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There are milks with higher percentages than St. Louis’ powerplay

Matt D'Agostini, Alex Steen, Kevin Sharrenkirk, David Backes

St. Louis Blues right wing Matt D’Agostini, left, is congratulated by teammates Alex Steen, Kevin Shattenkirk (22) and David Backes after D’Angostini scored a goal in the third period against the Minnesota Wild during their NHL hockey game in St. Paul, Minn. Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011.(AP Photo/Andy King)

AP

Early-season statistical analysis is a dangerous game, but that shouldn’t stop us from playing it.

Case in point: The St. Louis powerplay.

It’s probably too early to say the Blues are bad with the man advantage. But it’s not too early to say there are trends suggesting the Blues are bad with the man advantage.

The Blues have had 36 powerplay opportunities this season. On those opportunities they’ve put 40 shots on goal, yet only scored three times. That’s left them with a power play percentage of 8.3, the worst in the league.

Nobody’s really sure how this came to be, especially considering St. Louis had the NHL’s 10th-best powerplay a year ago.

Losing Andy McDonald to a concussion hurt, as he led the team in PP points last season. Their slumping forwards hurt, especially reigning PHT 1st Dud of the Week Chris Stewart. And the aforementioned shots on goal total hurts, because averaging one shot per powerplay is brutal.

Anything else?

“I think early on, there was some execution that didn’t get in the net and then all of the sudden, we kind of got ourselves spun into a number of different situations where the unit’s changing and Andy [McDonald’s] out,” Blues coach Davis Payne told NHL.com. “Now all of a sudden, we have trouble getting the puck in the zone. I don’t think that’s as much of an issue now. Now you see teams really coming at us because they know we haven’t scored a bunch of power-play goals.”

The Blues will try to get the PP on track tonight at home against Vancouver (which just so happens to be “Cardinals Night with the Blues” at Scottrade.) While the Canucks are one of the many teams that prevented St. Louis from scoring on the powerplay this year, the Blues did whip Vancouver 3-0 last time out.

One guy to watch tonight? Alex Steen. The noted Canuck killer (11pts in 15 career games vs. Vancouver) leads all Blues in goals this year and is averaging 2:18 of PP time per game.