lukethedrifter wrote:Blues are averaging 2.7, a half goal+ behind the leaders. The question remains, will this formula hold up for them? Will scoring pick up? Or will they fall to the middle of the pack?
Should we have expected them to not be in the middle of the pack? They're scoring about as often as
I expected (more even), just with different personnel. The question is, will the guys who aren't scoring goals (Boyes, Backes, Steen) pick up for the guys who are (Perron, D'Agostini, Berglund) when those guys start to fade? As much as I love Perron, he's not going to score 40+ and neither is Dags. I also don't think Boyes, Backes, and Steen have suddenly become single digit goal scorers.
The big thing with this team is the number of shots they are allowing. Jaro isn't going to keep this up for the whole year but he should still be among the league leaders in SV%, probably around .920. They are only allowing 25.7 shots per game compared with 30.2 last year. Over the course of a season, with a .920 SV%, that difference accounts for 30 less goals. That is worth about 10 points in the standings. It is hard to quantify the individual's impact on shots allowed, so its hard to tell if this early season rate is flukish or if something has changed.
I know when I watch them that they are possessing the puck a lot better this year. The first three lines run a good cycle and occupy the offensive zone for extended periods of time. Often, these occupations haven't resulted in goals but they do prevent the opposition from mounting an attack and taking shots. If they can maintain this, they should be a 100+ point team even with the number of goals they are scoring now.
