Blues post fourth straight shutout, deny Caps

The Washington Capitals will have to wait to clinch the Presidents’ Trophy.

With a chance to secure the best record in the NHL for the 2015-16 season Saturday night, the Capitals were shut out on home ice by the St. Louis Blues in a 4-0 loss even though they registered 32 shots on goal, including quite a few quality scoring chances. No matter what they did, they were never able to solve Blues goalie Jake Allen. And right now, nobody can seem to solve the Blues’ goalies, whether it’s Allen or Brian Elliott between the pipes.

Saturday’s game is the fourth consecutive shutout for the Blues, with the previous three (two against Vancouver and one against San Jose) being recorded by Elliott.

You have to go all the way back to the final 18 seconds of their 6-4 loss against Edmonton on March 16 to find the last time they gave up a goal.

That is a shutout streak of 240 minutes and 18 seconds.

But even that goal wasn’t scored on one of their goalies. That was an empty net goal scored by Mark Letestu as the Blues attempted to tie the game in the closing minute.

To find the last time a Blues goalie actually gave up a goal you have to go back to the second period of that game when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored with 1:51 to play in the period. That is a stretch of 261 minutes and 51 seconds without a Blues goalie giving up a goal, which is just absolutely silly. Blues goalies have stopped all 104 shots they have faced in the four shutouts.

According to the NHL, they are the 11th team in league history to record four consecutive shutouts and only the fourth since 1967.

In the two games before this shutout streak started the Blues allowed 13 goals to Calgary in Edmonton.

The Blues remain tied for first place in the Central Division (and the entire Western Conference) with 99 points. They clinched a playoff spot with their win on Friday night. They have now won 10 of their past 12 games and seem to be playing their best hockey of the season at the moment.

Even though the Capitals have to wait to secure the Presidents’ Trophy, it is only a matter of time until they get it as they just need one more point in the standings to wrap it up. They would have to lose every game in regulation the rest of the way while the Dallas Stars would have to win every game without one of them being in shootout due to tiebreakers (at that point it would go to the third tiebreaker, which the Stars would own after beating the Capitals in their two meetings this season).

The St. Louis Blues have not allowed a goal in more than four games.(USATSI)

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