News » We had holes to fill this year

ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis Blues goalie Chad Johnson swears he wasn’t in a special zone or mindset. The San Jose Sharks might disagree.Johnson made 33 saves for his first shutout with St. Louis Jordan Staal Jersey , helping the Blues beat the Sharks 4-0 on Friday night.“I don’t really think about being locked in or on,” Johnson said. “I don’t think about how I feel. You kind of go out there. You prepare. I prepare the same way every day. I just try to feel the same way or not feel at all.”Alex Pietrangelo, Ryan O’Reilly, Jaden Schwartz, and Alexander Steen scored. The Blues have won four of five games after winning just two of their first eight to start the season.“We’re rolling four lines good,” Pietrangelo said. “We’re using everybody in every situation. There just seems to be good jumps, so when every line is getting out there, it seems like there’s a lot of energy.”Johnson started just his third game of the season, but his second straight. He improved to 2-2-0 with his first shutout since November 2016 with the Calgary Flames.“We’ve kind of been leaving our goalies out to dry,” Pietrangelo said. “They’ll make the first save. It’s our job to take care of the second ones. We’re doing a great job right now taking care of them.”Pietrangelo roofed a shot past goalie Aaron Dell with both teams down a man to open the scoring in the first period. Dell allowed four goals on 31 shots to fall to 1-2-2.“It’s been horrible,” Sharks center Logan Couture said about the team’s defense. “It’s not just the d-men, it’s forwards. It’s not good. It’s not good enough in American League level. It’s ugly right now.”San Jose lost its second consecutive game and was shutout for the second time this season.“The last two games haven’t been good,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. “We’re not going to make more out of it than it is. We were playing some pretty good hockey up until the last two games.”In the second period Womens Justin Faulk Jersey , O’Reilly buried a feed from Jaden Schwartz for his team-leading eighth goal of the season to give him points in a career-best nine consecutive games. He is the first St. Louis player to register a nine-game point streak in his first season with the team since Doug Weight accomplished the feat Oct. 4-25, 2001.“He does the right thing in his preparation,” Blues coach Mike Yeo said. “He’s working hard. He’s prepared. Mentally and physically he’s prepared to play the game.”Later in the second, Schwartz snapped a four-game scoring drought when he beat Dell on a pass from Tyler Bozak for his second goal of the season.Steen scored his fourth of the season 12:21 into the third period to push the St. Louis lead to 4-0.St. Louis failed to convert on four power play opportunities snapping a streak of six straight games with a power play goal.NOTES:Blues RW Vladimir Tarasenko extended his points streak to a season-best six games (four goals, four assists). … LW Nikita Soshnikov made his season debut after being sidelined with post-concussion syndrome to start the season. … San Jose has allowed at least three goals in nine consecutive games. … Sharks D Brent Burns played in 406th consecutive game, the longest streak among active players.UP NEXT:Sharks: Host Calgary on Sunday to open a six-game homestandBlues: Host Minnesota on Sunday. Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman earned accolades for making the boldest moves in improving Tampa Bay’s Stanley Cup aspirations at the NHL’s trade deadline in February.Evander Kane, however, might have been the biggest beneficiary after being dealt by eventual last-place Buffalo to San Jose on Feb. 26. Kane couldn’t contain his glee on his Twitter account a week ago in posting a message which read : ”(hashtag)playoffmode it’s about time!”It took him nine years and four cities – from Atlanta to Winnipeg, Buffalo and now San Jose – since being selected with the No. 4 pick by the then-Thrashers in the 2009 draft to finally prepare for his playoff debut. It will happen Thursday, when the Sharks open their Pacific Division first-round series at Anaheim.”It makes it easy to come to the rink. It makes it easy to play with this group of guys,” Kane said. ”I’m having a lot of fun right now.”The Sharks, who gave up a prospect and two conditional draft picks, including a potential first-rounder Minnesota Wild T-Shirts Womens , might not be in this position without Kane. The 26-year-old picked up the offensive slack on a team that closed the season minus star Joe Thornton. Kane scored nine goals, including two game-winners, and added five assists in 17 games.In closing the season at 12-7-1, the Sharks’ 25 points ranked in a tie for 10th among NHL teams since the trade deadline.”He’s a crucial part of our team,” center Chris Tierney said of Kane. ”Just gives us an extra layer of everything.”Kane wasn’t the only late-season addition to provide his new team a boost.Yzerman added offense, defense and leadership to an already elite team by acquiring New York Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh and forward J.T. Miller in one of the final trades completed. Miller led all players traded on Feb. 26 by scoring 10 goals and piling up 18 points in 19 games.”When you add two players like that and give up what they did, it’s you know: They’re in it to win it,” former player and NBC hockey analyst Eddie Olczyk said of the Lightning.Fellow analyst, Pierre McGuire looked to the moves made by Nashville.The Predators gave up a first-round draft pick in adding size and versatility to acquire forward Ryan Hartman from Chicago. They welcomed back veteran Mike Fisher, who signed out of retirement. They also signed forward Eeli Tolvanen , after the rookie first-round pick’s Kontinental Hockey League season ended last month.”You look at everything Nashville has done, they never messed with the roster integrity that was created at the beginning of the year by David Poile and Paul Fenton,” McGuire said Chris Terry Jersey Womens , referring to Predators management. ”So I think Nashville quietly, whether it’s at the deadline or just before, did some amazing things.”The Presidents’ Trophy-winning Predators (15-4-2), Winnipeg (15-4-1), Columbus (14-4-2) and Boston (13-5-4) led the NHL in points since Feb. 26.Columbus jumped from 19th in the overall standings to 14th in a run that coincided with the additions of forward Thomas Vanek and defenseman Ian Cole.Paul Stastny scored four goals and 13 points with playoff-bound Winnipeg, after being traded by St. Louis for a first-round pick. The Blues, by comparison, closed 10-7-2 and missed the playoffs with a season-ending loss to Colorado. And don’t forget Patrick Maroon, who had three goals and 10 points in 17 games for New Jersey, which acquired him from Edmonton.The Capitals filled secondary defensive needs by adding Michal Kempny and Jakub Jerabek just before the trade deadline.”We had holes to fill this year and we filled them with guys that aren’t as high-profile, but are just steady, and provided the things we needed for our team,” Capitals GM Brian MacLellan said.After appearing in just 31 games in Chicago Nick Foligno Jersey , Kempny played 22 in Washington while securing a role alongside Norris Trophy-candidate John Carlson.In Philadelphia, goalie Petr Mrazek held the fort in going 6-6-4 in place of injured starter Brian Elliott. Elliott returned in time to win the final two games including a 17-save shutout in a season-ending, playoff-clinching 5-0 win over the Rangers.Not all the trades paid off down the stretch.Rick Nash missed Boston’s final 12 games with an upper body injury after being acquired in a trade with the Rangers.Tomas Plekanec managed just two assists in 17 games with Toronto after being acquired from Montreal.Tomas Tatar had four goals and six points in 20 games with Vegas, which landed him in a deal with Detroit.—AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno, in Washington, and sports writers Josh Dubow, in San Jose, and Teresa M. Walker, in Nashville, contributed to this report.—