St. Louis Blues: Bad 2nd Periods and Wake Up Calls Have to Stop

The St. Louis Blues dropped Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals to the Dallas Stars 2-1. Big whoop. It was the same things that caused the loss that should be concerning.

It’s understood by most that it is nearly impossible to play the exact same way for 82 regular season games and then potentially as many as 28 playoff games. There are always going to be games where people just aren’t on their game, aren’t as sharp.

The St. Louis Blues have had those games throughout the season. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the entire team seems to have those games all at once instead of just one or two players at a time.

The Blues had one of those games in Game 1 of their series with the Dallas Stars.

Take no credit away from the Stars. They came out and did what they needed to do to win the game. They put St. Louis into uncomfortable positions and actually outhit the Blues 32-26.

The Stars out-hustled many of the Blues as well. Through the first two periods, it could be said that Brian Elliott was the only Blue to really show up with his A-game and David Backes and Steve Ott were the only ones to have their B-game (at least from a physical standpoint).

The Blues gave Antoine Roussel a couple attempts to finish off the game’s first goal. It was somewhat of a spoiler goal since Elliott had played so well up to that point.

The Blues battled back at the end of the second period and then turned things on a bit in the middle stages of the third as well.

They ended up tying up the game with a nice shot by Kevin Shattenkirk at 11:32 of the third period.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t last a full four minutes.

The Stars got a decent break out, but the St. Louis defense capitulated the entire way and backed off until they were on either side of the goal. Elliott made the save on the initial shot but nobody picked up Radek Faksa coming in and he had a simple rebound goal.

The problem with the game was not so much the loss, though that is tough to take, but the fact that the same issues plague this team in the regular season and into the playoffs.

The Blues have now been outscored in the second periods of rounds one and two 12-3. They were outshot again as well, 17-11, in the middle frame which means they’ve been outshot 129-91 in the second period alone in 8 playoff games.

That simply cannot continue. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing on the road, at home or in Timbuktu. You cannot continually get outplayed, outshot and out-hustled in the second period. It’s been a problem for the Blues for multiple seasons now, but never as evident as this playoff run.

At this point, it’s difficult to tell if it’s a mental issue or they’re trying to conserve energy for the third period or what it is. This is a reasonably young team. You shouldn’t need to conserve anything.

People can blame Ken Hitchcock for this and that (and they certainly do a lot of it), but this isn’t a coaching issue. It’s an effort issue. For some unknown reason the Blues just don’t show up in the second period. Or at the very least, don’t show up enough.

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There was a decent pushback by the Blues late in the second period of Game 1. That was positive to see. It was more than many had seen since the first couple games of round one.

The other somewhat disturbing thing was something that came to mind while listening to the radio. The Blues’ radio voices, Chris Kerber and Kelly Chase, mentioned that perhaps the Dallas goal was what the Blues needed to wake up.

This team should be beyond wake-up calls. The last four playoffs should have been wake-up calls. Dropping a 3-1 series lead against Chicago should have been a wake-up call.

The time for wake-up calls is over. You show up and play your guts out. That’s how playoff hockey goes.

This has been the same story for years now. The Blues don’t play a full 60 minutes. The Blues used this or that as a wake-up call. Why? Why is it so hard to just come out and play your game for 60 minutes when it has been proven, time after time, that wins games?

This was a good game by them.  They outplayed us, they deserved to win this one – David Backes

The good thing is that though the Blues played poorly, Dallas didn’t make them pay for it as much as they could have. Elliott kept the game close by making 40 top notch saves.

The Blues only lost by one goal. They got outplayed and out-hustled, but only lost by a goal.

The Blues have to find a way to play better in the second periods of games. It was one of our big keys to winning Game 1 and they didn’t do it. They didn’t get enough shots, which was another key. They relied too much on their goaltender, which we said they shouldn’t do.

There’s plenty of room for improvement. As David Backes said, if the Blues turn around and play their game for a full game then there’s little doubt they can take Game 2. It shouldn’t have taken a loss in Game 1 to figure that out though. It shouldn’t take terrible second periods to come on strong in the third.

Next: One Last Look At Round One

The Blues cannot continue to make the same mistakes and hope they get different results. Eventually they must either change or it will catch up to them. They’ve shown when they do change, they get good results. Let’s hope for a quick change.