Vladimir Sobotka is unable to play tonight after taking a Jarome Iginla slapshot off the toe of his skate. Adam Cracknell has been recalled from Peoria.
Ben Bishop will once again get the start in goal – with Ty Conklin as backup. Jaroslav Halak practised today and took a few shots but he’s not ready to return just yet.
And if you thought the Blues had thrown in the towel on the season, they obviously forgot to tell their players – specifically TJ Oshie. There’s a great interview at the Blues Official Site where Oshie discusses the Calgary game plus the recent trades. Well worth a watch.
Ty Conklin has cleared waivers. Looks like the Blues have a decision to make between him and Ben Bishop.
UPDATE: Blues have traded Brad Winchester to the Anaheim Ducks for a third round pick in 2012. Ryan Reaves and Chris Porter have been called up from Peoria.
UPDATE: The Blues have announced that Phil McRae has been placed on IR – McRae suffered a knee injury in the Vancouver game.
According to Pierre LeBrun on Twitter, the Blues have placed goaltender Ty Conklin on waivers. We’ll know shortly after 11am St Louis time on Monday if Conklin has cleared waivers.
With this move, it appears that Jaroslav Halak should be coming off IR and will be ready to play. The Blues look as though they will now keep Ben Bishop as Jaro’s backup for the rest of the season. Bishop deserves it with his excellent 39 save shutout against the Oilers last night. The tandem of Halak and Bishop could well be in force next season as well.
Jaroslav Halak has been placed on 7 day Injured Reserve retroactive to Monday. Halak injured his hand in practice on Wednesday. According to Darren Pang on twitter, it’s Halak’s right, blocker hand that is the problem. Pang also says that Halak has been battling this injury for a while and that explains why he has been “dropping his stick with a lot of traffic in front”. It’s been difficult for Jaro to control his stick.
Ben Bishop has been recalled from Peoria and, whilst this isn’t great timing – with the Blues about to go on a 7 games in 10 days stretch, at least the Blues will be able to see if Bishop is NHL ready. With Ty Conklin a free agent after this season, Bishop is the likely candidate to be Jaro’s backup next season.
Ty Conklin made 36 saves in the Blues overtime loss at Tampa Bay – and when the Lightning scored with 6 seconds of overtime left…well, as the above video shows, Conks was not a happy bunny. Good for him – nice to see a bit of passion from time to time.
Jaroslav Halak has recovered from his upper body injury and is now good to go – as such, Ben Bishop has been reassigned to Peoria.
Andy Strickland has stated at True Hockey.com that the Red Wings may have interest in Conklin. It will be intriguing to see if this develops. If the Blues DO trade Conklin and then make the playoffs, we’ll see Ben Bishop being Halak’s backup.
A great start to the season for the Blues and a number of “firsts” being registered by the team:
Ty Conklin saved 27 shots last night to give the Blues their first ever shutout against the New York Rangers.
The Blues now have 4 shutouts over 12 games. Halak has 3 and Conklin has 1 – a new team record.
The Blues are currently on a 7 game winning streak. The previous highest win streak was 9 games in 2002.
The Blues start of 9-1-2 is a franchise record over 12 games.
Brad Boyes currently leads the NHL in shootout goals.
Other highlights include:
Alex Pietrangelo’s first multipoint game with two assists against San Jose.
Vladimir Sobotka scored his first goal as a Blue – against his former team, Boston Bruins.
Jaroslav Halak has twice been named an NHL Star of the Week and currently has won 8 out of 10 games played with a .944 SV% and 1.46 GAA. He is currently 1st in number of wins and number of shutouts (tied with Tim Thomas).
If one Blues goalie doesn’t get you, then the other will. With Jaroslav Halak taking a well deserved game off, Ty Conklin got the start in New York. The Rangers are a team the Blues had never shutout. Until last night, that is. Ty Conklin stopped 27 shots and Alex Steen scored twice as the Blues continued their incredible run with a 7th straight win.
David Perron was still unfit so Davis Payne rolled out the same team as he had against Boston with 7 defensemen and 11 forwards. The first period was slanted towards the Blues as they outshot their opponents 14-8. The Blues had two powerplays – which, quite frankly, looked awful. No creativity, no speed, nothing unexpected. However, it was the Rangers who went in at intermission believing they should be a goal ahead. The puck was flipped high and into the Blues zone, Nikitin appeared to slightly hit it with his stick so the official put his hand up, signalling a penalty. Alex Frolov evaded Nikitin and, as Conklin tried to pokecheck the puck away, the whistle blew and then Frolov sent it into the net. Officials had blown the play dead as soon as Conklin touched the puck for the earlier high sticking penalty.
The second period saw the Blues give up two penalties and end up being outshot 7-5. The game had slowed…the Blues looked a bit tired but still stuck to their game plan. All in all though, the second period was a bit of a borefest. There was one lively moment – and that was when Alex Steen profited from a 3 on 2 breakaway and scored his second of the season past Biron in the Rangers goal.
In the third period, the Blues were outshot again by 12-3. The Blues spent an awful lot of time in their own zone especially as, following a boarding call on BJ Crombeen, the Blues had to kill off a five minute penalty. Kill it they did – and with some aplomb. They were only threatened a few times on the penalty kill. Alex Steen once again wrapped it up with an empty net goal with 3 seconds remaining in the game.
A 7 game winning streak for the Blues sees them currently on top of the league with a fantastic 9-1-2 record. Two back to back road game wins despite missing 5 first team players. A great achievement. Nick Drazenovic didn’t get a game and has today been sent back to Peoria.
It almost could have been last season. The Blues outshot the Stars 43-25; gave up a two goal lead to lose in a shootout; deserved to win but somehow managed to find a way to lose.
Ty Conklin had his first start of the season for the Blues and made some tremendous stops – the offense worked hard, as did the defense, but sometimes you just don’t get the rub of the ice. That’s what happened here – that and running into a goaltender in the form of his life. Kari Lehtonen was outstanding and he was the main reason the Blues didn’t get the two points in this one.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom. The Blues worked hard, Patrick Berglund scored his second of the season, the Blues went 1 for 5 on the powerplay (not good…but better than it has been) and Ty Conklin proved a very worthy backup with a highlight save:
This game was a perfect microcosm of the Blues season. Started well – scoring first in fact – then a complete collapse…then a miracle comeback that JUST fell short. I don’t know whether this was a bit of a hangover from the realisation that they are out of the playoffs but at least they played with anger and passion in the latter stages of the second period and all of the third.
The Blues scored first – a backhander from David Perron after just under 5 minutes of the first period. Then it all went wrong. The Blackhawks suddenly couldn’t stop scoring – three goals in just under two minutes that chased Chris Mason from the crease. Mason gave up three goals on four shots but, to be fair, the defense DID rather hang him out to dry on one or two. Ty Conklin took over and shortly afterwards the Blackhawks went further ahead, scoring a shorthanded goal. The Blues went in at the end of the first period 4-1 down.
The second period didn’t start very well either as midway through the period the Blues found themselves on the wrong side of a 6-1 scoreline. However, that’s when the anger seemed to kick in. Roman Polak scored with less than five minutes left in the period to pull it back to 6-2.
In the final period, it was all Blues as they outshot the Blackhawks 13-4. Brad Winchester and TJ Oshie both scored and the Blues were suddenly 6-4 down. A penalty shot taken by Brad Boyes pulled it to 6-5 with less than a minute left. It was too little too late however and the Blackhawks grabbed a very thankful two points.
British, female and a Blues fan - there aren't many of us over here the UK but hopefully we can change that. I'm heading over to the US in January to go the Blues games against the Ducks and Kings on the West Coast - so if you see me there, please say hello!
Posted by drfrankentweed 
Blue Skies 
