Blues Can’t Keep Kings Down, Lose 5 Game Streak
By Brent Scott
The St. Louis Blues (21-9-2) lost to the Los Angeles Kings (16-11-6) 6-4 tonight in Los Angeles. The game was a quick rematch following a 5-2 Blues win against the Kings on Tuesday in St. Louis. T.J. Oshie rejoined the team after missing the last game; however, before the game it was announced that Jaden Schwartz would be out week to week with a foot injury. Steve Ott got a second night on Vladimir Tarasenko and Jori Lehtera’s line in place of Schwartz as a result. Martin Brodeur gave Jake Allen a night off in goal after back-to-back wins. Dmitrij Jaskin was also called up for the game.
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Since Nashville and Chicago didn’t have games this evening, tonight’s loss didn’t affect the standings. However, this also prevented the Blues from moving forward in the Central division and increasing their lead from third place.
GAME RECAP
In the first minute of play Kyle Clifford took a roughing penalty following a late hit. The Blues put up a small effort but the Kings cleared the puck well. At 3:05 Kevin Shattenkirk and Justin Williams received matching fighting majors. Then at 3:44 Petteri Linbohm was called for tripping. The Blues killed the penalty and managed to get an odd-man rush in the process. At 8:19 Shattenkirk went back to the box for interference. The Blues played strong to kill the second penalty.
At 11:29 Robyn Regehr took an interference penalty. At 13:12 David Backes scored a power play goal to put the Blues up 1-0. Jay Bouwmeester and Alex Pietrangelo received assists. Then at 14:23 Dmitrij Jaskin scored on a deflection opening the lead to 2-0. Lindbohm and Patrik Berglund earned assists. At 15:08 Drew Doughty was put in the box after slashing Steve Ott. At 16:02 Shattenkirk scored a power play goal to extend the lead 3-0. Alexander Steen and Paul Stastny received the assists. At 16:47 Chris Butler was called for slashing, and at 17:45 Marion Gaborik scored to put the Kings on the board 3-1. Te period ended with the Blues holding the lead.
A minute and a half into the second period Steve Ott was called for interference. The Blues cleared the puck well to kill the penalty. At 6:14 Anze Kopitar found a hole and score to close the lead 3-2. By ten minutes both teams put up excellent efforts. At 15:35 Maxim Lapierre took a hooking penalty. It didn’t take long into the Kings’ power play for Gaborik to score is second of the night to tie the game at 3. Jori Lehtera answered back at 16:17 with a goal of his own to give the Blues the lead 4-3. Vladimir Tarasenko got the assist. With 54 seconds left Stastny and Tyler Toffoli received matching roughing minors for two minutes of 4 on 4 play. The Blues closed the second period with a 4-3 lead.
The third period started with 1:06 of 4 on 4 play. Within 20 seconds Jeff Carter scored to tie the game at 4. The Kings put up a lot of pressure in the early minutes. At 8:01 Ryan Reaves took an interference penalty. Jake Muzzin found a hole at 8:58 and scored to put the Kings ahead 5-4. At 12:06 Dwight King scored from center ice on an off bounce to extend the Kings’ lead 6-4. With 2:20 left the Blues pulled Brodeur from the net. They put up a strong final effort but ended up losing the game 6-4.
HOW THEY PLAYED
It’s surprising that it took until tonight for the action between these two teams to get so physical. It seems that following the loss on Tuesday the Kings decided to change up their methods in order to rattle their opponents. This sort of strategy is frustrating because it sends the message that the Kings need to make up for their lack of skill by handicapping the Blues. That aside, strategically targeting key player can lead to unnecessary injuries. Of course it is a great way for the Kings to earn penalties. Why you would play in a way to earn penalties against a team like the Blues who have been above 50% on power plays in the last few games is beyond me. The Blues certainly made this clear by scoring on 2/3 power plays in the first period. The Kings adjusted their strategy, though, and didn’t get called for much more.
Steve Ott has proven to be a very valuable player on the roster. He started the season on the fourth line which he has shared with Ryan Reaves and Maxim Lapierre. Next to the STL line, Ott’s line has been dependable and at times instrumental in wins. In the absence of T.J. Oshie last game and Jaden Schwartz this game, Ott has been promoted to the second line with Tarasenko and Lehtera. He played tonight like a piece that fit perfectly with playmakers Vladi and Jori. Ott handles the puck well, can handle a break and protects his line mates. He has found his place in the organization since his acquisition last season and is now giving the Blues a great return. These past two games he has proved that he isn’t just a 4th line player. Then again the Blues don’t really have a 4th line, despite playing four lines.
Three things killed the Blues tonight. The first was the number of penalties they took. Some may have been bad calls but taking twice the number of penalties as your opponent is never a great thing especially since the Kings made some decent use of their power plays. The second problem was their lack of production in the third period. Overall they were outplayed and widely out-shot in the final 20 minutes of play. The third issue was just some run-of -the-mill bad luck. Between a bad-hop goal and the aforementioned bad/missed calls, a lot of the play did not go in the Blues’ favor. Granted, some tighter defense would have minimized the ability of the Kings to score in some of these moments.
The Blues played a good game but they can’t be expected to win them all. We’ll just have to look forward to the game in Anaheim this Saturday. What are your thoughts? Feel free to leave a comment below.