St. Louis Blues Morning Links: Home Cooking Around The NHL
Good morning Blues fans! For whatever reason, the Blues have turned around their poor performance at home from recent years. They are not alone though.
The St. Louis Blues have been mediocre at best and sometimes woeful at home in recent years. It has never been truly awful as the Blues always wanted to do well.
Clearly, winning over 100 points each season, you can’t have a terrible home record. However, there were plenty of games over the last handful of years where you got the sense the Blues were trying too hard.
Perhaps they were gripping the stick a little too tight. Maybe they were too involved in the community and wanted to win for a certain person or purpose too much.
Whatever the reason, there were too many nights where fans went home disappointed after a game at the Scottrade. That has not been the case in 2016-17, for the most part.
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The Blues are tied for the most home wins in the Western Conference with 16 right now. Only Pittsburgh has more home wins in the entire league.
There is only a couple problems with the Blues home record and it has nothing to do with the fact they are winning at home. The first problem is their road record.
The Blues are currently 5-10-1 away from home. If not for the Blues great home stats, they might be on the outside looking in when it comes to playoff positioning. The flip side of that is if the Blues could get their road game right, they could be one of the best teams in the league.
The other issue with the Blues home record is they are not alone. That is more of a bad luck thing than anything else.
Yes, the Blues have one of the best home records in the league. Still, it is kind of a go figure deal that so many other NHL teams have a great home record too.
Chicago currently has the same record as the Blues at 16-4-4. San Jose has 14 wins, Minnesota and Anaheim have 13 wins. Washington and Montreal have 15 wins and Columbus has 16 as well.
It is just one of several interesting trends in the NHL. Everyone seems to be winning at home and there are so many goals being allowed.
Six of the 16 teams in a current playoff position have an even goal difference or a negative one. That probably won’t be the case at the end of the year, but it is an oddity nevertheless.
A lot of that just does not mesh. How can so many teams be good at home but have a poor goal difference? Well there are a lot of goals going in, so home wins are tight and road losses are large to make a generalization.
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The Blues are definitely part of that. They are currently -4 in the goal stats. The Blues win in the Winter Classic was the first time in a month they had held their opponent under two goals.
St. Louis just has not been good defensively whether at home or on the road. It’s fantastic for the paying fans they have turned Scottrade into a fortress, but things must still improve.
The Blues are not currently in a home ice position, so they need to learn to win on the road.
Here are your St. Louis Blues Morning Links to get your day started off right.
The St. Louis Blues are still an up and down team. They have not won back to back games since November. On the flip side, their AHL affiliate have gone through quite a turnaround. Much of their success can be attributed to Craig Berube who has sparked quite the switch in the Chicago Wolves in his first season. (STLToday)
The last outdoor festivity of the Winter Classic may not have had the fanfare of the others, but it was still entertaining. The Blues alumni and some guests took on former Cardinals and their front office in the One Nation Classic. (Post-Dispatch)
It continues to be the year of hockey over at our sister site, Arch Authority. After Vladimir Tarasenko won their STL Sportsman of the Year, now the Blues get the top moment of 2016 as well. (Arch Authority)
In case you missed it (it was posted late), the Blues might be needing to deal one of their goaltenders sooner than they anticipated. Good play by a prospect coupled with a souring relationship lower in the hockey levels may have forced a potential move. (Bleedin Blue)
Previously in our links we posted about an injury to Winnipeg Jets star Patrick Laine. Now he will be forced to miss an indefinite amount of time as he has picked up the dreaded c-word when it comes to sports injuries. (NHL)
Speaking of the hit that led to Laine’s injury, there was the usual fight afterward sticking up for the injured player. Some of ESPN’s talking hockey heads debated whether that should even happen if the hit was clean. (ESPN)
Have a great day Blues fans!
