St. Louis Blues Pros And Cons From Game 28 Vs. Vancouver

The St. Louis Blues had one more opportunity to get themselves momentum after an impressive win. Instead, they kept a rather dubious streak alive

The St. Louis Blues continue to prove that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The Blues have had chance after chance to build some momentum and not capitalized on it.

Following a big win over Winnipeg, the Blues followed it up with one of their more embarrassing performances of the season. They got taken to school by the Vancouver Canucks by a final of 6-1.

Unfortunately, the game got started in an awful fashion with a pure luck goal by Vancouver. It deflected off the endboards, the top of the net and then in off Jake Allen‘s pad.

As the broadcasters said, perhaps we should have seen the outcome coming. The Blues just fell flat on their face after that instead of putting on their big boy pants and shrugging it off.

As they also said, it was such an uninspiring performance. It was so lame and weak that you didn’t even feel the need to boo, though there were a few at the end of the game.

Right now, it doesn’t even feel as though the Blues are playing bad. They just are bad, and there is a difference.

Maybe that’s the most disappointing thing from these kinds of games. They show us that this team is actually bad. They could play better, no doubt, but without their absolute best, they are going to lose these types of contests.

Cons: Continually Allowing One Or Two Players To Dominate

The Blues have decent defenders. Nobody on this team is going to the Hall of Fame, but they are not awful.

For some reason, they can’t get it through their thick skulls to guard the best players on the other team. For the second time in as many weeks (give or take), St. Louis has allowed one or two guys to just destroy them.

We thought it was bad enough when Patrick Laine scored five goals against the Blues a couple weeks ago. Surely the team would tighten up the gaps and keep better tabs on the opponent’s good players.

Not so fast my friend. The Blues said hold my beer and made it worse.

Against Vancouver, they allowed a hat trick to Brock Boeser and five points to Elias Pettersson. Despite some slow starts, those are the two, or at least two of the best players on the Canucks.

How in the world do you just let them have enough time and space to combine for eight points? That is just ridiculous.

You can’t make the case that these are just elite performances when it has become such a repeat thing. The Blues are simply not getting it done enough.

There is a case to be made that some of it is bad luck. Two of Boesser’s goals were on bounces. Even so, the Blues just seem to bring that kind of luck on themselves.

Pros: Jordan Kyrou

Whether you love him or think he’s overrated, it is hard not to feel good for Jordan Kyrou. The kid has been working his butt off since turning pro and finally got the reward.

It was a slow beginning to Kyrou’s NHL career. After earning a spot on the team’s opening roster, he had to struggle through being pushed from line to line, benched and then demoted.

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He kept the slow start going by not hitting his stride with the San Antonio Rampage too. The worry is that he would just go quietly into the night and fail to reach his potential after a blow to the pride. Instead, he kept chipping away and the goals started coming in the AHL.

Just two games after being recalled to the NHL, Kyrou finally popped one in. It was a rare bit of fortune for the Blues.

After Robert Bortuzzo‘s stick broke, the puck floated right into the path of Kyrou. He took advantage and beat a goaltender that had gone out of position.

It was not the best goal he will ever score in his career, but it was the first and the old saying goes you always remember your first. Now, hopefully Kyrou can settle in and just get to the business of playing hockey and scoring. The Blues don’t need him to be a 30 goal scorer right now, but getting his fair share is definitely something that can boost the team.

Cons: Four Straight Losses After Wins

At this point in the season, it is hard not to focus on trends when everything seems to go bad. I try my best to focus on the game itself, but when the losses pile up you start seeing things over and over.

One such thing is the trend of losses. The Blues have now allowed four goals or more in their losses immediately following wins.

So, the issue is not just losing, but how you are losing. It’s bad enough to lose, but when you throw everything that worked in the previous game out the window, it makes it all the worse.

Losing four games in a row following wins is bad enough in and of itself. To get blown out is just pathetic.

Where is the energy? Where is the pride? None of it makes any sense.

If you manage to shut down one of the best scoring teams in the league, how can you turn around and let a team that likely won’t make the playoffs put up six goals? How can you get a shutout one game and then have three goals scored on the first six shots and six goals on a mere 21 shots?

As mentioned, it is one thing to lose but to be a completely different team is simply insanity.

You don’t score and barely get any shots on a four minute power play. You allow a fluke goal to completely take you out of your element and things go downhill from there.

A good team bounces back from those things or capitalizes on their own situations. As mentioned earlier, this is clearly not a good team right now.

Overview

I could go on and on with this article with cons, but you all see the same things. This team is just a ship without a rudder right now.

I have never been one to say trade people, but that is about the only option you have left at this point. Naming Joel Quenneville your coach won’t help. Just allowing more offseason moves to take their course won’t help. The team needs a slap in the face and even that might not be enough.

There are just incapable of fighting for one another. They go through the motions and we have seen what they can look like at their best. When you don’t care for one another as a group, these are the results you get.

The Blues might not be doomed. There is too much talent on this team to be a true basement dweller. However, we are reaching the point where, with a top-10 protected first round pick on the line, maybe it would be better to finish as low as you can.

We just keep talking about the same things over and over. Craig Berube said the coaches would just keep pounding it into their head until it sticks, but I no longer think it will stick.