St. Louis Blues Pros And Cons From Game 12 Vs. Detroit

The St. Louis Blues did not have very long to dwell on their tough loss to the Boston Bruins. It was a quick trip and an even faster turnaround to take on the Detroit Red Wings.

Whoever made the St. Louis Blues schedule gave no F’s about travel and timing. While a flight from Boston to Detroit is not all that time consuming, it is not just a short hop.

Add to that the incredibly odd start time of 4 pm Central (5 pm in Detroit) and it was not even a full 24 hours following a 3-0 loss to the Boston Bruins. Despite the obstacles, the Blues came out ready to go.

There were a few moments where you could tell the Blues were coming off a hard-fought game the night before. Right off the puck drop, Jordan Binnington was forced to make a good save to keep Detroit off the board.

However, after that, the Blues grabbed hold of the game. Their power play came back to life and the team rattled off two straight goals, one with the man advantage.

The fatigue seemed to catch up to the Blues more and more as the game went on, but they fought through it. The first Detroit goal was more a result of a failure to clear the puck due to bad luck than anything, but the penalty killers still appeared a little flat.

Fortunately, the Blues bounced right back. Not long after Detroit cut the lead in half, the Blues raced down the left wing and rifled a shot in to make it 3-1.

Everything seemed to catch up to the Blues in the third period. They lost Alexander Steen to injury, Detroit realized the Blues were tired and turned on the jets and the bounces just went the other way.

The Red Wings got a lucky goal off Binnington’s glove that he would have 99 times out of 100. Then Detroit tied it up by banking one off Alex Pietrangelo‘s skate. The Red Wings might not have earned the goals, but credit goes to them for getting themselves in a spot where those pucks could go in.

The game went even more insane. Detroit grabbed a 4-3 lead on another poor goal given up by Binnington. St. Louis tied it up on the power play after it appeared as though they were going to mess up a partially open net.

From there, St. Louis looked slow in the overtime period too. However, in OT all it takes is one shot and the Blues got that and won 5-4.

Pros: Power play

While in Boston, the Blues power play percentage took a hit by going 0-4. Despite failing to get a puck into the net, the unit still looked strong.

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They kept that going against the Red Wings. In fact, the Blues scored the opening goal of the game on the man advantage.

As we had seen throughout their turnaround, keeping the puck moving was a key. The puck was touched by almost every player on the ice for the Blues, which gets the defense moving across the ice and out of position.

It was Brayden Schenn that finished it off, but even he would want to share the credit. The Blues were a little slow out of the gate on this power play, but once they were clicking on their passes, you could sense they were going to score.

St. Louis might not have been perfect on the power play, but they scored multiple times. They made the Red Wings pay for taking silly penalties, such as too many men on the ice.

If St. Louis had full health and rest, they might have added to their power play total. Even on the shifts they did not score on, they still looked good overall. That was the case in Boston too. As long as this unit can look like an actual threat instead of appearing as though they will give up a goal every time, they are ahead of the game.

Cons: Looking tired or hurt

This one is not so much anything the Blues could have changed, but more just a realization of what was going on. The Blues just looked banged up and fatigued.

On Twitter, I made the comment that you could tell the difference in the talent level. If the Blues were fully healthy and rested, this game could easily have been a 5 or 6-0 win.

Instead, the Blues could not put the Red Wings away and it had to be a nail-biter until the end.

Oskar Sundqvist looked like he was getting through on guts alone at times. Alex Steen missed the entire third period with a lower-body injury. St. Louis was already undermanned, with Vladimir Tarasenko and Sammy Blais out of the lineup.

The Blues were also forced to use Binnington in back-to-back games due to Jake Allen having the flu. Binnington is not a grizzled veteran, so he can take it.

Still, just as a starting pitcher could throw the next day, you do not want them to. The extra strain on the muscles is just not needed if it can be avoided at this point in the year.

Pros: O’Reilly

Ryan O’Reilly has not been pleased with his offensive start to 2019-20, but that is because he is a pro’s pro. While the goals have not been there prior to this game, O’Reilly has still been doing a lot of the little things away from the puck.

While there are always exceptions, O’Reilly has still been one of the Blues better defensive forwards. He has also managed to get points even if not goals.

Finally, O’Reilly broke his drought by scoring a big goal in this game. After Detroit had cut the lead to 2-1, O’Reilly was the one that drove down the left wing and sniped the score.

It was an absolutely beautiful shot.

In addition to that goal, O’Reilly assisted on two other goals for the Blues. He had points on all three of the Blues first three goals. Maybe he still expects more, but you could not really ask more from him.

O’Reilly was not done there either. The Blues would be forced to come from behind, trailing 4-3, and O’Reilly both set up the play by getting the goaltender out of position and then finished it off as he circled around and scored off a patient pass from David Perron.

Cons: Third period collapse

While the Blues would ultimately be victorious, it was not pleasant to watch in the third period. St. Louis failed to do a lot of the things that got them the lead and that made them successful in all their wins.

Clearly losing Steen affected them some. They already had some jumbled lines and this forced them to double shift a player or two.

However, Detroit got into the game in the third by simply pushing the pace. St. Louis did not have an answer for their speed and were caught on their heels far too often.

While there might be some fans out there to make excuses, Binnington was part of this collapse. He gave up two goals that should not have been scored. One was a routine glove save that went off the tip of the webbing and the other slipped in over his pad from a sharp angle. He would regularly have those.

If nothing else, it shows why goalies do not need to be playing back-to-back games if it can be helped. It is just hard to keep that mental sharpness in that quick turnaround. Thankfully Binnington made plenty of other saves to counteract the bad goals and the poor play by his teammates in front of him.

You are going to have games like this where things do not go your way. It just stung to have it happen against a team with only three wins and one that had lost six straight prior to this game.

Overview

Take the win, get out of Detroit and thank your lucky stars. This was not a good game, overall, outside of the win.

The Blues did not play terribly, but they were not sharp at all. Maybe that shows the level of talent that the Red Wings currently have that St. Louis could be that far off their game and still manage to win.

I said it during the game, early in this article and stand by it. If the Blues were healthy and rested, this could easily have been a 5-0 win. Instead, the Blues were forced to burn even more energy by going to an unnecessary overtime.

You do have to give Detroit some credit. They realized what the issues with the Blues were and went right for those. They could tell St. Louis was tired, so they started using their speed more.

On the flip side, the Blues simply almost coughed this one up. Nobody was really on their game.

O’Reilly was probably the closest to playing a good game, but even he made mistakes. That said, you cannot argue with a four point night.

The Blues won based on talent alone in this game. As much as we love this team, that is not going to happen every night. The fact they could lean on it this night was a good thing though.