Home Cooking for the Blues in January

My hockey club has been playing extremely well as of late. The Blues are just one point back of the Chicago Blackhawks for the lead in the Central Division. The Colorado Avalanche went into Chicago last night and left with a 4-0 win. Hopefully, they come into St. Louis tired and the Blues can use their one day off to spur them past the Avs and into the top spot in the Central and maintain pace with the Vanouver Canucks for the top spot in the conference, as the Canucks are leading late in the third period in Boston. The Blues's dramatic comeback on Thursday night against the Edmonton Oilers showed the heart that this team has. They spent virtually half of the second period shorthanded, getting completely hosed by the referees with bad penalties going against the Blues and obvious calls not being whistled on Edmonton. Getting the first power play goal after a quick delay of game penalty in the third was huge. TJ Oshie completely running one of the Oilers and not retaliating when they cheap-shotted him for making a clean hit was even bigger. The Blues went back to work on the power play, tied the game, and they just kept the momentum from that point on in the third. Matt D'Agostini wristed a laser past Devan Dubnyk to put the Blues back in front and they held on from there.

With the Blues playing nine home games in January and just two on the road, they have a terrific opportunity to separate themselves from some of the lower teams in the conference and perhaps build a bit of a lead on Detroit and Chicago. The Blues' home record is an outstanding 16-3-2, which ranks tops in the NHL for home wins. Winning the division would be a huge advantage, as the winner will likely get the top seed and the two runners up could face each other in the first round as the four and five seeds. Not only will that knock out one of the better teams in the conference early, but that will be a tough, tiring series that could lead to the winner being too beat up to make much noise beyond that round. This month is critical with all of the road games that the Blues have to play in March. They must position themselves well now so that they can withstand a possible slump later, as I hold the same thoughts as team president John Davidson. "I don't want to make the playoffs, I want to win the playoffs."