympic break. ``Our lineup was pretty depleted,'' Pronger said. ``This was a big point for us.'' Forward Jarret Stoll extended his career-high scoring streak to nine games with an assist on Torres' opening goal at 3:47. Stempniak tied the score at 6:05 before Smyth tipped in Bergeron's point shot to give Edmonton a 2-1 lead 23 seconds later. ``I was impressed with how we bounced back,'' said Oilerscoach Craig MacTavish. ``It was a big goal by Georges.'' Tkachuk's power-play goal at 13:29 chased Morrison in favor of Jussi Markkanen, who made 14 saves. After Stempniak gave the Blues a 3-2 lead with the only goal of the second period, Smyth's second goal early in the third tied the game. McClement scored at 16:24 to put the Blues ahead before Laraque notched his second of the season at 17:37 to force overtime. Edmonton centre Shawn Horcoff was briefly taken from the ice in the second period following a head-to-head collision with Hemsky, who also went to the locker-room but returned soon after. Hemsky, an Olympian with the Czech Republic, finished with two assists. |
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Blues-Divis | 21st December 2005, 02:45 |
| Blues face a goalie crunch The St. Louis Blues recalled Reinhard Divis from Peoria of the AHL on Monday to help deal with a goalie crunch. The Blues put Patrick Lalime on waivers and then lost new starting goalie Curtis Sanford last week with a hip injury. Lalime is rehabbing his game at Peoria. Divis, who has played nine games with Peoria and five with the Blues, cleared re-entry waivers on Monday. The team recalled Chris Beckford-Tseu from Alaska of the ECHL to be the backup in a loss to the Flyers on Saturday. Beckford-Tseu was assigned to Peoria. |
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Blues-Divis | 21st December 2005, 02:44 |
| Blues face a goalie crunch The St. Louis Blues recalled Reinhard Divis from Peoria of the AHL on Monday to help deal with a goalie crunch. The Blues put Patrick Lalime on waivers and then lost new starting goalie Curtis Sanford last week with a hip injury. Lalime is rehabbing his game at Peoria. Divis, who has played nine games with Peoria and five with the Blues, cleared re-entry waivers on Monday. The team recalled Chris Beckford-Tseu from Alaska of the ECHL to be the backup in a loss to the Flyers on Saturday. Beckford-Tseu was assigned to Peoria. |
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Blues-Lalime | 13th December 2005, 02:07 |
| Blues waive struggling goalie Lalime Goaltender Patrick Lalime's terrible numbers cost him his job, and he was waived Monday by the St. Louis Blues. The 31-year-old Lalime was let go two days after yet another poor performance. The Blues lost 5-4 in overtime to the New York Rangers on Saturday, and coach Mike Kitchen called four of the goals soft. The Rangers scored in overtime when the puck bounced off the glass behind Lalime, hit him in the backside and bounced into the net. ``He's been struggling and the team is starting to play better,'' Kitchen said. ``It's just a matter that we thought it was time to make a change and see if that helps out, and have Patty step away just a little bit so he can work on his game and get back to where he was when he was at Ottawa.'' Lalime has struggled all season for the team with the NHL's worst record, going 3-11-4 with a 3.97 goals-against average - 40th among 42 goalies. His .866 save percentage is the lowest of any goalie with 15 or more games played. Lalime, in his first season with St. Louis, had been expected to lend stability after years of revolving goalies for the Blues. He was not at practice Monday and unavailable for comment. Curtis Sanford becomes the starter. He's 2-4 with a 3.35 goals-against average. The team called up Jason Bacashihua from Peoria of the American Hockey League as a backup. Bacashihua was 9-4 with a 2.63 GAA for Peoria. Lalime was benched for six games in November, with Sanford starting all six. Lalime's best showing of the season came on his return, a 4-1 win Dec. 1 over Columbus. In his past three games, he allowed 13 goals on 73 shots. The Blues traded a conditional fourth-round draft pick to acquire Lalime from Ottawa after the 2003-04 season. Lalime was 25-23-7 in 57 games in 2003-04, with a GAA of 2.29. Before this season, his career average was 2.39. He was an all-star in the 2002-03 season. |
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GoaliePatrick | 29th November 2005, 13:51 |
| Scaled-down Blues are worst in NHL, putting 25-season playoff streak at serious risk When St. Louis Blues owner Bill Laurie decided to sell the team, he slashed payroll and shipped out star defenseman Chris Pronger rather than signing him to a long-term deal, believing that would make the team more attractive to potential buyers. For now, the franchise is suffering mightily for it. The sad-sack Blues have four victories in the first 22 games this season and are worst in the NHL with 11 points. Their run of 25 consecutive playoff appearances, the longest in U.S. professional sports, is seriously threatened only a quarter of the way through the season. |
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Lalime | 29th November 2005, 13:51 |
| ``I think everyone agreed we should have done far better than this,'' defenseman Christian Backman said. ``Everyone feels we're capable, but we've got to find a way to do it. ``We're going through a tough stretch and I hope everyone can step up and get out of this together.'' It's a tough stretch that's lasted all season. They've won two straight only once. They've lost a franchise-record seven straight at home, where historically they've dominated with a 217-118 record the previous 10 seasons. They've suffered through a downward spike in attendance, with rows and rows of empty seats replacing almost nightly sellouts. The guess-the-crowd feature and make-some-noise meter are both gone, lest they cause embarrassment. A week ago, there was a glimmer of hope. Players and coaches alike thought the worst was over after tight, inspired play sparked a rare victory at Detroit. ``We played the perfect game,'' Backman said. ``We stuck to our game plan and put the puck in the right areas.'' |
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Last-Place Blues | 29th November 2005, 13:51 |
| In the three games since, they've been outscored 8-0 in the third period. The latest indignity came Saturday night when the Columbus Blue Jackets erased a 3-2 deficit with a pair of goals that enabled them to leapfrog past the Blues at the bottom of the standings. ``I thought we had such a strong game in Detroit and I thought it was going to be a real building block for us moving forward,'' coach Mike Kitchen said. ``That hasn't happened.'' Sporadic execution since the victory at Detroit, and even overconfidence, has been to blame. ``We went over what made us successful in that game and we do it for two periods the last few games since then and we feel we're a good enough team to get away with that,'' defenseman Barret Jackman said. ``We have to move the puck forward and just keep things simple until we get out of it.'' A bigger problem is a lack of talent. The Blues stayed out of the bustling free-agent market created by the lockout for the most part, choosing to build around the players they had left along with low-priced fill-ins after Pronger was traded to the Oilers and future Hall of Famer Al MacInnis retired. The payroll is $31 million, or $8 million under the salary cap, and already seven players have made their NHL debut. Still, the Blues figured to battle for a playoff spot. One of the remaining big-money players, forward Keith Tkachuk, has played in only four games. Tkachuk was suspended at the start of training camp for showing up about 20 pounds overweight, then missed time with groin and rib injuries. New goalie Patrick Lalime thus far has been a profound disappointment with a 4.00 goals-against average that got him benched. Career minor leaguer Curtis Sanford won two straight, but has allowed 14 goals in the last three games. Sanford accepts his part of the blame in the team's latest slump. ``It's goaltending, it's a lot of things,'' Sanford said. ``I have to be better, and hopefully close down some teams.'' |
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