Philadelphia Flyers @ Blues 3-6 - Wednesday, December 28, 2016Robby Fabbri clutched the three pucks in his hand after his first NHL hat trick helped the St. Louis Blues defeat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-3 at Scottrade Center. The Blues (19-12-5) trailed 3-2 after Flyers forward Brayden Schenn scored a power-play goal at 4:13 of the third period, but they responded with four straight goals. David Perron and Scottie Upshall started the run when they scored 1:20 apart. Perron tied it 3-3 with a deflection at 5:53, and Upshall put St. Louis ahead 4-3 with a deflection of his own at 7:13. Fabbri scored his second of the game with 4:59 remaining to put the Blues up 5-3, and then completed his hat trick with an empty-net goal with 2:56 remaining to make it 6-3. St. Louis scored three third-period goals in its previous nine games.
Kevin Shattenkirk also scored for the Blues, who are 14-2-4 at home, including 12-1-4 in the past 17 games. Backup goalie Carter Hutton made 17 saves for his first win since Nov. 5. Wayne Simmonds and Schenn each had a goal and an assist, Nick Cousins scored, and Travis Konecny had two assists for the Flyers (20-13-4). Steve Mason made 19 saves. It was Philadelphia's fourth loss in five games (1-3-1) after a 10-game winning streak. Simmonds scored his Flyers-leading 17th goal to give Philadelphia a 1-0 lead 3:25 into the game, but St. Louis got two power-play goals, from Shattenkirk at 15:01 and Fabbri with 11.7 seconds remaining in the first, to take a 2-1 lead. The Flyers scored the only goal in the second period when Cousins deflected Ivan Provorov's wrist shot from the left point. After Cousins tipped it in the slot, the puck caromed off Blues defenseman Carl Gunnarsson and got past Hutton at 4:32 to tie it 2-2.
* Simmonds opened the scoring off a perfect tic-tac-toe play with Schenn and Konecny that had the Blues standing in place.
"It's a cool feeling. It's special. To get it in a win is even better."
Fabbri said he could remember getting hat tricks at the junior level, but he couldn't recall how long ago it was.
"I couldn't tell you that; it's been awhile." Fabbri said.
"I think we've had a lot of these go our way at home. We just stay on it. We trust our work at home and believe in it and just stay on it." Ken Hitchcock said.
"Our team, for the most part, when we got down by a goal early, we didn't flinch. We held our game." Scottie Upshall
* Simmonds opened the scoring off a perfect tic-tac-toe play with Schenn and Konecny that had the Blues standing in place.
* Mason went to his right to stop a one-timer from Blues defenseman Joel Edmundson from the top of the left faceoff circle at 1:09 of the second period after a give-and-go pass play between Jaden Schwartz and Paul Stastny on the right wing to set up the shot.
* Fabbri's second of the game was a microcosm of the Blues goals. He fended off Cousins' challenge for the puck along the wall on the left side of the Flyers zone, moved it into the left circle, and beat Mason to the short side.
* Hitchcock loved the work of the Blues' third line, and center Patrik Berglund was front and center. Berglund was 9-for-13 on faceoffs and created a lot of space for Fabbri and Jaskin, who combined for five points. Berglund had an assist, two hits, a takeaway and a plus-1 rating.
* Fabbri (20 years, 341 days) is the second-youngest player in Blues history to get a hat trick behind Bernie Federko (20 years, 269 days). … Defenseman Colton Parayko and forward Dmitrij Jaskin each had two assists for St. Louis. … The Blues activated Stastny (upper body) off injured reserve Wednesday after he missed one game. ... Flyers center Sean Couturier returned after missing 16 games with a lower-body injury. ... Philadelphia defenseman Nick Schultz played after being a healthy scratch 22 straight games. … The Flyers had an apparent goal by Schenn waved off 3:45 into the third period when the referee lost sight of the puck and blew his whistle, but Schenn scored 28 seconds later.
Fabbri said he could remember getting hat tricks at the junior level, but he couldn't recall how long ago it was.
"I couldn't tell you that; it's been awhile." Fabbri said.
"I think we've had a lot of these go our way at home. We just stay on it. We trust our work at home and believe in it and just stay on it." Ken Hitchcock said.
"Our team, for the most part, when we got down by a goal early, we didn't flinch. We held our game." Scottie Upshall
Nashville Predators @ Blues 4-0 - Friday, December 30, 2016
Juuse Saros made 25 saves for his first NHL shutout, and the Nashville Predators defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-0 at Scottrade Center on Friday.
Yannick Weber, Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson scored in the second period for the Predators (16-14-6), who ended a three-game losing streak by winning their third straight road game. The Blues (19-13-5) lost their final game before playing the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2017 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic at Busch Stadium on Monday. Weber scored his first of the season, and first in 81 games, on a wrist shot to give the Predators a 1-0 lead at 4:52. Forsberg scored a power-play goal at 7:26 to make it 2-0, and Arvidsson got around defenseman Jay Bouwmeester to make it 3-0 at 17:36. Blues goalie Jake Allen made 11 saves and was replaced at the start of the third period by Carter Hutton, who allowed a power-play goal to Colin Wilson at 8:08 of the third off a rebound.
* Arvidsson pulled the puck through his legs and around Bouwmeester, then avoided the poke-check of Allen to score.
"I've tried it before in practices and stuff, some games, but I haven't been able to put it in the net," Arvidsson said. "So it was nice to see it go in. I just felt I had a little more speed than the [defense]. That was it."
"We really hit the skids when it went 2-0. Lost our energy and lost our focus. I don't know. Disappointing." Ken Hitchcock said.
"Maybe, but myself no, and other guys no because it is a couple days away. If it was right away, but with two days in between, you have a lot of time before and you want to have a good game because you have those two days to think about it. You're only as good as your last game. We were just flat. You saw it, we saw it." Paul Stastny
* Saros stopped Blues left wing Jaden Schwartz with 9:16 remaining in the first period to keep the game 0-0.
* The Predators weren't able to score on a two-man advantage in the second period but continued to pressure in the Blues zone before Forsberg was able to one-time a rebound.
* Predators defenseman Roman Josi didn't have a point but played a game-high 27:05 after playing 29:24 in a 3-2 home loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday. Josi attempted nine shots (two on goal) and had two hits.
* Forsberg's goal was his fifth in six games; he had three in the first 30. ... It was the first time the Blues were shut out at home since Nov. 3, 2015 (3-0 by the Los Angeles Kings).
"No, we're not going to use that as an excuse. We've been going about our business as normal." Alex Pietrangelo said.
"Maybe, but myself no, and other guys no because it is a couple days away. If it was right away, but with two days in between, you have a lot of time before and you want to have a good game because you have those two days to think about it. You're only as good as your last game. We were just flat. You saw it, we saw it." Paul Stastny
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