-Tonight on Versus, your Pittsburgh Penguins will face a young and dangerous team in the St. Louis Blues. They are no longer Paul Kariya's or Keith Tkachuk's team. Although vets such as these contribute significantly to the teams success the last couple years, they fail to tell the whole story. The team is built around emerging stars David Perron, Patrick Berglund, David Backes, T.J. Oshie, and Brad Boyes. Boyes is a 30-40 goal scorer, Berglund is big and strong, and Backes has been compared to Eric Lindros. Last season the Blues broke out and made the playoffs before getting swept by the Canucks. This year, coach Murray and company are out for redemption and ultimately some wins in the playoffs.
-The bad news for the Blues is that they're playing a Pens team who are winners of 6 in a row and playing as well as they ever have, ever. Fleury is particularly playing the best hockey of his career and is keeping the Pens in games where the score could be completely lopsided. The Carolina and Ottawa games come to mind. Geno and Sid are racking up their points, but its the lower tier guys such as Kennedy, Cooke, Adams, and Rupp who are coming up with goals, assists, and hits. Opposing teams are trying to play very physical against the speed and skill of the Pens, but this only leads to penalties. And eventually more goals for the black and gold.
-The Blues are 3-2-1 on the year and they are playing some good but not great hockey. Coach Murray has done an excellent job of turning this franchise around and getting the youth to buy into his system. Some under the radar guys who can be dangerous for the Blues include Colaiacovo, Mclemment, and Steen. Colaicovo and Steen were sent packing by the Leafs in the middle of last year and they have increased their level of play significantly ever since. Looking at the Pens, Feds and Kunitz need to get going offensively. It's inevitable that you get some points playing alongside Geno and Sid. Sure they're doing the "little things" and whatever else commentators want to call it, but they also need to capitalize on scoring chances when they do have them.
-Look for Eric Godard to start tonight as Blues enforcer Cam Janssen will likely play. The Chris Bourque experiment has been very weird and will be even more interesting when Max Talbot comes back. On top of that, there has been trade talk involving Fabian Brunstromm of the Stars and possibly Alex Frolov of the Kings. Ben Lovejoy would be involved in either of these deals as he's the only asset the Pens can trade at the moment, unless you consider Pascal Dupuis an asset, then you're wrong. Look for Mckee to have another solid game tonight on D, he is playing his former team.
PENS vs. BLUES at 7 pm VERSUS, see you there.
LETS GO PENS
IN MIKE RUPP WE TRUST
No comments:
Post a Comment