Two Points, But No Wins

Over the past two games, the Blues have collected two points — but due to overtime losses. Those points are still nice, but the Blues have to find a way to win or they won’t be successful. Their last win came on October 28, which is also the last time they scored more than one goal. The Blues have definitely hit a rough patch that they can’t seem to get out of.

To recap the last two games:

Thursday night, the Blues took on the red hot Flames, led by the likes of Jarome Iginla, Dion Phaneuf and Jay Bouwmeester. The Blues once again came out flat, but one bright spot was the ROOKIE, Lars Eller! He was great in his first game as he scored the Blues’ only goal on a deflection from Erik Johnson in the 3rd period. I will have more on Eller in the next post! The Blues played strong defensively, and the game went to OT but unfortunately Dion Phaneuf scored two minutes in to give the Flames the ‘W’. The Blues lost yet again at home.

Then the Blues traveled to Philadelphia where they took on the Flyers tonight in a very physical and exciting game. The Blues lost 2-1 again (this time in a shootout) but they played well and it was a fun game to watch. The Blues didn’t back down and played extremely physical. Cam Janssen fought Arron Asham in a good scrap in the first period, and things just picked up from there. There were a few scrums and several hits dished out by each team. Lars Eller threw quite a few big hits, and even mixed it up with Hartnell and Pronger. The kid is fearless! Keith Tkachuk put a good hit on Daniel Carcillo, Crombeen and Winchester were chirping and battling in front of the net all night, and David Perron was involved as well. It was an overall nasty game. It was fun for the fans watching at home, and even though the Blues lost, they showed a lot of heart and effort. T.J. Oshie and Lars Eller were easily the two best players for the Blues on the ice tonight. Oshie scored the Blues’ goal and was all over the ice, as well Eller. Eller was a +1, was tenacious, and was just excellent tonight. He was the fastest player out there, threw his weight around, mixed it up, aggravated the Flyers, and really gave the offense some more energy as he created numerous scoring chances. The kid line tonight of Oshie-Berglund-Eller was really good. It’s a shame the Blues couldn’t get a win to show for it, but they did get another point as the Flyers won in a shootout. Claude Giroux and Brad Boyes each scored in the first three rounds to send the shootout to “sudden death”, and Mika Pyorala scored in the fourth round to win it for Philadelphia. Overall, it was a good game. Both teams played hard and mean and it was exciting to watch. Both Ray Emery and Chris Mason made some dandy saves. One in particular was Mason getting his pad over to rob Philadelphia’s Scott Hartnell on a breakaway.

The Blues played well, and I have to applaud their effort – but again, they just have to score more than one goal. I don’t know what the problem is, but hopefully they can fix it sooner rather than later. I can’t say they didn’t get chances though. Better luck next time.

Up Next…

The Blues, having only played 14 games so far compared to other teams who have already played 17, will catch up this week as they play a lot of games. They play 4 games this week, and after the Atlanta game, they start a 6-game homestand.

The upcoming schedule:

Sunday — @ Atlanta
Tuesday — vs. Vancouver
Thursday — vs. Nashville
Saturday — vs. San Jose
Thursday — vs. Phoenix
Saturday — vs. NY Islanders
Monday — vs. Boston

The Blues haven’t been good at all at home this year, but hopefully they can turn it around this week. Those are some winnable games – especially against Atlanta, Nashville, Vancouver (who has a ton of injuries including Luongo), Phoenix and the Islanders, so these next few games will be huge.