St. Louis Blues Can’t Crack Boston Bruins, Suffer Shutout

The St. Louis Blues (12-5-1) were shutout by the Boston Bruins (12-8-0) 2-0 in Boston on Tuesday.  This disappointing loss softened the recently earned lead the Blues had in the Central Division of the Western Conference and allowed the Nashville Predators to reclaim it with their win later in the evening.  The Blues have a tough road ahead of them in making up for this loss as they take on the league-leading Canadiens on Thursday.

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Both teams took turns controlling the puck in the early minutes of the game.  At 2:36 Daniel Paille took a hooking penalty to give the Blues their first power play which the Blues did nothing with.  Brian Elliot lingered behind the net after passing the puck at 5:45 allowing Patrice Bergeron to score an easy goal and giving the Bruins the first goal.  The Blues picked their game up a little and at 12:22 Chris Kelly was charged with hooking to give the Blues their second power play.  The Blues had a very difficult time keeping control in the Bruins’ zone.  The rest of the period went by uneventful with the Bruins having a slight advantage despite being out shot.

The Blues started the second period with an increased effort and dominated a lot of the early play.  By the middle of the period the Bruins evened out the control and at 11:31 Torey Krug scored from the right point to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead.  With nine seconds left in the period the Bruins had a three on two break and put the puck in the net.  The officials ruled it a no goal due to goaltender interference.  The Blues left the period down by two although they out shot the Bruins.

The Bruins took immediate control of the third period and began with a break and a goal post shot.  Despite this, the Blues played their strongest of the night and continued to put a lot of shots on goal.  With three minutes left in the game, the Blues pulled Elliot and put a quick shot on goal that was reviewed and called a no goal.  With two minutes left the Bruins had an empty net break and Paul Stastny stopped the play with a called hook to give the Bruins their first power play.  The Blues put Elliot back in goal, but with control and a minute left the Blues took him back out for even strength.  The Blues showed their best play with some strong passing in the final seconds but couldn’t earn a goal even though they almost doubled the Bruins in shots.

This may have been one of the most uneventful and boring games to watch this season.  Despite the high shot count, The Blues looked a lot like the team they were in the early games this season.  They had a tough time with power plays and couldn’t seem to handle the puck.  Nothing worked, it was like watching a car with different shaped wheels hobble down the road.

One of the main problems was the lackadaisical attitude in the Blues’ early game.  The players were not carrying the puck in to the zone with any speed, and would usually either dump the puck or let up at the point giving the Bruins a chance to assess and attack.  I have no idea what Brian Elliot was doing in the first period as twice he casually skated in and out of the trapezoid with attackers in his zone.  One of these moments allowed the Bruins to score.  Sure, Ian Cole may have passed poorly, but Elliot had his backed turned to center showing no urgency to return to the crease.  Watch for yourself:

Boston took a lot of the ice from the Blues and their players were in the way of a lot of shots.  This is what kept the Schwartz, Tarasenko, Lehtera line scoreless; a lack of room to play.  This is also why a lot of the passes didn’t work out.  The Blues aren’t used to making snap decisions and those who are were stuffed before they could make anything happen.

To their credit the Blues gave a good effort in the third but the Bruins played a strong defensive game to close out the game.  Hopefully the Blues turn this loss into momentum and play a more explosive game in Montreal.

What are your thoughts on the game?  Tell us what the Blues did well or how they disappointed you in the comments below.