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Blues outworked in home opener
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It seemed like the table was set Thursday night for the St. Louis Blues.
The presents were unwrapped in the form of a shiny, new Al MacInnis statue.
The party started with a Keith Tkachuk goal.
But in the end, opening night for the 2009-10 season proved to be a dud in front of a sell-out crowd of 19,150.
This was a night that was suppose to inaugurate the Blues into the elite tier of the National Hockey League. Instead, the capacity crowd was treated to a 4-2 loss at the hands of the Atlanta Thrashers.
With expectations already high from the Stockholm sweep, the Blues seemed primed for a breakout home-ice appearance.
But the Thrashers had other ideas.
See: Ondrej Pavelec and Ilya Kovalchuk.
The two standouts pulled the Thrashers to a come-from-behind victory with Pavelec's 29 saves and Kovalchuk's two goals.
Even before Tkachuk gave the Blues a 1-0 lead, the Blues were playing a sloppy defensive game. Defensemen were getting worked over in the corners and loose pucks were being gobbled up by Thrasher forwards.
Faceoffs loses also hindered Blues centers all night.
While fans may be tired of hearing the "jet lag" excuse, it may be possible the Blues are suffering from the travel and layover time in between games (Atlanta also opened their season Saturday and didn't play until Thursday).
Other points of interest:
- After registering just one shot in 18+ minutes of ice time, David Backes recorded a -2 on the night. It pushes his total to -3 on the season. All the signs of another slow start for the power forward.
- At one point, the Thrashers had two goals on three shots in the first period. Not typical of a Chris Mason performance.
- For those who didn't know: Kovalchuk can play. Now that he is finally surrounded by some talent, the Thrashers are showing signs of life.
- Pavelec may not be the sturdiest netminder in the league, but he is LARGE (ahem...Roman Turek). It was a great decision by Tkachuk on his goal to go five-hole on the rookie goaltender. When Pavelec sets up at the top of the crease, there really isn't much else to shoot at.
These home games littered throughout the beginning will become even more important as the team hits the road later in the year.
The verdict is still out on the Thrashers, but like fans have seen in previous years, games like Thursday night can come back to bite a team on the playoff bubble.
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