St. Louis Blues Morning Links: Blues Ski Avalanche, Head Home

Good morning Blues fans! The team might not have played their best last night in Colorado, but the two points were gained and St. Louis is back in the top three – for now.

The St. Louis Blues have a way of testing their fans that seems unlike any other team. Deep down we know that all teams do it (maybe not Chicago, but still). However, it is hard not to notice the Blues ability to play up or down to their opponents.

Last night was a perfect example. St. Louis had possibly their worst opening period since Mike Yeo took over.

While you could argue that point, you can’t really argue the fact that the Blues would have been down by more than one goal at the first buzzer if not for Jake Allen. Allen made several stops, in fact turning aside 10 of 11 first period shots from the Avalanche.

Not only were there chances from the Avs, but there were defensive breakdowns. The Blues allowed several odd-man rushes that the Snake snuffed out.

That was good to see that Allen did not leave his mind on the golf course the way the team had. If Allen was overextending or overplaying passes like earlier in the season, the Blues lose that game in the first. Instead, they were given every opportunity to win and thankfully they did.

Once St. Louis got on the board, they did not really let up. Patrik Berglund tied it up off a nice pass from Zach Sanford, who got his second point with the Blues.

Magnus Paajarvi continued his decent run with the go ahead goal in the third. Then, the snake-bitten Jaden Schwartz finally saw one hit the back of the net for what would prove to be the game winning goal.

Unfortunately, as with everything that surrounds the Blues, there must be negatives to go with the positives. The team won, but they cannot continue to play this way if they want to hang with the good teams come the spring.

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It showed several times and Yeo even pointed it out in some of the post-game pressers. The Blues still cannot always give a 60 minute performance.

It’s hard. We get it. You can’t always summon your best performance on any given night. St. Louis just has an ability for half a team or more to have those nights on the same night. That just cannot be coincidence, which is worrying.

They won. That’s the important thing of course at this time of year.

They kept pace with the Nashville Predators and snuck back into the top three in the division. With the way the Minnesota Wild have been playing, that is becoming more important.

Still, the poor play cannot be ignored simply because you beat one of the league’s bottom feeders. The saving grace is St. Louis tends to play up to their competition as well, so the mistakes sometimes magically disappear.

The other negative was they lost Paul Stastny last night. The rest of the team filled in admirably, but you could tell Stastny was gone.

The Avalanche won over 60% of the faceoffs and that is Stastny’s specialty. St. Louis will not be able to afford his loss for very long because faceoffs are not something you just step up and suddenly do the job on.

Hopefully, for the team’s sake, it really is not serious.

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

Speaking of Stastny, the man in charge (Mike Yeo) says the injury should not be serious and the team was being cautious. Of course, we have heard that before, but the team says he should be ready soon. (CBSSports)

Jaden Schwartz might have ended his goal drought, but he appears to still be snake bitten. There is no way of telling how happy he was about the score since he could not talk postgame after being hit in the mouth with a stick. (STLToday)

While we all enjoy the wins and take the losses a little too hard, the team has just been an emotional roller coaster for fans this year. From goaltending issues to coaching changes, this has been a trying year and the team made fans lose hope more than once. (St. Louis Gametime)

Mario Lemieux knows what is like to battle with disease. That is why it should come as no surprise, though it did to the youngster, that he was more than happy to send some gifts and words of encouragement to a young fan battle with cancer. (NHL)

Detractors of the current playoff format don’t seem to realize that most years the seeding would play out close to what the matchups are anyway. So, with the Metropolitan stacked the way the Central has been of late, now the poor eastern teams are whining that the format is not fair. Get over it. (ESPN)

Have a great day Blues fans!