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Blues' youngsters are doing more than just holding the fort
Magnus Paajarvi (left) and Ivan Barbashev have become legitimate contributors to the Blues' playoff push.
The St. Louis Blues are dealing with a lot of late-season injuries to key offensive players, but there is a reason they have overcome those potential setbacks and kept winning.
The performance of several younger players, led by Magnus Paajarvi, Ivan Barbashev and Zach Sanford, has helped the Blues deal with the absence of Paul Stastny, Robby Fabbri, Jori Lehtera and Dmitrij Jaskin.
Paajarvi, who had two goals in Thursday night's 4-1 win over Vancouver, and Barbashev spent much of this season playing in the minor leagues, as did Sanford, who was acquired from Washington in the February trade that sent Kevin Shattenkirk to the Capitals.
"The guys that have come up, young guys, have been fantastic playing in all situations," said Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo. "We need more of that. It's always good to get a little bit of youth in there, a little bit of excitement. We lost Fabbs there, so you replace him with a couple other guys that are excited to be here. The maturity in their game on the ice is the thing that's pretty impressive, and to come in and play the way they have in those situations.
"I think the biggest thing is they're getting the opportunity. It's always nice as a young player to get looks. Those guys are getting looks on the power play and the penalty kill, and they're playing in all situations. When the coach shows trust in you like that, it really builds you as a player."
The Blues have won four in a row and nine of their last 10 as they battle the Nashville Predators for third place in the Central Division. The teams are tied, but the Blues have the tiebreaker. Each team has nine games left in the regular season, including one head-to-head matchup.
Coach Mike Yeo said those young players are getting more responsibilities at a critical time of the year because they have earned it.
"It's a real good sign for our organization," Yeo said. "The injuries that we've had, a lot of teams wouldn't be able to get through a spell like this. For these guys to come up and not only not hurt you but to actually help you and produce, it's a real good sign for the future and a real big part of maintaining what we have going now."
The Flames come into Saturday night's game on a two-game losing streak as they also are fighting for playoff positioning in the Western Conference. They lost 3-1 in Nashville on Thursday night.
Coach Glen Gulutzan was upbeat despite the loss.
"There's no cause for worry," Gulutzan told the Calgary Sun. "It wasn't like we were dominated and weren't ready to play. We were ready to play. They're a good hockey club. We just have to keep doing our thing and moving forward."
One area of the Flames' game Gulutzan would like to see improve is their power play. That unit was 0-for-5 against Nashville and is now 0-for-12 in their last five games.
"We need to shoot the puck more," Gulutzan told the Sun. "I thought they did a good job of shutting us down. But we didn't execute, either. We had them in precarious positions and we didn't execute, we iced it on ourselves. We weren't good enough on the power play, and that's what cost us in an even hockey game."
