St. Louis Blues Lose Their Cool And Sharks Tie The Series

The St. Louis Blues picked a heck of a time to have one of their worst games of the postseason. That’s what they did in Game 2 against the San Jose Sharks and now they must win at least one game on the road.

For whatever reason, the St. Louis Blues have managed to follow up wins with mediocre to poor performances all throughout the playoffs. Their saving grace has been that they were sprinkled here and there. Now they seem to be picking up frequency.

The Blues played well overall in Game 1, but didn’t play great. They were a bit fortunate to get the win with a bad second period, great goaltending and some fortunate posts hits from a defensive standpoint.

The Blues played worse in Game 2 and got absolutely no breaks at all and the Sharks were on point. That was a recipe for disaster and the recipe came out perfectly for the Sharks as they took the game 4-0.

The Blues came out with a decent amount of jump, but looked sloppy and that last part never seemed to change. Vladimir Tarasenko, who had just become a father earlier in the day, almost capped off the day with a goal.

The Blues best player, poked the puck away from the Sharks defenseman and got it right in front of the net. Unfortunately for him, he shot it right into Martin Jones.

Almost immediately after that the Sharks did manage to get one. Only 2:07 into the game, the Sharks scored with the Blues somewhat floundering around in their own zone.

While it was a good goal, it was also one that Brian Elliott would like to have back. As spectacular as he has been in these playoffs, he probably should have saved that one and never truly looked comfortable the entire game despite making some good saves later.

The Blues got out of the period only down a goal, but then the second period came.

Ah, the dreaded second period. While the Blues did not go into a shell like they did in the previous contest, they ignored the advice of every coach, every player and every pundit whether big or small. They took dumb penalties.

There have been countless articles and countless discussions on television and radio about the Blues needing to stay out of the box. It was one of the keys to victory in this series.

Regardless, Steve Ott and Troy Brouwer (both for the second game in a row as well) took foolish penalties. While Ott’s was killed off, Brouwer’s was not.

The Blues got a bad break right off the bat when Alexander Steen broke a stick. He thought Brett Burns was going to retreat to the neutral zone, but he kept it in. With Steen going to the bench to get a fresh twig, Burns was allowed to go unopposed toward the net and bury his chance.

Burns got his second in the third period. Another penalty against Brouwer and another goal for the Sharks’ defenseman.

The Sharks capped off the win with an empty net goal for Dainius Zubrus and won the game by a final of 4-0.

Negatives

The Blues failed to show up. Everything that could be bad, was bad. The passing was terrible, the decision making was poor, the energy was lackluster after those first 90 seconds and the defending was mediocre. It’s getting to be more than frustrating to watch as a fan. The Blues play a draining style, but the recurrence of these types of games is just ridiculous at this point. Even Jeremy Roenick brought it up after the game, how the Blues play well for two games and then disappear and play well for three games and disappear. That just can’t be the case.

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Brian Elliott. Make no mistake, if not for Moose, this game could have been a lot worse than it was. For whatever reason, he never looked comfortable or set though. Credit goes to the Sharks for making him that way, but he just seemed to be scrambling the entire time. He wasn’t controlling rebounds and didn’t have a feel for where the puck was too often. He wasn’t to blame entirely, but if he was 100% on his game, two of the goals might have been kept out.

The Blues will. They had none. They didn’t seem to want to battle. The old Blues seemed to return. This year’s squad made a habit of never giving up and you never felt like they were done, no matter the score. This game felt over once the Sharks scored a soft goal. The Blues never rebounded and they never seemed like they thought they could come back. Sure they got a few bad breaks when Brouwer rang the post twice, but that wasn’t the difference in this one.

Penalties. So much was made about Pete DeBoer and his pandering for more powerplays, but the Blues did everything they could to make it easy on the officials. Brouwer did a two hand chop on Burns in the middle of the ice. Whether he hit him hard or not was not relevant, it was dumb. Ott clearly hit Joe Pavelski from behind when there was no need for it. Again, perhaps Pavelski embellished a bit, but it was a penalty flat out and the Blues cannot have those. In addition to the penalties in and of themselves, it was even more frustrating because so much was made of it prior to the game and the series and the Blues completely ignored all of that.

The powerplay. The Blues were actually given several opportunities to get back into this game. They had a four minute powerplay, a brief 5-on-3 and six powerplays overall. They never looked threatening. They finally created a few chances in the last 30 seconds of the double-minor, but really just looked bad. The passing was terrible and they just couldn’t get anything going. They allowed the Sharks to pressure and never got anything settled down.

Positives

The penalty kill. I know people are going to look at the stats and question my sanity. The Sharks went 2-5 on the powerplay, so how can this be. The Blues PK actually played well for the most part. They limited shots on several of the powerplays. One goal came from miscommunication and overaggressive play when Steen went to the bench and the other was just a blast from one of the best point shots in the game. The Blues just put their PK on the ice too much.

Troy Brouwer. I know, I know. Put me in a straight jacket. If you take away the penalties, Brouwer was one of the few guys who actually looked like he could score. In a game where you’re grasping at straws to find positives, his offensive game was one of those straws. Everything else…well that goes without saying.

Tarasenko. Again, he didn’t really put his stamp on this game, but he also wasn’t given a chance to. He also had trouble hitting the net. Even with all that said, he finally had some jump and energy. He wasn’t shying away from the battles the way he was the last few games either. If he can keep it up, his offense will return.

Looking Forward

Before we discuss the next game, let’s wrap up this one. Let it not be said that the Sharks had no affect on this game. The Sharks won this game, flat out. There were games in the last series where you could not say that of the Stars, but the Sharks came out, found everything the Blues wanted to do and took it all away. The Blues played terribly, but the Sharks had a lot to do with that as well. The Blues just didn’t do enough to oppose what the Sharks do.

Going forward, the Blues had better find something. They played ok and won, played bad and lost. They have to steal at least one game in San Jose or this series is over because the Blues have made home-ice advantage anything but.

Next: Blues Week In Review

Game 3 will be in San Jose on Thursday night at 8 p.m. CST.

The Blues cannot afford more performances like they’ve seen in the first two games regardless of outcome. They need to let the Sharks know they’re here. The Blues are better on the road and they better prove it.

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