St. Louis Blues On Fire As They Take Down the Caps

St. Louis Blues fans know that you can never get too comfortable with this team.  Just when you think you have them figured out, they do a 180 and play the complete opposite.  If there is a time of year to play well though, the Blues have picked a good one.

The St. Louis Blues now own a four game winning streak and not coincidentally have four straight shutouts.  Most people would have been tentative to even pencil in such a result against the Washington Capitals, but the Blues left little doubt about the outcome from the start.

The Blues came out and dominated from the very beginning.  They outshot the Capitals 10-8 though neither team could tickle the twine in the first period.

Then the floodgates opened in the second period.  The Blues opened up the scoring at 4:45 of the second with an unlikely man.

Or perhaps it wasn’t unlikely. Kyle Brodziak got the goal and his second goal in as many games. As you see above, the way Brodziak scored would become a theme for the Blues. For whatever reason, the Blues kept finding the backdoor play and worked it to perfection.

Colton Parayko got the second goal of the game on a bit of a missed defensive assignment. Parakyo came in and the defense took the wings away and the Blues’ defenseman decided to just take a wrister since they left him wide open and he made the most of it.

The Blues only took 1:40 to score another, this time with a fantastic set up by Jori Lehtera.

Vladimir Tarasenko scored the goal, his 35th of the season and 200th career point.

The Blues would cap off the scoring at 17:45 of the third period on a very similar play. Again, the Note just threaded the passes through the defense and Patrik Berglund was the ultimate beneficiary, scoring his ninth goal of the year.

4-0 was the final. The Blues set a team record for the most consecutive team shutouts at four. Jake Allen made 29 saves including several from close range to cap off the shutout and to match Brian Elliott a bit following Moose’s three game shutout.

Negatives

For the second straight game there really weren’t many. If you had to nit-pick, there were a few times where Alex Ovechkin was left alone on the back side or on the doorstep, but that’s about it in the grand scheme of things.

Positives

The Blues dominated again. They were more physical and looked like a Western Conference team should look against an Eastern Conference foe.

Even Tarasenko got into the hitting.

Jake Allen returned to being the snake. This isn’t the place or the time to get into the debate about who should be the goaltender in the playoffs. What is important though is that both are on the top of their games and while we might be disappointed if whichever is our favorite does not get picked, we can take comfort with either tendy.

Next: Blues Have 3 Solid Lines

Looking Ahead

The Blues need to keep their focus. The Blues take on the Colorado Avalanche twice with a game against the Boston Bruins sandwiched in between. While their opponents aren’t as good in the standings, both are fighting for playoff positioning and the Blues cannot take them lightly.

For now though, it’s nice to see the Blues taking it to teams the way we always knew they could.