Blues At Canucks Game Preview: Blow Up The Outside World

BLUES		CANUCKS
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No added stats today. No time. No love for the Canucks either. At least they were pulling off more one-timers on the power play, rather than hesitating. And Hank bags a PP goal. That's a good thing. The bad thing is that they keep losing and now they need a huge effort against the team I picked to come out of the West this year tonight in a back-to-back game situation. Do they have it in them?

I do have a quote from a (GASP!) Tony Gallagher column this morning:

There’s a lot to grind Alain Vigneault about and a lot to praise him for over his tenure here in Vancouver but he certainly does things in a counter-intuitive way. Take his line decisions last night with the recall of Jordan Schroeder. Given the first two lines were being centred by Henrik and Andrew Ebbett, you would expect the speedy, skilled Schroeder to go on the third line with Chris Higgins and Steve Pinizzotto in hopes that line might contribute a goal and that the fourth line would be left intact. Not this guy. No he puts Schroeder, a tiny little playmaker with two guys who couldn’t convert a mattress pass if they got one on the goalline with no goalie in blacksmiths Tom Sestito and Dale Weise. Then he saddles the other two guys with Max Lapierre who has proven time and time again he’s an outstanding contributor on the fourth line and hopelessly out of his depth when he’s moved up. Schroeder has no fourth line skills whatsoever and the question becomes why does he consistently put players in a position where they have little or no chance to succeed.

Couldn't agree more. That column is a good read. Check it out.

From the Blues' website:

The Blues are looking for their fourth straight win and sixth in seven games. Of the Blues' six victories in the month of March, Chris Stewart has notched points in five of those games with a total of 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) in his last nine games including the overtime game-winning goal in the Blues 2-1 win over the Ducks on Saturday.

"Guys have been dropping all year and guys have been stepping up," said Stewart, the NHL's First Star of the Week after scoring five times in three games. "[Alex Pietrangelo] goes down with the flu and you look at Ian Cole, who's been out the last four or five games, he steps up and he has a great game for us. It's going to be scary when we do get healthy. I think we're going to be getting healthy around the right time of the year. We're going to be a team to be reckoned with."

The Blues have gotten a big boost from the impressive play of rookie goaltender Jake Allen, who improved to 8-1-0 on the season with his 27-save performance in Saturday's 2-1 overtime win against Anaheim.

Also that Canuck Killer Alex Steen has 7 goals and 2 assists in his last 10 games against Vancouver.

Feel free to add your prediction in the comments section.

The quickie has been brought to you by Soundgarden:

FUCK YOU, CANUCKS. YOU SUCK.