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Tag: Western Conference Finals

  • WCF Game 6 Recap – San Jose Sharks v. St. Louis Blues

    WCF Game 6 Recap – San Jose Sharks v. St. Louis Blues

    The St. Louis Blues enter game 6 with a chance to earn a birth in the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 1970 (and really, the first meaningful one, and not a diluted conference title).

    The first period started out with a bang with David Perron redirecting a Sammy Blais shot to give the Blues a quick 1-0 lead. After some staggeringly good play and control, San Jose took a penalty that let the Blues’ special teams go to work. This led to an almost immediate Vladimir Tarasenko goal (dare I say, snipe), to put the Blues up 2-0. They took this lead into the second period.

    With the storm clouds over the city of St. Louis hopefully not acting as a portend, the Blues came out strong in the second, but it was San Jose’s Dylan Gambrell that added to the offense, scoring his first NHL goal, and cutting the Blues’ lead in half. This was short-lived as Brayden Schenn (finally finally) scored to bring the lead back to 2.

    The third period began with San Jose getting a power play off of a Patrick Maroon trip. The Blues were able to kill it off, though San Jose kept pressuring. The Blues seemed to be playing this period not so much to win, rather not to lose, putting up zero shots as the period approached its halfway mark. After enduring this attack, the Blues capitalized again with Tyler Bozak scoring to make it 4-1. Barbashev would add an empty netter to make it 5-1.

    The Blues will play the Boston Bruins for the Stanley Cup.

     

    Thank you for following TXHT’s extensive Playoffs coverage on our 2019 NHL Playoffs page.

  • WCF Game 5 Recap – St. Louis Blues v. San Jose Sharks

    WCF Game 5 Recap – St. Louis Blues v. San Jose Sharks

    St. Louis Blues v. San Jose Sharks

    Game 5 – Series Tied 2-2

     

    Game Recap:

    Heading into Game 5 both the San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues would look to win the first game of a now best of three series, and to start off both teams would trade a total of 5 odd man chances only to attribute to two hit posts and no goals scored. However, after the five minute mark Erik Karlsson would try to clear the puck up the boards and out of the zone, but it would take a weird bounce and stqy in the zone and go right to Oskar Lundqvist who would bomb it past Martin Jones to make it 1-0 for the visiting Blues.

     

    Going into the second period the Blues would put on a forechecking clinic on the Sharks and it would lead to two goals. First goal had Vladimir Tarasenko getting a shot on goal only for Martin Jones to play the rebound right to Jaden Schwartz who would shoot it right into the open net. Then Tarasenko would be at it again as he would get fouled by Brent Burns while on a breakaway to receive a penalty shot, which Tarasenko would score on to make it a commanding 3-0 lead.

     

    In the third period the Sharks would not do themselves any favors as they would take two penalties on the same play which would lead to Jaden Schwartz scoring his second of the game when he would chip the puck over Martin Jones to make it 4-0. Then much later in the period the Blues would continue their attack on a injury depleted Sharks team as Vladimir Tarasenko and Schwartz would tag team in the Sharks zone as Schwartz would score his third of the game, and second hat trick of the playoffs, to make it a 5-0 victory and give the Blues the 3-2 series lead heading into Game 6 Tuesday night in St. Louis.

     

    Lineups:

    St. Louis Blues:

    Jaden Schwartz — Brayden Schenn — Vladimir Tarasenko

    Sammy Blais — Ryan O’Reilly — David Perron

    Pat Maroon — Tyler Bozak — Robert Thomas

    Ivan Barbashev — Oskar Sundqvist — Alexander Steen

    Joel Edmundson — Alex Pietrangelo

    Jay Bouwmeester — Colton Parayko

    Carl Gunnarsson — Robert Bortuzzo

    Jordan Binnington

    Jake Allen

    Scratched: Robby Fabbri, Michael Del Zotto, Zach Sanford, Mackenzie MacEachern, Chris Thorburn, Ville Husso

    Injured: Vince Dunn (upper body)

     

    San Jose Sharks:

    Timo Meier — Logan Couture — Gustav Nyquist

    Evander Kane — Tomas Hertl — Joe Pavelski

    Melker Karlsson — Joe Thornton — Kevin Labanc

    Joonas Donskoi — Barclay Goodrow — Micheal Haley

    Marc-Edouard Vlasic — Brent Burns

    Brenden Dillon — Erik Karlsson

    Joakim Ryan — Justin Braun

    Martin Jones

    Aaron Dell

    Scratched: Dylan Gambrell, Tim Heed, Lukas Radil, Radim Simek, Antti Suomela, Marcus Sorensen

     

    First Period:

    Blues Goal – 5:50 – Oskar Sundqvist (4) from unassisted

    Blues Penalty – 15:18 – Jay Bouwmeester 2 minutes for Delay of Game

     

    End of 1st – STL – 1       SJ – 0

    Shots              04                11

    Faceoffs         10                08

    Hits               18                  13

    PP                 0/0                 0/1

     

    Second Period:

    Blues Goal – 3:05 – Jaden Schwartz (10) from unassisted

    Blues Penalty Shot – 6:53 – Vladimir Tarasenko – Goal (7)

    Sharks Penalty – 10:43 – Joonas Donskoi double minor for High Sticking

    Blues Penalty – 11:23 – Tyler Bozak 2 minutes for Hooking

     

    End of 2nd – STL – 3        SJ – 0

    Shots               24                 16

    Faceoffs          23                 18

    Hits                 28                  35

    PP                   0/2                  0/1

     

    Third Period:

    Sharks Penalty – 1:55 – Barclay Goodrow 2 minutes for Roughing

    Sharks Penalty – 1:55 – Micheal Haley 2 minutes for Interference

    Blues PPG – 2:19 – Jaden Schwartz (11) from David Perron (6) and Vladimir Tarasenko (4)

    Sharks Penalty – 7:13 – Micheal Haley 2 minutes for Unsportsmanlike Conduct

    Sharks Penalty – 7:13 – Micheal Haley 10 minute Misconduct

    Sharks Penalty – 8:35 – Timo Meier 2 minutes for Tripping

    Blues Penalty – 13:12 – Joel Edmundson 2 minutes for Slashing

    Blues Goal – 16:02 – Jaden Schwartz (12) from Vladimir Tarasenko (5)

    Sharks Penalty – 17:13 – Evander Kane 2 minutes for Goalie Interference

    Sharks Penalty – 17:13 – Evander Kane 2 minutes for Slashing

    Sharks Penalty – 17:13 – Evander Kane 10 minute Misconduct

     

    End of 3rd – STL – 5         SJ – 0

    Shots              40                   21

    Faceoffs        36                    27

    Hits               34                     52

    PP                 1/8                   0/2

     

    Next Up:

    Game 6 – STL/SJ Leads Series 3-2

     

    Thank you for following TXHT’s extensive Playoffs coverage on our 2019 NHL Playoffs page.

  • WCF Game 4 Recap – San Jose Sharks v. St. Louis Blues

    WCF Game 4 Recap – San Jose Sharks v. St. Louis Blues

    San Jose Sharks v. St. Louis Blues

    Game 4 – SJ Leads 2-1

     

    Game Recap:

    Going into Game 4 the St. Louis Blues come into their home barn with a chip on their shoulder after how Game 3 ended in overtime in the San Jose Sharks favor, and it wouldn’t take long either for the Blues as Ivan Barbashev would get the puck on net and past Martin Jones to make it 1-0 35 seconds into the game. Then later in the period on their second powerplay opportunity the Blues would strike again as Justin Braun would inadvertently kick the puck between Jones’ legs to give the Blues a 2-0 lead going into the first intermission.

     

    Going into the second period both teams would share opportunities, and also featuring a Sharks powerplay that they could not do anything with. Both teams would get some godd chances at both ends, but the game would remain 2-0 going into the second intermission.

     

    In the third period it would be special teams striking again, but this time for the Sharks as Brent Burns would bomb a shot through Jordan Binnington and Tomas Hertl would tap the puck in to make it 2-1 on the powerplay. Then in the final two minutes of the game the Sharks would pull Jones for the extra attacker and they would force great pressure in the Blues zone, but the Blues would withstand the surge and take Game 4 2-1 to tie the series at two games a piece.

     

    Lineups:

    San Jose Sharks:

    Timo Meier — Logan Couture – Gustav Nyquist

    Evander Kane — Tomas Hertl — Joe Pavelski

    Melker Karlsson — Joe Thornton — Kevin Labanc

    Marcus Sorensen — Barclay Goodrow — Joonas Donskoi

    Marc-Edouard Vlasic — Brent Burns

    Brenden Dillon — Erik Karlsson

    Joakim Ryan — Justin Braun

    Martin Jones

    Aaron Dell

    Scratched: Micheal Haley, Dylan Gambrell, Tim Heed, Lukas Radil, Radim Simek, Antti Suomela

     

    St. Louis Blues:

    Jaden Schwartz — Brayden Schenn — Vladimir Tarasenko

    Sammy Blais — Ryan O’Reilly — David Perron

    Pat Maroon — Tyler Bozak — Robert Thomas

    Ivan Barbashev — Oskar Sundqvist — Alexander Steen

    Joel Edmundson — Alex Pietrangelo

    Jay Bouwmeester — Colton Parayko

    Carl Gunnarsson — Robert Bortuzzo

    Jordan Binnington

    Jake Allen

    Scratched: Robby Fabbri, Michael Del Zotto, Zach Sanford, Mackenzie MacEachern, Chris Thorburn, Chris Butler, Ville Husso

    Injured: Vince Dunn (upper body)

     

    First Period:

    Blues Goal – :35 – Ivan Barbashev (1) from unassisted

    Sharks Penalty- 5:09 – Brenden Dillon 2 minutes for Holding

    Sharks Penalty – 17:44 – Timo Meier 2 minutes for Hooking

    Blues PPG – 17:53 – Tyler Bozak (4) from Pat Maroon (4) and Vladimir Tarasenko (3)

     

    End of 1st – SJ – 0       STL – 2

    Shots              09                10

    Faceoffs         11                09

    Hits               11                  15

    PP                 0/0                 1/2

     

    Second Period:

    Blues Penalty – 5:41 – Sammy Blais 2 minutes for Hooking

    Blues Penalty – 8:24 – Brayden Schenn 2 minutes for Roughing

    Sharks Penalty – 8:24 – Marc-Edouard Vlasic 2 minutes for Slashing

     

    End of 2nd – SJ – 0        STL – 2

    Shots               20                 18

    Faceoffs          18                 18

    Hits                 14                  24

    PP                   0/1                  1/2

     

    Third Period:

    Sharks Penalty – 4:35 – Brenden Dillon 2 minutes for High Sticking

    Blues Penalty – 6:01 – Alex Pietrangelo 2 minutes for Interference

    Sharks PPG – Tomas Hertl (10) from Brent Burns (11) and Erik Karlsson (14)

    Blues Penalty – 9:52 – Ivan Barbashev 2 minutes for Tripping

    Sharks Penalty – 12:33 – Bench (Kevin Labanc) 2 minutes for Too Many Men

     

    End of 3rd – SJ – 1         STL – 2

    Shots              30                   22

    Faceoffs        27                    32

    Hits               15                     29

    PP                 1/3                    1/4

     

    Next Up:

    Game 5 – Series Tied 2-2

     

    Make sure to follow TXHT’s extensive Playoffs coverage on our 2019 NHL Playoffs page.

  • WCF Game 3 Recap – San Jose Sharks v. St. Louis Blues

    WCF Game 3 Recap – San Jose Sharks v. St. Louis Blues

    The St. Louis Blues and San Jose Sharks started out about the same way all the games these playoffs have for the Blues – without them. The Blues mustered only four shots the entire period en route to a 2-0 deficit. Erik Karlsson scored the first goal (unassisted), followed by Joe Thornton’s first of the game.

    The second period was entirely different. Alex Steen opened the scoring to cut the lead to 2-1. Thornton netted his second of the game to increase San Jose’s lead back to 2, but the much maligned (unfairly, to this writer), Vladimir Tarasenko brought the Blues back to 3-2. Now, the game got really fun. David Perron committed what should have been a delay of game penalty for shooting the puck over the glass, but it was missed by the referees (of note, it is very fun to see Peter DeBoer’s incredulous face). He then proceeded to score the next two goals to give the Blues a 4-3 lead entering the third.

    The Blues generally outplayed the Sharks in the third, with no team scoring until about 1 minute left, where Couture tied the game at 4, after a series of laughable, contemptuous icings by Alex Pietrangelo, then a poor defense play by him. I generally think Petro is a wonderful player, but he has been simply bad this series.

     

    Hey everyone! Michael here. Aryan asked me to take over and cover the overtime period(s) of this tightly contested Game 3 between the San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues.

     

    In overtime both teams would trade chances in the first five minutes of the extra period, but then on a controversial play that saw Timo Meier bat the puck with his hand in front of the Blues net to Gustav Nyquist who would then pass it to Erik Karlsson who would shoot the puck past Jordan Binnington to win the game 5-4 in overtime and take the 2-1 series lead.

     

    Clearly a hand pass by Meier, but unfortunately this is not a reviewable play and the fact that all four officials missed this call the goal cannot be reversed. St. Louis got the short end on this one and will be motivation going into Game 4.

     

    Make sure to follow TXHT’s extensive Playoffs coverage on our 2019 NHL Playoffs page.

  • St. Louis Blues vs San Jose Sharks – Round 3 – Game 2 Recap

    St. Louis Blues vs San Jose Sharks – Round 3 – Game 2 Recap

    Game Recap:

    The Blues came out from the gate determined to not hang their goalie Jordan Binnington out to dry like they did some many times in game one and it worked. The Blues came out and pressured in the first part of the period and scored the only goalie thanks to Blues potential Conn Smythe Candidate Jaden Schwartz. But the Blues couldn’t keep the Sharks at bay and they stormed back in the second half of the period with some pressure but couldn’t solve Binnington who I am sure was determined not to have another game like game 1.

    The 2nd period would be the Logan Couture show as the penalties would begin to ramp up against San Jose, St.Louis would score once via Vince Dunn but Couture would score a goal Short-Handed to get the Sharks on the board and then would score less than 2 minutes later to tie the game at two apiece in the second period. But the Blues wouldn’t just lay down and die with less than 4 minutes left in the second tough guy defencemen Robert Bortuzzo would score to reinstate the St. Louis Blues lead heading into the 3rd period.

    The 3rd period would be a swapping of penalties for both teams as they would both end up with no powerplay goals on the night. But with the Sharks pressing for the tying goal late the Blues Oskar Sundqvist would give the Blues some insurance with just over 3 minutes remaining and eventually seal the series tie at one apiece.

    Lineups:

    St. Louis

    Jaden Schwartz – Brayden Schenn – Vladimir Tarasenko

    Sammy Blais – Ryan O’Reilly – David Perron

    Pat Maroon – Tyler Bozak – Christian Thomas

    Ivan Barbashev – Oskar Sundqvist – Alex Steen

     

    Joel Edmundson – Alex Pietrangelo

    Jay Bouwmeester – Colton Parayko

    Vince Dunn – Robert Bortuzzo

     

    Jordan Binnington

    Jake Allen

    Scratched: None

    Injuries: Carl Gunnarsson (Upper Body)

     

    San Jose

    Scratched:  None

    Injuries: Radek Simek

     

    GameDay:

    First Period:

    St.Louis Goal – 2:34 – Jaden Schwartz (10) assisted by Vladimir Tarasenko (2) and Joel Edmundson (4)

    San Jose Penalty – 4:04 – Tomas Hertl, 2 minutes for Tripping

    St. Louis Penalty – 6:34 – Jay Bouwmeester, 2 minutes for Tripping

    San Jose Penalty – 15:46 – Evander Kane, 2 minutes for Tripping

    End of 1st – STL – 1      SJS – 0

    Shots              6                  9

    Faceoffs        6/17          11/17

    Hits                12                9

    PP                 0/2                 0/1

    Second Period:

    St. Louis Goal – 4:16 – Vince Dunn (2) assisted by Ryan O’Reilly (8) and David Perron (5)

    San Jose Penalty – 4:42 – Marcus Sorenson, 2 minutes for Interference

    San Jose SH Goal – 4:55 – Logan Couture (12) unassisted

    San Jose Goal – 6:54 – Logan Couture (13) assisted by Timo Meier (8)

    St. Louis Goal – 16:34 – Robert Bortuzzo (1) assisted by Joel Edmundson (5) and Tyler Bozak (5)

    San Jose Penalty – 19:31- Brendan Dillion, 2 minutes for Delay of Game

    End of 2nd – STL – 3      SJS – 2

    Shots               15                15

    Faceoffs       15/36           21/36

    Hits                24                  18

    PP                   0/4                  0/1

    Third Period:

    St. Louis Penalty – 10:37 – Robert Thomas, 2 minutes for Hooking

    San Jose Penalty – 12:42 – Joe Thornton, 2 minutes for Tripping

    St. Louis Goal – 16:52 – Oskar Sundqvist (3) assisted by Alex Steen (2) and Alex Pietrangelo (10)

    End of 3rd – STL – 4         SJS- 2

    Shots              25                26

    Faceoffs      23/54         31/54

    Hits              35                 28

    PP                 0/5                0/2

    Make sure to follow TXHT’s extensive Playoffs coverage on our 2019 NHL Playoffs page.

  • Western Conference Finals Preview – St. Louis Blues v. San Jose Sharks

    Western Conference Finals Preview – St. Louis Blues v. San Jose Sharks

    After a wild seven game series with the Dallas Stars, the Blues emerged victorious. Saturday, they continue their inexorable march to the Cup against the San Jose Sharks. Before breaking down the series, I’ll have to admit (though often considered a sacrilegious act to hockey fans), that I am a baseball fan and ardent supporter of the St. Louis Cardinals. As such, I noticed a quite interesting parallel between the World Series of 2011 against a Dallas-based team and the second round series with the Stars. Each series had game winners in this order: STL, DAL, STL, DAL, DAL, STL, STL.

    So, instead of recalling the vituperative memories of the last time the Blues and Sharks played in the playoffs, let’s focus on the last time the STL and SF baseball teams played for a premonition:

    Oh. Right.

    Anyway, back to the better sport – the Blues and Sharks finished the regular season with similar point totals, though the Sharks finished two points ahead with 101 and will start the series at home.

    The two teams met three times during the season, with the Blues going 1-1-1, including a 4-0 win and 4-0 loss in November (which, as we’ve seen before, does not really matter because that was before the team learned how to play hockey), as well as a 3-2 overtime loss, in a game without Vladimir Tarasenko.

    Like with any series, there are a number of factors that could be ‘keys to the series’, but quite honestly, there really is only one important one – Martin Jones. Jones is about as bad as Ben Bishop is good, so if the Blues cannot win this series, and score a fair amount of goals, it is completely on them. Though San Jose sports Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson on defense, neither is particularly adept at defense these days. Since Burns, Karlsson, Joe Pavelski, Tomas Hertl, and Logan Couture are quite skillful offensively, the Blues simply need to play as strong of a game defensively as they did in game 7 against Dallas, and bide their time until they get their offensive chances.

    To put how mediocre Jones is in perspective, let’s compare him to the much maligned Jake Allen, who absolutely was not good for the Blues during the season and a major reason for their stodgy start to the here. According to NaturalStatTrick, Martin Jones has a save percentage of .896, while Allen’s is .905. Allen has a GSAA of -5.91, while Jones has an astounding -22.87. GSAA is a metric that basically measures goals saved above average. While -5.91 isn’t great, it’s much better than -22. The only part where Jones beats Allen is in High Danger Save Percentage, with a paltry .806 to .796 edge.

    Of course more goes into an evaluation of a goalie than simply his raw stats, most notably team defense, but at minimum we can conclude that San Jose is not good at keeping the puck out of their own net, and Jones himself is not good when facing high danger shots. If the Blues do not score against Jones, the last thing anyone should be doing is valorizing him, because in all likelihood it will be the shooters that are taking bad shots, as opposed to Jones making great and timely saves.

    That’s basically it. Score goals. Just score goals. Play solid defense. And, above all else, don’t throw the puck in your own net:

    Blues in 6.