St. Louis Blues Return And Tie Up Their Series With San Jose 2-2

Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals saw the return of the St. Louis Blues we know and love. In typical fashion they raised as many questions as they did answers, but with the series tied up and returning home, we’ll take it.

The St. Louis Blues came out and came out hard in Game 4 against San Jose. They weren’t necessarily the dominant team right off the bat, but it was more like the Blues we actually know instead of those empty husks that were skating around the previous two games.

The Blues had energy, they were hitting the tape with passes, they were hitting players and they seemed to have gotten the message sent by inserting Jake Allen. At least for now, they got the message. You can’t tell with this team.

It didn’t take too long for the Blues to finally crack Martin Jones either. They exercised some of their powerplay ghosts as well when Troy Brouwer finally did not hit a post and put one in the back of the net just 6:14 into the contest.

Not a full four minutes later, the Blues doubled their advantage. Robby Fabbri was absolutely robbed by a fantastic save by Jones – his best of the series – but Fabbri stuck with it, tipped it back out in front and it was finished off by Jori Lehtera.

The Blues ended the first period with two goals, a lead and plenty of confidence that had been lacking in their previous two trips onto the ice. What made the lead feel just as good was that the Blues’ performance hadn’t been all rainbows and sunshine the entire period.

They gave up several odd-man rushes to the Sharks and either the defense or Allen would shut them down, avoiding any momentum swings back the other way. Paul Stastny also took a foolish penalty just after the Blues’ second goal, which the PK killed off, giving them confidence as well.

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The Blues had a thing for the number six in this game. Six minutes into the second period, they got their third goal. What a momentum changer it was.

The Sharks had been buzzing and were on the powerplay. The Blues didn’t even bat an eye. They had an odd-man rush of their own stymied just a moment before and then they turned a rare Joe Thornton mistake into gold.

Thornton tried a cross-ice pass that went nowhere and the Blues were off. Jaden Schwartz took it up the left wing, dropped it to Kyle Brodziak, who chipped it over Jones’ shoulder for a fantastic 3-0 lead.

Again, four minutes later, the Blues put another goal on the board. Brodziak had it again.

The fourth line of the Blues was buzzing that entire play and were rewarded for their efforts by scoring an even strength goal.

Unfortunately, things got sloppy in the third period. The Blues tried to defend a bit too much, which does happen when you’re up by four. They also got a little careless with the puck, which you cannot do against the Sharks.

Thornton and Joe Pavelski made them pay quickly in the third period. Thornton made an unbelievable pass and Allen had no chance to make the save with Pavelski batting it out of mid-air on the doorstep.

The Blues got their four goal lead back with Brouwer coming back to the rescue. It was initially given to Steen by the announcers, but Brouwer had a fantastic tip for the goal.

Then the wheels began to wobble a bit. The Blues surrendered another goal a few minutes later.

It could have been called for interference. We have seen weaker calls made for less contact on the goaltender, but the goal was counted and the Sharks were back within three.

The Blues would eventually salt away the game. They got an empty netter from Alex Pietrangelo that seemed to use the Force to go in.

And then the Blues would score a seventh goal. Unfortunately, it was on their own goaltender as Joel Edmundson banged one in for the bad guys.

6-3 would be your final. The score was probably closer than how the game actually panned out, but it didn’t matter.

The Blues got the win. For all the bellyaching, whining, arguing and moaning we did as fans, the Blues are coming home with the series tied up. We didn’t like how it went down at times, but if you had told us it would be tied 2-2 after four games, many fans would have taken that gladly.

Negatives

David Backes could be injured. He never returned to the ice, though he was on the bench, after the first period. Darren Pang tweeted out that it could be whiplash from a hit Backes tried to deliver. While that is just conjecture at this point, it would make sense since Backes appeared to not want to move much on the bench.

The penalty kill was relied on too much. The Blues killed off every Sharks’ powerplay and they deserve huge kudos for that, but that’s playing Russian roulette. You can’t hope to give the Sharks five powerplays and hold them off the board again.

Vladimir Tarasenko and Robby Fabbri’s luck. These guys were playing well in this game, Fabbri in particular. Fabbri got an assist, but these guys need goals. Tarasenko and Fabbri came close multiple times, but they just can’t buy one right now.

Positives

Jake Allen. For whatever reason, parts of Blues nation want to downplay the goaltenders of this team. Either they don’t give Moose enough credit or don’t give Allen enough. The other netminder from who they prefer isn’t worthy. Nonsense. Allen was a big reason this team won. That’s not to say he’s better than Moose, but he was still a big factor and made several great saves.

The penalty kill. If we’re going to list the team’s reliance on this unit as a negative, then the play of the actual unit has to be a positive. They were closing gaps and knocking pucks away like they used to. They were not allowing the Sharks to get set up properly and that cut down on the number of quality chances as well.

A win. The Blues looked great at times and not so much at others. It was a perfect microcosm of this entire playoff run. As long as a W goes up on the board though, we can hem and haw about the details later. The Blues were not perfect, but this was defintely their finest performance in this series.

Next: Allen Gamble Is Worth It

Looking Forward

Game 5 will be back at home in St. Louis on Monday. The puck will drop at 7 p.m. CST.

The Blues must find a way to win at home. One way or the other, they must win at least one home game. Winning Game 5 would be the best scenario as it at least give the Blues an opportunity to win the series on the road, where they have been more comfortable.

Regardless, this team must learn to defend home ice. It is imperative to win this series now.

The Blues remain a Jekyll and Hyde team, but for whatever reason they seem to need messages. Hopefully they’ve learned that they have to play a certain way to beat San Jose and clearly it can be done now. Time will tell which team we get on Monday.

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