St. Louis Blues Are Failing To Show Up At Key Times
By Todd Panula
The St. Louis Blues should be up in their series with the Dallas Stars 3-1. A case could even be made the series should be over. Due to the Blues lack of consistency though, they are forced to use up more energy in a series poised to go seven games.
I haven’t been writing for this site for an incredibly long time, so perhaps most people aren’t yet familiarized with my style. I try to write in first person as little as possible, even though this is a fan site, simply because I studied journalism in college and we were taught not to.
I also try my best not to be like the annoying Chicago Blackhawks fans we usually meet on social media. You know the kind. The ones who act like nothing any other team does has an affect on the game and Chicago either won or lost.
So yes, there are two teams on the ice at all times and certain actions by an opposing team cause certain reactions by the Blues. Dallas deserves credit.
In Game 1, they came out with more hunger and determination and were rewarded with a victory. In Game 4, they implemented enough resistance and defending through the neutral zone to throw the Blues off their game and allow themselves back into it.
Also, Jamie Benn has been a force. He’s big, he’s strong both physically and on the puck and has been difficult for the Blues to deal with. Regardless of his relative lack of goals in this series, compared to the one with the Wild, he has been a difference maker for the Stars.
The Stars are also dealing with injuries. They don’t have Tyler Seguin or Patrick Eaves (though Eaves could be returning for Game 5). Those are key players to be missing and alter their lineup significantly.
All that said, all credit given to the Stars, this series shouldn’t even be close.
Yes, the Stars won the Western Conference. Yes, they have speed and skill and have shown a willingness to hit and get rough when the situation calls for it and use their technical ability when they can.
It shouldn’t matter. The Blues are the better team and are simply not showing it on the ice consistently.
I saw a tweet after the game that essentially said Game 3 must have been a fluke. No, sadly, that’s the real Blues team and they fail to reproduce it night to night.
Maybe I’m missing something. Maybe I’m too far into the forest to see the trees so to speak. From my vantage point though, I haven’t seen anything the Stars have done to make me believe the Blues are doing anything but blowing this so far.
The Blues played with almost no energy in Game 1 and the Stars took advantage. Maybe it was a hangover from the Chicago series. Maybe it was the Blues thinking they’d slayed their demon and it would be easy. They lost.
The Blues showed effort in Game 4, but made too many mental errors. They turned the puck over in key areas, handed Dallas two of their three goals and just looked slow and sloppy for much of the game. They lost.
As a fan, it’s frustrating as heck. I had a conversation with a friend of mine on Facebook and he’s quite the study of the game and even he is getting frustrated with the Jekyll and Hyde routine.
As he put it, Ken Hitchcock’s system is incredibly draining both physically and mentally. You have to be on point for just about every single shift. That’s nearly impossible to do from a simple human point of view. The majority of us aren’t built to keep that kind of focus.
However, when the Blues follow his system to the letter, they destroy their opponents. The reason it works is because, for those of you that follow European soccer, it takes an Atletico Madrid style to defeat it when it’s working. You have to put in just as much effort as the Blues do AND have the effort/energy to counter when it’s available.
That’s rare to see. We saw the Kings do it and they won Stanley Cups. We saw the Wild do it and they lost to the eventual champions. Still, even in those series, there were games the Blues failed to show up and it made it easier for the teams that were already willing to put in the effort to take down the system.
That hasn’t been the case this series. Dallas is a fine team, don’t get me wrong, but they haven’t done anything to stop the Blues. Outside of the defensive trap-ish system the used in Game 4’s second period, they haven’t really stopped the Blues.
The Blues have stopped themselves. Knowing how well the system works and the kind of effort it takes to win games in the playoffs now, they still revert back to old habits.
You hear it in postgame comments all the time. They need to be more north-south, they need to play a full 60 minutes, they need to keep better control of the puck etc. Just do it already.
Yes, it’s human nature to have lapses, but you have to be above your own nature to win. As the old saying goes, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.
Winning is hard. You have to be willing to put everything on the line every night.
That’s what’s so maddening about the way the Blues have performed this series. They haven’t shown a willingness to put it all on the line every night.
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When they’ve won, they have. When they’ve lost, it’s felt like too much has been left on the table. This series could be over or on the verge of being over if the Blues would stick to their own game and not take shortcuts.
Stars fans can hate me if they like. I’ve quickly gotten used to it after a piece I wrote for a different site about suspending Benn. As long as people are respectful, they’re allowed to disagree.
I’m not trying to downplay their team or their efforts. Maybe I’m seeing things through a Blues tinted window. I know I’m not the only one though.
NBC can say how great Dallas was in Game 4 and how persistent they were and how Ryan Reaves‘ Game 3 actions gave them motivation. Bull. It’s pure bull.
The Blues should have stomped the Stars again. They had the opportunities and failed to capitalize. They were bad and Dallas was just good enough.
Those are the thin lines in the playoffs though and that’s what is so frustrating. The St. Louis Blues could easily lose this series now and it may actually feel worse than losing to the Wild last year because at least the Wild felt like they were doing something to shut down the Blues.
In this series, for all of Dallas’ talents, it doesn’t feel that way. The Blues are shooting themselves in the foot and allowing a team to stay in this series that shouldn’t be.
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It’s been the M.O. of the Blues for quite awhile. I guess we should be used to it. It doesn’t make it any less disappointing and if nothing else it is more frustrating because this really feels like the Blues are truly doing the losing instead of the Stars winning.
I’m not saying the Blues are going to lose, but the fact it’s even a possibility is sad. It’s sad because when they’ve been at their best, there doesn’t seem to be any comparison to the two teams. Unfortunately, they haven’t been at their best and 2-2 is where we’re at.