Personally, I suggest that at the very least, Tony LaRussa should be at every Blues game for the rest of the season as their unofficial mascot. He has nothing else to do now, right?
The hobbled penalty kill allowed a goal by Ryan Kesler just 23 seconds into the third period, but kept the Canucks scoreless for the remainder of the game. The tenacity of David Backes paid off, as he jammed home a puck at 5:59 for his fifth goal of the season. Oddly enough, the Blues had a multitude of wide open shots to take at Roberto Luongo’s net, but either didn’t take them or misfired completely. Shockingly, this didn’t come back to bite the Blues like it usually does, as they were able to keep the Canucks off of the scoreboard for the rest of the period.
Brian Elliott improves to 5-1 on the season with the win tonight. Tomorrow night the Blues travel to Minnesota to take on the Wild, so Jaroslav Halak’s a good candidate to start in net. It is telling that coach Davis Payne chose Elliott to start the home game and Halak to start the away. That’s a pretty good signifier of where his confidence is right now.