St. Louis Blues Strike Again At 2018 IIHF World Championships

The St. Louis Blues are making the best of a bad situation. They are coming up with some good individual performances while wearing their national colors and helping their teams with some quality scores.

If you had the over/under above two points for the St. Louis Blues’ Dmitrij Jaskin, then you are sitting pretty right now. After only one game, Jaskin has two points in his back pocket with plenty of chances to get more.

Of course, Blues fans know Jaskin’s habit of disappearing for long stretches. However, most would not have expected him to have any impact on this tournament at all.

Jaskin showed great potential when the Blues first brought him into the fold. He was a big kid with a good amount of stick handling and could skate well. He seemed like he could blossom into something really special.

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Instead, we are now six years and basically five seasons into his career and we have not seen any fulfillment of that promise. The points have never gotten out of the teens and the goals have never hit double-digits.

So, it might be understandable if fans are frustrated to hear Jaskin has scored two points in his very first game at the 2018 World Championships. We should not hold NHL expectations against him, but it is hard to separate these things sometimes.

Making matters a little more frustrating, Jaskin’s goal was a big one. In a rivalry game between the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Jaskin scored the game winning goal in overtime.

Jaskin has truly joined teammate Patrik Berglund as the Jozy Altidores of the Blues. For those unfamiliar with Altidore, he is a talented American soccer player. Like his hockey counterparts, at least when playing for the US, Altidore has not lived up to his potential. He does just enough to keep himself in the team, but not enough in fans’ eyes to keep holding other players back.

Nevertheless, as a fan of the Blues and thus their players, I am happy for Jaskin to score a big goal on the international stage. Hopefully he has a good tournament.

Elsewhere in the World Championships, the United States kept rolling with another win on May 5. They shutout tournament host Denmark, but Tage Thompson did not feature in the score sheet this time.

More Blues got things going as Canada picked themselves off the mat. After a disappointing shootout loss to the U.S., Canada crushed South Korea 10-0 in the wee hours of the morning of May 6.

Next: Final Grades: Kyle Brodziak

Colton Parayko scored his second goal of the tournament. Also getting on the stat sheet, Jaden Schwartz tallied an assist and Brayden Schenn scored a goal. The night belonged to Joel Edmundson, though, as he had two points with a goal and two assists. You could say they all came in garbage time since every goal after the first one was garbage time in this contest. Still, after having a semi-rough time in the NHL, it was good to see him get back into the offensive flow.

Russia won 7-0 again, but Nikita Soshnikov did not play again. Ville Husso also got the dreaded DNP (did not play) for Finland as they beat Korea 8-1 on May 5.

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