St. Louis Blues, Jaskin Fight Back Against Pittsburgh
By Kate Cimini
The Penguins took two points tonight after their game with the St. Louis Blues. It was not an easy match for the Blues, who struggled with offensive production the entire night.
What Did They Do Well?
One of the best things about St. Louis is that, even when they are down by four points, they do not give up. Even when they’re down by four, their captain has been sent off for the rest of the night and three of the four goals they’ve let in have been stoppable, they don’t give up. Jaskin, in this instance, was our hero.
His goal in the third brought some life back to the team, and to the crowd. This was, undoubtedly, the highlight of the night. It reminded us of what we, as fans, love about the Blues and was directly responsible for re-energizing the team. Cole followed suit a few minutes later, netting his own goal and bringing the Blues up to a two-goal game.
In my game preview, I talked about the St. Louis Blues needing to focus on their defensive play, since their offensive play has been smart, aggressive and fruitful. However, their backchecking is occasionally lacking.
"“It goes without saying, and on a defensively-responsible team like the Blues I wouldn’t normally point this out, but Pittsburgh is fast, and Crosby is the fastest of them.While Crosby hasn’t scored a point in three games, he’s doing an excellent job of setting his teammates up for a shot on net, and Pittsburgh has no trouble going to the crease when they want to push that puck in. For Elliott’s sake, the defense needs to buckle down and the forwards need to do their absolute best to keep the puck moving forward.”"
The Blues have a bad habit of not communicating well when one of their D pinches in, and this often ends in a odd-man rush for their opponents. The game against the Penguins was no exception to that.
Their backchecking was strong throughout the first period, and fell off during the second and third. This was, of course, when Pittsburgh scored the majority of their goals.
Backchecking wasn’t the only thing to blame, however. (And it’s sad that backchecking is on their list of “good” things tonight.)
What Didn’t They Do Well?
Penalties comes to mind. Offensive movement. Actually putting shots on goal, and not simply near the goal. It was not a strong night for St. Louis, even if there were some interesting highlights.
Penguins at Blues: Shots on Goal Chart. Taken from
.
More from Editorials
- St. Louis Blues Need Kasperi Kapanen To Be On Best Behavior
- Hayes’ Debut And Other Bold Predictions for the St. Louis Blues
- St. Louis Blues Captaincy Is Suddenly A Huge Problem For 2023-24
- St. Louis Blues National Games Cause More Problems Than They’re Worth
- St. Louis Blues Brayden Schenn Has To Be An Impact Player In 2023-24
As you can see in the above chart, the Blues started the game out strong, and somewhere in between the first and second period, simply gave up on offensive production. They pulled back into the game after Backes’ penalty and with Jaskin and Cole’s goals, but it was too little, too late.
I’m not trying to pile on the team for a bad night; it’s going to happen to every team, every once in a while. Their position in the standings is precarious, however, even with Chicago going through a somewhat lackadaisical period. Five points separates them from Chicago and those five points will be the difference between starting their series at home or on the road.
That can be the difference between a strong Cup run and a first-round exit.
Saturday night, the third period was where they really came undone.
Penalties (and the taking of bad ones) are a sore point for the Blues, and for captain David Backes in particular. The fact remains that it’s difficult to lead your team when you are forced to leave the ice.
Backes had apparently never heard this before, and earned himself a ten-minute major for roughing in the last eleven of the third period after some escalated headbutting with Penguins winger and center Evgeni Malkin. Malkin, through the grace of I-know-not-what, wasn’t given a penalty and his teammate Robert Bortuzzo stepped in to…take a roughing penalty against Backes? No one was really sure what the referees were doing, but it certainly worked well for the Penguins.
And it brought up a problem with Backes that even the most diehard of fans recognize: sometimes you have to sacrifice your ego in order to contribute to your team.
What Else?
Perhaps the most dramatic moment of the evening came, not from a Blues goal, but a Crosby goal that never was. Crosby put a shot on net that disappeared under Elliott’s pads, and it was never quite settled whether the puck crossed the goal line entirely. After nearly nine minutes of debate on the Situation Phone with Toronto, the referee stuck with his original call of no goal. After all, said Panger, if you cannot definitively say there was a goal, then there must have been no goal.
(Kind of looks like it might have been a goal, though.)