Goalie Manny Legace gets the start tonight in Buffalo, and the Blues are hoping he can get on a roll. After missing two weeks with a hip/groin injury, Legace returned Saturday in Los Angeles and looked rusty in the Blues’ 5-3 loss to the Kings. Legace allowed four goals on 30 shots, and with the loss, dropped to 4-3 this season. He’s goals-against average is 3.13 and his save-percentage is .896.
Outside of the 1-0 loss to Carolina, Chris Mason hasn’t been good either. At 0-4, he’s still looking for his first victory as a Blue. Mason’s GAA is 3.59 and his save-percentage is .878.
As it stands going into the game against Buffalo tonight, rookie Ben Bishop has been the Blues’ best goalie this season. But he’s back in Peoria, and there are no plans to bring him back at this point. It’ll be up to Legace and Mason until they show they can’t do it.
“We’ve challenged them,” Blues coach Andy Murray said. “We listed four things on the board the other day, and the one thing is, we can’t afford even average goaltending. Our guys can’t be average. They have to be above average for us to have an opportunity to be successful. We just expect them to step up and get the job done.”
As a team, the Blues’ GAA of 3.32 ranks 25th in the NHL.
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The Blues will have the same lineup and the same forward combinations tonight as they had in LA:
Keith Tkachuk-Andy McDonald-Brad Boyes
Lee Stempniak-Patrik Berglund-David Perron
Dan Hinote-Jay McClement-David Backes
David Koci-Yan Stastny-Cam Janssen
Streaks: Berglund has 3 goals and two assists in his last four games, McDonald has 3 goals, 1 assist in his last three games . . . Stempniak has four assists in his last three games.
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Paul Kariya is on the trip and should be in the lineup Friday at Chicago, which means there probably won’t be a forward call-up from Peoria.
I had Peoria Rivermen beat writer, Dave Eminien, on “THE LOW DOWN” (KFNS 590) last week, and he said that Steve Regier and Julian Talbot were probably the most deserving of a call-up. Regier has eight goals and six assists in 12 games, followed by Talbot with six goals and four assists in 12 games.
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The defensive pairings have switched somewhat for tonight’s game in Buffalo:
Roman Polak-Eric Brewer
Barret Jackman-Alex Pietrangelo
Steve Wagner-Jay McKee
Brewer played some of his best hockey with former Blue Bryce Salvador. Salvador was a fast skater and very strong, which are two attributes that Polak brings to the table.
A side note: Polak was limping around the locker room today (remember, he took a shot off the foot a few games ago), but he looked smooth on the ice at today’s morning skate.
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I wrote the story in the Post-Dispatch today about the Blues’ veteran defensemen (Brewer, McKee and Jackman), and wasn’t able to get everything in the story.
- Brewer is a minus-10 this season, but four of the goals scored with him on the ice have been empty-netters.
- Brewer leads the Blues in ice time with 25 minutes, 21 seconds per game. Of course, many fans believe he could be more productive if used less . . . here’s what Brewer had to say: “I disagree with that completely. I think everybody plays better with more minutes. I don’t know a single player who plays better with less.”
- Jackman on hearing fans say the Blues don’t have a No. 1 or No. 2 defensemen: “It does bug you. Especially Brew, myself and Jay. We want to be the top d-men on our team, and we want to be considered elite d-men. We have to play better to be that. People can talk all they want. We have to perform on the ice, and whether we’re considered a No. 1 or No. 3, if we do our job, our team is going to be successful.”
- Jackman on fans’ treatment of Brewer: “It’s unfortunate. A lot of the fans are on him pretty hard. But a lot of fans don’t realize that there was three players in the deal for (Chris Pronger). It wasn’t Brew’s fault that he got traded. It was the ownership at the time. Brew is a great player. He’s played at the Olympics. He’s got a lot under his belt. He’s not a Chris Pronger and he’ll be the first one to say he’s not, but he’s a damn good player.”
JR
I was not a hockey fan until 2006… which means:
I was NOT around for the Pronger days.
However I am NOT a fan of brewer what-so-ever. His play is slow, isnt in the right position, lags, etc. What is Jackman’s reaction to that?
Not being a fan until 2006, I’m impressed by how quickly you’ve picked up your defensive positioning knowledge. I’m not saying you’re wrong, of course…
Just an observation…
Brewer has to be one of the most inept defensmen I have ever see play. You can actually see the frustrated look on his face even prior to him giving away another puck. If you can even get a 7th rounder for him at this point that would be a huge upgrade.- 10 at this point will equal - 50 at seasons end, nuff said. On the better side the kids rock this year. Berglund is going to be quite the stud in this league!!
All due respect to Jackman, but I don’t think many fans hold it against Brewer that he was traded for Pronger. The reason we dislike him is that he flat out stinks and is complacent with losing.
Right, R.C., because it takes longer than 2 years to pick up on something such as defensive positioning in hockey. It’s not rocket science, it’s hockey, a sport. Watch any sport for a breif amount of time and you pick up most things about that sport, 2 years is plenty of time to learn a lot of things, defensive positioning being one of them.
Not saying you’re wrong… Just an observation.