My first inclination after reading your write up was to jump onto my bookmaker and throw down a bunch of cash with you. It was a great write up
I agree with everything you posted, but I am a bit weary. The Blues have been interesting this year in that they have not been the defensive juggernaut that we thought they would continue to be after last year. Hitch is still preaching, but offense is over taking it seems. The Blues are being weak in front of the net and not getting help from centers such as MacDonald and Berglund coming back deep to pick up weak side guys. Part of that reasoning comes from offensive defensemen like Pietz and Shatts not clearing the front of the net and instead looking for homerun passes. The only true shutdown guy they have is Jackman. Pietrieangelo and Shattenkirk's success comes from them pinching in on the blue line...if they miss however, you are looking at a 2-1 quickly, which a defensive system doesn't save, a great goalie does.
All of that however is answered in your above write up, but the fact that the Blues got in at 6:33am after a 15 hour delay has me a bit concerned that they are going to have some tired and groggy legs.
One thing I know about tired and groggy legs, isn't that you can't play offense or defense as effectively, systems are engrained in you and these guys are professionals. No the problem with fatigue is that you get beat regularly in 1 on 1 situations against a rested team. You also stop doing starts and stops and instead do big circles. When you get beat, you try to make up for it any way you can. This usually results in a slash, hook, trip, hold, or interference and 2 mins in the box. Add into that fact the still lingering bad blood stemming from the Thornton and Perron incident and you are looking at a cheap game with a lot of penalties.
St. Louis has the best power play in the NHL, San Jose is 9th.
St. Louis has a horrible PK right now, San Jose is 5th.
You can see where I am going with this....
I hope you are right in that it is a 2-3, 3-1 type game, but I am staying away because I worry that we will see Allen get the yank tonight at some point after Marleau and the boys wake up their offense and get back to business on the PP, making the Blues start playing desperate and go full throttle on pinching in on the blue line and crashing the net leaving 3 forwards and possibly a defensemen below the hash marks leading to an odd man rush the other way consisting of the best snipers in the game.
Then again, what do you do on a 15 hour + travel day other than sleep and prepare for your next opponent? They probably have seen so much film on each other at this point that they are both going to shut down everything the other has to offer.
Best of Luck