St. Louis Blues: Deserve It Or Not, Blues Tie Series

If someone had told fans the St. Louis Blues would be tied after two games in Dallas, most would take it. How it transpired, left many feeling a little less joyous about the entire thing.

The St. Louis Blues will be coming home with their second round series tied up 1-1. After playing one of the most inconsistent games of the entire playoffs for Game 1, it was good to see the Blues come out with a win.

Unfortunately there were plenty of things that were not so good despite getting the game winner.

The game started off very similarly to Game 6 in Chicago for the Blues. The team had a bad opening shift that saw Jamie Benn and his entire line cycle around the Blues and fly by like nobody was even there. They weathered the initial storm, but it wouldn’t last long.

Dallas scored 3:36 into the period with Alex Goligoski getting things rolling. Brian Elliott was tested early and often and if we’re honest, it looked like it was going to be a short series the way the Stars were rolling in those first few minutes.

Patrik Berglund had enough of all that and charged right down the ice. Berglund snapped a wicked shot right by Kari Lehtonen for the first shot of the game and obviously first goal of the game for the Blues.

The Blues then rattled off two more goals to finish the first period up 3-1 (again fairly similar to the Chicago Game 6).

The first one was an absolutely beautiful goal. Troy Brouwer took the puck from the corner, spotted Joel Edmundson who just buried it into the roof of the net for a one goal lead at that point.

Then Brouwer would get his own on the powerplay to cap off an excellent first for the Blues, much to the chagrin of Stars fans.

The Blues came out and had a good second period for the first time in what seems like forever. After chasing Kari Lehtonen by scoring three on five shots, they actually created chances and should have scored, but Brouwer received a pass a little behind him and fired it right into the recently inserted Anti Niemi‘s pad.

While the Blues did not score in the middle frame, they at least did not allow a goal. It was only the second time all playoffs – dating back to Game 1 vs Chicago – that the Blues did not allow any goals in the period. It was also the second time all postseason that the Blues actually outshot their opponent in the second period as well.

The Blues still held their two goal lead with seeming comfort going into the third period, especially considering how well they had played in the third periods of almost every game this playoff year. Things were about to change.

The second period curse held off for 20 minutes and the Blues played garbage hockey in the third period. They got outshot 13-2 and someone could probably count the number of times they actually held possession into the zone on one hand.

Whether it was by direction of the coach (most likely) or simply from the players (unlikely but possible), the Blues dumped it in and went for a change almost every single time they crossed the redline.

Not only did this take the foot off the gas offensively, but it put the Blues on their heels defensively. The Stars sent wave after wave. While the Blues held the top two lines in check initially, it was the third and fourth lines that were battering the Blues with both shots and pure energy.

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It would break through with Mattias Janmark scoring on essentially a breakaway goal 4:35 into the third frame. Then after a fortuitous bounce off some scrambling defenders, Benn was left alone in front and buried the shot for the equalizer with 2:36 left in the third.

The Blues couldn’t flip the switch very quickly and were a bit lucky to get into overtime to begin with.

St. Louis finally found their game a bit more in the extra frame. The game became a bit of a back and forth, but St. Louis made the Stars pay for Antoine Roussel‘s third penalty.

The Blues had an earlier powerplay in overtime, but to say the effort was lackluster might be giving too much credit. David Backes would not give up on the Blues’ second powerplay effort and he banged home the game winner at 10:58 of OT.

So, despite everything, the Blues won the game and tie up the series. St. Louis hasn’t played their best in this series or at home in the playoffs, but they’ve gutted things out and that’s what you have to do.

Negatives

The third period. I’m not one of those that hammers Ken Hitchcock left and right. The guy is a fantastic coach and has as many wins as he does for a reason. However, you simply cannot try to defend for an entire period. If you want to dump and chase, that’s fine. To actually not enter the zone at all is just ridiculous though.

The turnovers and wall battles. The Blues did win a lot of puck battles, but it just seemed like if there was a key play coming, they wouldn’t clear the puck from the zone or couldn’t keep control along the wall. They also keep turning the puck over with careless passes. This team is not the Blackhawks. Trying stretch passes isn’t a high percentage play most times for the Blues.

Positives

Brian Elliott. We’ve said it so many times in the playoffs, but this guy is winning games for the Blues. He took two pucks to the face, got paint chips in his eye and still battled through it all. The hardest of hearts might say he should not have gone for the poke on Janmark’s goal, but he hasn’t been to blame for anything against Dallas if anything all playoffs.

David Backes. The captain gets his fair share of stick, so to speak, but he’s stepped up his game this playoff year. He’s going for hits without putting himself in bad positions. He’s staying out of the box. More importantly he’s scoring big goals. He now has two game-winning goals in overtime in two straight series.

The Blues got the win.  Dallas fans will likely say the Blues didn’t deserve to win.  They might be right.  Dallas could easily be up 2-0 in the series.  As bad as the Blues have played at times though, they could be up 2-0 as well.  Instead it’s 1-1 going back to St. Louis and that’s about as much as most would have asked.

Looking Forward

The Blues now come home for two games with plenty to play for, having stolen home ice advantage. Game 3 returns to the dreaded 8:30 p.m. CST on Tuesday evening.

Next: Blues Must Step Up Regardless of Lineup

The Blues have a chance to take a series lead for the first time in this tilt against Dallas. They will have to keep improving and maybe, just maybe put together an entire 60 minutes of good hockey as well.

All things considered though, 1-1 coming to the Lou is fair. We keep saying that the time for wake-up calls and bad periods is over and it keeps happening though. The players have to find it within themselves to put things away and no better place to do it than at home.