St. Louis Blues Take A Loss In Montreal

The St. Louis Blues (12-6-1) lost to the Montreal Canadiens (15-5-1) 4-1 in Montreal tonight.  Both teams entered the game coming off shutout losses in their prior matchups.  Despite their previous loss, the Canadiens held on to the number one spot in the league, while the Blues dropped to second in the Central Division and fifth in the Western Conference.  Tonight’s loss weakened the Blues’ position and put them farther from the first place spot they lost on Tuesday.

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The Canadiens had a great scoring chance in the first minute that they couldn’t make work for them.  Following this, the Blues controlled a lot of the first five minutes and displayed strong movement and passing from all lines.  At 7:45 Jori Lehtera fed Vladimir Tarasenko who swatted a knee high bounce into the net for the Blues’ first goal.  The Habs came back with some increased pressure, even tagging the goal post at one point.  The teams played evenly, and at a minute and a half left the Canadiens had poke fest in Jake Allen’s crease that was reviewed and called a no goal.  The Blues ended the period with their one goal lead intact.

The start of the second period was evenly matched with each team having a chance to take a lead in shots.  Around 4:50, Kevin Shattenkirk stalled behind the net to allow the Blues a line change.  Shattenkirk’s pass was knocked down by Dale Weise who managed to score on the error to tie the game at one a piece.  Then at 7:32 Max Pacioretty scored on a breakaway to give the Canadiens their second goal.  Shortly after the next face-off, Magnus Paajarvi took an interference call to give the Canadiens a power play.  The Blues killed the penalty without further damage.  The teams battled, but again at 15:34 Paajarvi took another penalty, this time for high sticking.  The Blues killed the second penalty and left the second period down by one.

The Blues started the third period with more intensity, and the Canadiens responded with another assault on Allen’s crease.  After five minutes, The Blues had a lot of excellent chances.  However, at 6:00 Pacioretty scored his second of the night to give the Canadiens a 3-1 lead.  Halfway through the period the Blues allowed three consecutive Canadien breaks, all of which were stopped.  At 12:03 Lars Eller scored on a Blues line change to increase their lead to 4-1.  Despite their best efforts, the Blues couldn’t make up the deficit and lost the game 4-1.

The Blues played much better tonight than they did Tuesday against the Bruins which is good considering they knew this game would be more challenging.  Unfortunately, they did not play well enough and their performance and scoring chances tapered off shortly after the start of the third period.  The Blues made mistakes and allowed way too many stretch pass breaks, which led to their defeat.

Most importantly, though, tonight’s loss highlighted a big concern that many have had about the team being too dependent on the STL line of Jaden Schwartz, Vladimir Tarasenko and Jori Lehtera.  We saw a brief flicker of production from other players in some recent games, but the position of the Blues in the standings has been dependent on this single line.  When the line under performs, there is nobody on the team capable of filling in the gaps.  This is where the Blues need work.

What are your thoughts about the game?  What did the Blues do well or poorly?  Leave your comments below.