Blues forward David Perron was recognized by the NHL today as the league's No. 3 star for his performance last week.
Perron led the NHL with six goals and was a plus-5 in four games, as the Blues went 4-0 in wins over Ottawa, New Jersey, Colorado and San Jose.
"You play so many games and you're trying your best in every game," Perron said in Sunday's game story. "Sometimes they go in and sometimes they don't. Sometimes it's going to hit the post and you did the exact same shot. I'll certainly take the goals that are coming my way right now and mostly the wins for our team for sure."
The others are David Backes (16), T.J. Oshie (14), Patrik Berglund (13), Alex Steen (13), Jason Arnott (12) and Chris Stewart (11). Matt D'Agostini is closing in with nine.
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HALAK'S SHUTOUT
Blues goaltender Jaroslav Halak has been with the organization less than two seasons, but with Sunday's 3-0 shutout, he is tied with Roman Turek for No. 2 on the franchise's career list with 13. (Glenn Hall is No. 1 with 16).
Halak's shutout was his fifth in his last 10 games and his sixth of the season, which ties him for the NHL lead with New York's Henrik Lundqvist and Los Angeles' Jonathan Quick.
The Blues have 11 shutouts this season, including five from Brian Elliott, and are just two shy of the Blues' franchise mark of 13, set by Hall and Jacques Plante in 1968-69. (Hall had eight and Plante had five that season).
Halak's latest shutout came after he allowed three goals on 12 shots and was pulled last Thursday in New Jersey. Elliott came in and the Blues rallied for a 4-3 shootout victory. After Halak returned to the win column Sunday, Hitchcock said the goalie's performance against the Devils wasn't the reason he was yanked.
"I don't worry about the goals that go in against goalies," Hitchcock said. "I look at the body language of the team and I didn't like the body language of the team in that game at all. I felt it was my duty to make a change, to stop the bad body language. Whether it was Jaro or Ells, it really wouldn't have mattered. We've got a lot of confidence in Jaro, going right back to him."
At one point this season, Halak was 1-6 with a 3.53 goals-against average and an .835 save-percentage. He's now 16-9-5 with a 1.97 GAA (4th in the NHL) and .922 save-percentage.
As a result of Sunday's shutout, Halak will get the start Tuesday in Columbus, which will give him another chance to improve his stock on the road. Halak is 14-2-2 at Scottrade Center this season, but he is just 2-7-3 on the road.
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MCDONALD ON CONCUSSIONS
Andy McDonald made his triumphant return to the Blues' lineup after missing four months with a concussion. In the past two seasons, McDonald has missed a total of six months and 75 games, dealing with two concussions.
He was asked if the NHL is doing enough to address an issue that is affecting every team in the league.
"They're taking steps," McDonald said. "It's certainly a really complicated issue and it's a learning process, but I think you're going to see more steps taken. It's tough for the league to handle, but it's something that is going to be ongoing. You're going to see over the next year or couple of years, there's going to be some adjustments on how everything is handled."
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ODDS & ENDS
- With Alex Pietrangelo scoring an empty-net goal with five seconds to play Sunday, the Blues reached the three-goal plateau. With the win, they are 26-0 when scoring three-plus goals this season.
- The Blues are currently on their fourth four-game winning streak of the season. A win in Columbus Tuesday would give the team a season-high five-game streak.
- Jason Arnott (shoulder) did make the trip to Columbus with the Blues, but his availability for tomorrow's game isn't known.
- Alex Steen (concussion), who attended Sunday's game at Scottrade Center, is not on the trip.
