St. Louis Blues: 3 Stars Of The Week
The St. Louis Blues collected five of a possible six points this past week to climb right back in to the playoff picture.
Matt D'Agostini, Alex Steen, and Jaroslav Halak were a huge part of the point streak and they have earned our Three Stars of the Week .
The Blues power play and penalty kill were also very successful this past week.
The power play broke a 0-22 slump while the penalty kill was flawless over the last three games.
#3 Star Of The Week: Matt D'Agostini
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Acquired in a trade with Montreal last season, D'Agostini has been a pleasant surprise at the forward depleted Blues.
Over the past week D'Agostini set up Alex Steen's first goal in Vancouver as well as netting the tying goal in the same game.
In the next game against Columbus, D'Agostini assisted on one of the Blues three power play goals.
#2 Star: Alex Steen
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Alex Steen continued his promising season this week.
In Vancouver, Steen scored the first and last goals of the game and assisted on the second goal of the game by D'Agostini.
Four nights later, Steen opened the scoring again by putting in a power play goal just 1:14 into the game against Columbus.
Steen finished the week by extending his point streak to three games with an assist on Alex Pietrangelo's power play goal against Carolina.
#1 Star: Jaroslav Halak
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Jaroslav Halak collects the number one star this week with a stellar 2-0-1 record and 1.33 goals against average.
Halak made Alex Steen's two goals stand up against a potent Vancouver team by making many timely saves.
Against Columbus, Halak got retribution for the beat down he took in Columbus in November. If not for a broken play midway through the third period, Halak would have added another shutout to his Blues career.
Even though he took the loss against Carolina, Halak did allow the Blues to record a point in their fourth straight game by matching Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward save for save until the final shooter of the shootout.
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Power Play
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Coming into the week the Blues were mired in an 0-22 slump on the power play.
They broke out of it in a big way against Columbus by scoring on all three of the man advantages in the game.
Erik Johnson assisted on two of the three goals with a beautiful centering pass to Jay McClement and a heads up slap pass to Vladimir Sobotka.
Two nights later Alex Pietrangelo tied the game against Carolina with a power play goal midway through the third period.
Penalty Kill
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One of the strengths this season for the Blues has been the penalty kill.
With an 83.3% penalty kill percentage, the Blues sit 12th in the league on the kill.
St. Louis added to that percentage this week by killing 15 straight power plays.
The biggest game this past week was against Columbus in which the Blues killed eight power plays, including three 5-on-3 man advantages totaling 2:21.
The penalty kill will get a severe test this week when the Blues face Detroit, Los Angeles and San Jose.
Preview Of The Week
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The previous week was big by gaining five of six points but this week is even bigger.
The next three games are against teams ahead of the Blues in the West standings.
First up is a large contest against West leading Detroit, who defeated St. Louis 7-3 in November.
The next night will be the Blues first match up with the young and explosive Los Angeles Kings.
The Kings sit percentage points ahead of the Blues as of Monday afternoon but could very well be four points up by Thursday.
The week ends with San Jose in town.
This will be the Blues first time playing San Jose since Joe Thornton knocked David Perron out with a concussion.
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