Good morning Blues fans! It’s always easier to get up and face the day when your team wins and your superstar was the reason why.
The St. Louis Blues still had many of their same bad tendencies and shaky play in last night’s game as they have in games that did not end up so well. As long as you score more than you allow, though, you will win the game.
Such was the case last night against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Blues outshot their opponent, they held a team that had scored 10 the night before to 21 shots and kept the league’s best powerplay off the board. It still did not mean the Blues could win comfortably.
No, it meant that the Blues handed the Jackets a goal and were somewhat lucky to come out the victor. Jay Bouwmeester had a heck of a game and scored on a very good shot to tie the game.
Though he has fallen into disfavor with many, if not for him, the Blues might not even make it to overtime. The same can be said of Carter Hutton.
Though the Blues’ goaltender only faced 21 shots, they were of high quality and he faced some odd man rushes as well. That has become too much of a theme. The Blues keep the number of shots down, but their mistakes lead to breaks the other way that put their goaltenders in less than envious positions.
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Even so, it was not all bad. The Blues kept plugging away and were finally rewarded for their efforts.
It wasn’t a fantastic display by any means. When you get the victory, there is only so much wrong you can take from it.
The Blues penalty kill returned to it’s solid standing, in no small part due to the return of Scottie Upshall to the lineup. They also began to get into the dirty areas a bit more, though with less regularity than is necessary to completely turn this recent slump around.
Time will tell if the win was the aberration or if it was the streak of poor play. For now, we should be happy the team won and hope they carry it into this afternoon’s game against Colorado.
Here are your St. Louis Blues Morning Links to get your day started off right.
In previous games, the Blues kind of freaked out (for lack of a better term) once they fell behind. The team knew they did not deserve to be behind when Columbus scored and actually listened to their leaders/coaches and stayed on point. That’s what won this game. (KMOV)
The Blues are not alone in having scoring issues. Their opponent today has not been able to put the puck in the net with regularity either. The Avs are searching for scoring despite having some good punch in their lineup. (Mile High Sticking)
As hockey evolves and changes, there is less and less room for the enforcer. Kelly Chase was involved in a documentary called Ice Guardians, but the story behind how he became involved is almost as interesting as the subject matter of the film itself. (STLToday)
A callup is not in the near future. Still, Ivan Barbashev is doing all he can lately to at least put his name on the Blues’ radar should the need for another center arise again. (Wolves)
Two of the three guys who had the most to do with the Blues victory over Columbus were featured in the postgame interviews. Also included is the coach, who might’ve had an influence too. (Blues)
Apparently it is not just the Blues that can outshoot an opponent by a large margin and lose. Fortunately, in the Sarnia Sting’s case, they were the beneficiary. They won by three after being outshot by a 2-1 margin, thanks in part to Blues’ prospect Jordan Kyrou. (The Observer)
Former Blues goaltender Ben Bishop has not been as stellar this year as he wanted, but he came up huge for the Lightning last night. 37 saves equaled a win for Bishop. (NHL)
Next: Statistical Analysis Of Blues Struggles
We all give grief to hockey refs. Some of it is more than deserved, but they have a very thankless job. It got worse for one ref in New York as he took a puck to the side of the head. (ESPN)
Have a great day Blues fans! Enjoy today’s game.