St. Louis Blues Pros And Cons From Game 7 Vs. Vancouver

The St. Louis Blues had a rather sour taste in their mouth with how their road trip ended. They hoped some home cooking against the Vancouver Canucks would wash that away, but the Canucks proved to be rather pesky.

The St. Louis Blues might be Stanley Cup champions, but they are not playing like champions at the moment. They still look like a very good team and, offensively, they are still a threat.

However, for whatever reason, they lack the same fire we saw that led them to the ultimate championship last spring. Nobody expects them to play with the same tenacity and ferocity we saw in the playoffs, but the mistakes are too similar to what we saw early in 2018-19 and that is not a recipe for winning hockey.

St. Louis has gotten by, thus far, based more on their talent and some good fortune. As good as the Blues are individually, they are not good enough to win on talent alone and they are walking a thin line so far.

The game started well, with the Blues scoring the opening goal in the first period. You still did not get the sense that they were grabbing hold of the game.

Vancouver scored in the second period to tie things up, but the Blues appeared to have righted the ship with two relatively quick goals to reclaim the lead at 3-1. However, St. Louis just can’t have nice things right now and they allowed the Canucks to score on a broken defensive play to make it 3-2 after two periods.

Unfortunately, the Blues just can’t seem to close out games very well at the moment. Despite playing a decent open to the third period, St. Louis found themselves down two men after a goaltender interference penalty and a bench minor. The Blues technically killed it off, but a mad scramble in front ended with the puck chipped in over a prone Colton Parayko and a tie game 3-3.

The game, overall, just fell apart from there. Neither team seemed to actually want to win. The Blues were scrambling a little and managed to turn the puck over along the wall in their defensive zone several times. Vancouver was Vancouver. No offense, but they are not that good.

The overtime was a shambles. The broadcasters can say it was end to end action, but it was a joke. Players were falling over, left and right and few meaningful shots were had by either side. Any time the Blues looked like they should have had an odd-man rush, it fell apart by a bad pass or poor ice.

Then the shootout was just laughable. The goalies made some OK saves, but nobody wanted to make an actual move. Again, the ice just stinks after all that skating.

The only player for St. Louis that actually pulled off a move should have scored, but it hit the post. David Perron tried, but just dusted off the puck as his stick went right over it and never got a shot. The rest just shot right into the goaltender.

The fact it went six rounds without one single goal is just silly. No other sport changes the way the game is fundamentally played to determine a winner other than soccer and even soccer fans don’t like PK’s. Go back to ties.

Cons: Turnovers in bad spots

Regardless of time and space and situation, the Blues have been quite awful in the early part of the season with regards to turnovers. For whatever reason, St. Louis is just not seeing the ice in a way that will limit how many times they give the puck away.

Through two periods, they had given the puck away six times. I still have not figured out what counts as a statistical giveaway, so I usually put that number as 1.5 or 2 times higher by a layman’s standards.

However you judge turnovers or giveaways, the Blues are doing it at bad times and in bad areas, which compounds the mistake. This is even more frustrating when you think that puck control and getting pucks in deep was a big reason the Blues won.

There will always be turnovers. It is like basketball. It simply happens in the flow of any game.

However, when the causes are not getting the puck in on soft chips or failing to clear your own zone or giving it away in the neutral zone while your teammates skate on by and leading to an odd-man rush, you cannot excuse them. St. Louis is handing their opponents too many chances without them having to earn it.

Pros: Robby Fabbri scoring

Robby Fabbri has become somewhat of a sad story. When you consider how young he still is, it makes you shake your head about what he could have been.

There was so much promise there and so much talent right on the brink. None of this is to say he could not have a resurgent year or career, but things have not pointed that way so far.

Prior to this game, there were few fans that believed he still deserved his spot in the lineup. There was little reason to think he was going to do much since he seemed like a lost puppy the six games prior. There was some energy and skating around, but no purpose.

For him to break out of that with a goal was good to see. What is just as good was that it was a gritty goal, not necessarily the prettiest.

Sometimes those will break you out of a funk more than the pretty plays. Fabbri was in the right spot, on the back door, and cashed in after a shot from the left side rang off the post and came right to him. He was falling to the ice, which made things more difficult, but he slotted it home for his and the team’s first goal.

Time will tell if this leads to anything more. Regardless, he needed something positive like this to happen.

Cons: Shaky defense leads to Canucks goals

We complain about a lot of things with the Blues and most of them rightly so. However, the thing that worries me the most is the fact a team that prides itself on defense is not defending properly.

As mentioned in the open, nobody is asking them to be banging bodies or blocking shots like they did in the playoffs. However, there is far too much puck watching, standing around or blow-by’s and some of it by our best defenders.

As I said, some of this is due to the turnovers. Those are definitely not putting the Blues in the best spots as they have to get back quickly, which is often too hard to do.

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Still, the problem is even when they get the bailout save, they don’t get into the right spots. On the Canucks’ first goal, it started with an odd-man rush. Jordan Binnington came up with a huge save, but that was not good enough. The Blues just kind of stood around and a fortunate bounce came right to a Vancouver player who banged it in. Yes, there was some good fortune there, but there was not enough effort to win the battle prior to that and avoid the entire play.

After that, we get more confusion on the second goal. A turnover led to another partial break for Vancouver and they rang the initial shot off the post.

Many fans blamed the defender for being right in the crease, however, the blame should actually lay with the three Blues players that blew past the net after the shot had been taken. I know it is easier said than done to slam on the breaks with skates, but when you could have had numbers defensively and they all fly by, with a lone Vancouver skater left to collect the puck, you just have to shake your head.

Pros: Tarasenko heating up

Vladimir Tarasenko has two goals in two games now. That can be nothing but good.

Tarasenko is notorious for how streaky he is. So, though it took him five-plus games to get his first, if he is entering one of those trademark hot streaks, the Blues should not be hurting for offense.

Granted, offense has not really been the team’s problem in their first seven games. You still want your best players to be your best players.

The skating is still not really there for Vlady yet. Some of that has to do with his offseason knee surgery.

If he can get goals while set up in the zone, so much the better. That’s just what happened with his goal here.

Tarasenko is often criticized for his effort at times, but he was alert and brave on this one. Tarasenko drove to the net, swatted at the puck on a rebound and netted his second goal in as many games.

The Blues need Tarasenko to be at his best. Hopefully for both he and Fabbri, this was the start of a good string of games.

Cons: Power play

We have gotten to the point where you have to ask what more can be said. It is early. The team has not had much practice time due to the schedule with trips to the White House and Hall of Fame and all sorts of things.

I still do not know how much practice will help right now. The Blues do look better, but there are no results because of it.

St. Louis started this game 0-4 on the power play. Making matters worse, they just look terrible when they have a two-man advantage.

The Blues have not scored a five-on-three power play since 2016. That is both amazing and horrifying. You HAVE to make teams pay if they are going to be that careless.

Instead, St. Louis looks more feeble the more men they have compared to their opponent. In fairness, it is not always as bad as we fans make it, but the mere fact they cannot score is frustrating enough. The point has been reached where you figure they will either score or look like the worst power play of all time. There is almost no middle ground.

Overview

The Blues gained another point. Whoopidy doo.

We have not even played 10 games yet and I’m already tired of having to say it is early and we just won a Cup so you shouldn’t complain blah blah. This team is not playing well right now.

They are fine offensively, but the defense is mediocre, if not bad, and they cannot see games out. I don’t care if it took a gimmick finish to beat the Blues or not, they have no business losing to that team. St. Louis is better. Period.

Clearly they don’t feel like putting much effort in right now, knowing they can turn it on later. Maybe it can work a second time, and St. Louis is being aided by bad starts by other teams like Dallas.

Chances are the Blues are going to regret dropping these easy points later in the year. It might not mean the Blues miss the playoffs, but it could mean the difference between home ice or not.

The sky is definitely not falling, but these losses are getting really frustrating. The Blues could easily have five or six wins. However, they could also easily be winless with how inconsistent they have been.

It is simply irritating to have the wins at your fingertips and let it slip through and feel like we should all just shrug.