St. Louis Blues Morning Links: Let’s Try This Again
By Todd Panula
Good morning Blues fans! It is time to turn the page and start anew. It is now a six game series that is still very winnable for St. Louis.
The St. Louis Blues need to break out all the cliches. Play one game at a time. Push the reset button. Turn the page. Try Again. Faster and more intense. All that good stuff.
While the loss to Nashville was disheartening, we should all be looking at it in a positive manner. St. Louis played their C-game at best and perhaps lower graded than that in the second period.
Nashville played one of their better games of the playoffs. Despite all that, St. Louis still had a chance to win.
If the Blues can stay out of the box and keep the game five-on-five, they seem to have the advantage. A couple bounces go the opposite way and maybe the Blues are up 1-0 even though they did not play all that well.
As frustrating as it can be, that is the beauty of sports. That is the beauty of a playoff series. You can have some bad moments, erase them like chalk on a blackboard and start anew.
Is there going to be pressure on the Blues? Sure.
You can’t afford to go to Nashville down 2-0 in the series. The Blues might have won three games in Minnesota, but you don’t want to stake your playoff lives on your ability to win on the road.
Even so, the Blues don’t need to worry as much as you’d think reading some of the message boards. There are so many things that can go differently in this game.
For starters, Mike Yeo has shown in his brief time with the team to be a master of tactical changes. With the exception of a losing streak shortly after he took over, the Blues have not gone long stretches where they made the same mistakes twice.
Yeo has a good sense of what direction the locker room is going, at least right now. He has said in postgame comments several times that he could see lackluster performances coming. They rarely came again the night after.
Yeo won’t have to reinvent the wheel on this one. A couple tweaks here or there and more discipline from the team and you’re good to go.
Secondly, as much a great player as he is, it seems hard to believe P.K. Subban has another night like he did on Wednesday. Two goals and three points (potentially three goals if not for a minuscule deflection) is hard to replicate even with that blazing shot.
There are plenty of other guys the Blues will have to worry about, but if not for Subban’s huge performance then even Game 1 might go a different direction.
Additionally, I don’t see Jake Allen faltering again. Whether you blame him for any of the goals or not, he did not look as comfortable as in the first round.
Down the stretch, Allen showed an ability to shake off bad performances. St. Louis shouldn’t need him to be superhuman as he was in Minnesota, but they need the Snake to be on his game.
As disappointing as losing the opener was, it was only one game. If St. Louis gets things right in Game 2, then the series is even and St. Louis has the momentum going on the road. Time to get it done.
Here are your St. Louis Blues Morning Links to get your day started off right.
Whether you like P.K. Subban or hate him (personally, I think he’s a great guy but hate him on the ice) the sad fact is there are still those that judge by his looks. Fortunately, the Blues were not playing around when they shot down a poor attempt at humor by a fan on Twitter. (Yahoo)
Colton Parayko can be annoyingly humble sometimes. If the man ever grew a mean streak, he’d be a beast of the league. Even so, he has shown incredible patience for a second-year player and got involved in the offense plenty in Game 1. (Blues)
It seems unlikely the Blues make any big roster moves in terms of their game night lineup. That said, it has become more a possibility now than before Game 1. The Blues have swapped defenseman from Chicago and one of their promising prospects returned to the team yesterday. Whether he will be the seventh defenseman or in the top six remains to be seen. (Arch Authority)
Unlike former Blues coach Ken Hitchcock, who said he was done until he signed with Dallas, Darryl Sutter has no plans to retire even though he is jobless. The former Kings boss is willing to go wherever the fit makes the most sense. (NHL)
The Las Vegas Golden Knights are not sitting on their laurels. The team is already exploring the idea of trades before the expansion draft takes place. (ESPN)
Have a great day Blues fans!