Daily Grind 1/19

Blues hockey is on the air tonight, and they don’t plan on losing to the Oil. A goalie surplus in St. Louis. A great finish in the NBA last night and how one rich PG needs to dish the basketball.

The Edmonton Oilers are back in town for the 2^nd time in as many weeks to play the Blues. The Oil has given the Blues fits in both meetings so far. Edmonton won 4-2 at the Rexall Place in October and blew a two-goal lead in the third period last week in St. Louis.

The Oilers are banged up. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is out indefinitely with a shoulder injury, and star forward Taylor Hall is recovering from a freak accident. Let’s just say he is 1) lucky 2) not looking too hot.

Oilers: 17-24-4 Last 10: 2-7-1

Meanwhile, St. Louis is hotter than the Daily Babe. Not possible. But they are on fire.

Per Jeremy Rutherford, winger Alex Steen will miss his 10^th game with lingering concussion symptoms. The Blues will have defenseman Kris Russell back in the lineup after a groin injury forced him to miss 10 games as well.

Blues: 27-12-6 Last 10: 6-2-2

In the net for St. Louis: Jaroslav Halak. Halak, 12-7-5, is riding a 5 game win streak.

Brian Elliot signed a 2-year extension with the club. This is a great move keeping Halak and Elliott between the pipes for the next two seasons. I wonder if Jake Allen and Ben Bishop become trade chips. Bishop has been lights out at Peoria, registering a .932 save percentage with six shutouts.

Player to bank on: David Backes who has 4 points in his last 5 games

Backes in his Career vs. EDM: 20 GP, 7 GOALS, 3 ASST, 28 HITS, 51 SHOTS ON GOAL

Did you know? Backes will complete his pilot’s license over the NHL All-Star Break.

NBA

Exciting finish to the LA Clippers/Dallas Mavericks game last night with “Big Shot” Chauncey Billups knocking down a clutch 3-pointer to seal the victory over the defending NBA champions. Watch the highlights here.

RUSSELL WESTBROOK SIGNS EXTENSION FOR 5YEAR/80 MIL

There is one provision in the contract: no more than seven shots per game.

Westbrook is a helluva player. He is a top 5 point guard in the NBA, but he shoots too much. He has Kevin Durant, the back-to-back NBA scoring champion, on the floor. Dish him the ball. Westbrook has a selfish personality, and unless he starts averaging more than 5 assists/game, the Thunder won’t advance to the Finals.

That being said, having Durant and Westbrook keep OKC viable for a long time. Now, they have to figure out how to keep key players like James Harden, Serge Ibaka, and Kendrick Perkins. Oh yeah, and get Westbrook to pass the damn ball.

9 responses to “Daily Grind 1/19”

That cut is beyond gnarly..next year’s implementation of “mandatory helmets during warm up” is being written up as we speak i’m sure.

Nater Lucas January 19, 2012 at 5:40 pm · · Reply →

Tonight, the Oilers will all wear helmets during pre-game skate … I will report back when St. Louis takes the ice.

Thanks for checking us out. Maybe Shanny can start fining teams for hits on eachother. What a joke.