St. Louis Blues Need A Mechanic Because Gas Pedal Is Broken
By Todd Panula
The St. Louis Blues have a major issue right now. It has nothing to do with any one play or position. It is an inability to stay the course.
The St. Louis Blues continue to do one thing here lately in their losses. They are finally disproving this ridiculous notion that Jake Allen was to blame for all their woes.
Put Carter Hutton in there and it’s the same thing. Bring up Pheonix Copley and it is the same thing.
It also proves that the national analysts only look at stat sheets and don’t watch the games as much as they should when it comes to our team. Whether it is NBC or ESPN, they are all falling into the lazy trap of blaming the Blues goaltending.
Jake Allen has not been good. We can all agree on that. However, the way the Blues continue to lose, they were not ever giving Allen or any of the goaltenders enough support.
The Blues either get goals when they don’t need them and the game is already in hand, either for them or for the opposition. Or, they can’t score anything. One goal against Minnesota was not going to cut it even if the team played flawlessly.
The Blues problem is effort. It’s not as simple as saying play harder or give 100%. St. Louis is capable of doing both.
They are apparently incapable of sustaining it though. Whether that is a conditioning thing or a mental thing is up to your own interpretation, but it is being broadcast to every NHL team loud and clear.
After the pre-All-Star break game against Minnesota, it was said that the Wild did nothing spectacular. They simply stuck to their game plan, knowing it would yield results.
The Blues never do that. With exceptions you could count on one hand, the team can’t even stick to a plan and play a full 60 minutes in some of their wins.
The issue becomes you never know when it will happen. It could go like the Minnesota game.
The Blues were in it from the start. They had good goaltending, good defending, quality zone exits and entries, solid puck movement and effort. Then, it just randomly disappears in the second period. You cannot even attribute it to a goal scored because the Blues answered the Wild’s initial score nicely.
Other games, the Blues come out flat right from the puck drop. They will eventually turn on the juice in the third period when it does not even matter, but they cannot summon the will to execute the entire time.
It honestly feels like the team can’t keep their foot on the gas. It does not matter if they are winning or losing, they don’t know how to keep up the momentum. Just when you think they have something figured out, they hit the brakes or put it on cruise control as though the game is simple.
They can’t win multiple games in a row. The longest streak the Blues went on this season is four. That’s not terrible, but when teams in the league have rattled off several double-digit win streaks, four does not cut it.
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The Blues only have four times they won at least two games in a row in the last three months. That just does not cut it for a team that went to the Western Conference Finals last season.
This comes down to an individual basis. These guys don’t have the guts to look in the mirror every day and say they won’t settle for less than perfection.
We can blame the coach all we want, but when the guys that are supposedly your leaders are the ones making the mistakes, how is the team supposed to succeed? The young guys don’t have any good path to follow when your vets aren’t laying the groundwork.
Yes, it would be great to have a goaltender standing on his head night in and out. What good would that do though?
If the scorers aren’t scoring consistently, the Blues would still lose 2-1 or 1-0. If the defenders aren’t defending properly, then you’re putting even more pressure on a goalie to make no mistake every single night. That’s a tall order because these guys are human.
It’s extremely disappointing and frustrating that it has gotten to this point. The people who say we should not have gotten rid of David Backes or Troy Brouwer are given so much ammunition due to this stuff.
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If two players have that much impact simply by their presence – it is not due to their production – then the team has a weak core to begin with.
There’s nothing a coach can say to make you play with a mental sharpness and intensity all the time. The Blues just have to do it. We’ve been waiting for it all season though and will continue to do so.
The title was meant as a tongue in cheek phrase, but maybe they should visit a mechanic. There isn’t anyone else that seems to know how this team can keep their foot on the gas and not cruise.