Home Ice is the Light at the End of the Tunnel

It's official. The Blues are practically unstoppable at the Scottrade Center.

On Thursday night, they improved to 28-4-4 at home on the season and have lost just once in regulation in their building since a December 3rd loss to the Blackhawks. The one loss was to the Bruins of the Eastern Conference and with the rest of the team's home games being against the Western Conference, that should give Blues fans a big reason to smile. The team finishes a brief three game home stand on Saturday night against Columbus, who the Blues defeated in the teams' only previous meeting at Scottrade by a score of 6-4. Overall, the Blues are 2-1 against the Blue Jackets this season with a decisive 2-1 win in Columbus, a furious comeback 6-4 at home, and a rather deflating 2-1 loss in their last trip to Ohio that was a tenth of a second from at least going to overtime, as that's how much time remained in the period when Colubmus scored their first goal.

The Jackets have picked it up as of late, posting a 5-4-1 mark in their last ten games which includes a current four-game winning streak. However, the club is still just 9-20-4 on the road this season and that figured coupled with the Blues' ridiculous home record doesn't bode well for Columbus. I wouldn't expect the Blues to have much trouble with the Jackets on Saturday night.

Both teams will have a quick turn around as they head back to Ohio for a 5 pm central start on Sunday on the other end of a home-and-home series. With things so tight at the top of the conference between the Blues, the Vancouver Canucks, and the Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis really needs to pick up both wins since they'll be at an even disadvantage with the Blue Jackets as far as travel goes, and they'll still clearly be the better team. The Columbus game kicks off a seven-game road trip for the Blues and while they showed on the last trip with a 5-1 record that they can win on the road, it still won't be as easy as at home. The following game is in Chicago on Tuesday, against a Blackhawks team that probably won't be too happy about the way St. Louis pushed them around in a 5-1 win at Scottrade just a week earlier. I'm not saying that the Blues will lose in Chicago. I just think they should take advantage of playing weaker teams like Columbus right before that game and Carolina, the worst team in the east, right after the Blackhawks. That would certainly soften the blow of a potential loss in the Windy City.

The Blues need to use their current momentum to keep pressure on Vancouver and Detroit. The Canucks finish with nine of their last 14 games at home after a win over Winnipeg on Thursday, so they have a leg up on St. Louis.  And while the Red Wings still have their injury problems with Pavol Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom, they certainly won't lay down with home ice and the right to avoid a first round series with Nashville on the line. Detroit has been just as dominant as the Blues have at home, so earning home ice through at least the two rounds is quite a prize for whichever team can win the Central Division, even if neither can keep pace with Vancouver.

The Billikens' March to the Tournament Continues

For the first time in quite a while, the St. Louis University basketball season hit a snag.

They dropped a game at Rhode Island, the last place team in the Atlantic-10 Conference. The itself would be bad enough on its own, but how it happened made it even worse. SLU had a 10-point lead with 10 minutes remaining against a team that had won just five basketball games all season coming into the tilt against SLU. The Billikens even lead by two with under two minutes left. But the team settled for three-pointers and jump shots the rest of the way, rather than going to their senior and leading scorer, Brian Conklin, inside. Threes are great when they're falling. A team can live off of them, like Duke did against North Carolina a few weeks ago, when they attempted 38 shots from beyond the arc. However, when they're not going in, a team has to look for other options, especially inside. The Billikens didn't go that route and it cost them.

The Rhode Island loss transformed the Billikens' home finale, senior night against Xavier, from a win that would be nice to have into a game that they probably needed in order to still make the NCAA tournament. The Bills came out sluggish in the first half. Maybe it was jitters. Perhaps it was just a fired up Xavier team that needed the win even more than SLU just working the home team. But whatever it was, the Billikens found themselves 10 points behind the Musketeers at halftime. SLU went from a six-game winning streak and a practical lock to make the tournament to a bubble team in big trouble in just three short halves.

Xavier came out and scored the first point of the second half, getting a free throw to expand their lead over the Billikens to 40-29. The senior, Conklin, then took over for SLU on senior night. The Billikens went on a ridiculous 24-2 run and like magic, an 11-point SLU deficit became an 11-point lead. During that run, Conklin scored 11 of the Bills' 24 points. He would finish with 23 points for the game, picking up 15 of them after the break. Seniors are supposed to carry a team and Conklin certainly did that Tuesday night. Winning at Duquesne would be a nice boost for SLU heading into the conference tournament in Atlantic City and could certainly help their seed. However, earning a sweep of Xavier, one of the league's top tier teams, the Billikens will probably get an at-large bid for the first time in over a decade if they fail to win the conference tournament.

When the Bills make their long awaited return to the big dance, the 12-year old kid in me that ran  circles around my house after SLU knocked of UMass in their last tourney win will probably be in the mood to do the Homer Simpson chicken spin dance. And with my apartment being pretty much completely hardwood floors, I wouldn't put it past me.

Thanks to Rushthecourt.net for the photo.