St. Louis Blues Morning Links: Blues Blackened By Hawks

Good morning Blues fans. A rare thing happened, coincidentally with something not so rare. St. Louis lost at home to Chicago.

The St. Louis Blues came into last night with one of the league’s best home records. Their home dominance has not done them any good against Chicago this season.

All three games played by the bitter, division rivals have been won by the away team. St. Louis won in impressive fashion to start the year in Chicago. It has been all Blackhawks since as the next two games came in Scottrade Center.

The disappointing thing about the game was not the effort. It was the lack of defending. Again.

It has become a broken record this season and it is not playing a lovely tune either. It’s the same old garbage night in and out, regardless of the results really.

Defenders backing way down. Blues players screening their own goaltender. Nobody standing up at the blue line. Allowing the opponents easy entry into the zone.

Defenders don’t put bodies on people and instead try to use their sticks, which often ends in penalties. You can’t do that and expect good results.

You especially cannot play that way against a team with almost a decade of practice being a north-south, speed team lie Chicago. Given them time and space in the zone and they will eat you alive.

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That is pretty much what happened to the Blues last night. Clearly the offense was humming, to the tune of four goals for.

Of the teams that would make the playoffs if they started today, only Calgary has allowed more goals than St. Louis. Only five teams in the entire conference have allowed more goals to this point. The Blues are currently tied in goals allowed with Colorado, who happens to be at the bottom of the conference.

We might need to start examining assistant coach Rick Wilson. He is in charge of the defense and that unit has taken a large step backward this season.

They aren’t playing with the edge we were promised when the hiring was made. Their faults have always been there, but seem even more magnified right now.

Here are your St. Louis Blues Morning Links to get your day started off right.

If you are glutton for punishment, you can check out the full game recap along with all the goal highlights. Might want to stick to some of the Blues’ scores to keep that good vibe going. (NHL)

Schedules have prevented me from posting the stories at similar times each day. So, in case you missed it, our Fourth Day of Bluesmas article got put up yesterday. (Bleedin Blue)

On the positive side of the game, maligned forward Patrik Berglund has started a bit of a scoring streak. On the negative, Ken Hitchcock was not pleased with the team’s net front presence on the defensive side of the puck. Berglund was pleased with both his play and the entire offense. (STLToday)

On the negative side, coach Ken Hitchcock was not at all pleased with the net front presence of his defensive squad. (Blues)

While Team Canada has its World Junior roster decided upon, Team USA has a lot of choices to make.  It appears as though those choices, which include whether several St. Louisans and Tage Thompson will make the cut, won’t be decided yet.  (NHL)

Have a great day Blues fans!