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St. Louis Blues: NHL Central Weekly Review (4th Week of November)

By Todd Panula

Nov 23, 2016; Washington, DC, USA; St. Louis Blues right wing Vladimir Tarasenko (91) celebrates with teammates on the bench after scoring a goal against the Washington Capitals in the second period at Verizon Center. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 23, 2016; Washington, DC, USA; St. Louis Blues right wing Vladimir Tarasenko (91) celebrates with teammates on the bench after scoring a goal against the Washington Capitals in the second period at Verizon Center. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /
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The St. Louis Blues had another solid week as they prepare for the start of December. It was still filled with ups and downs.

The St. Louis Blues are doing a much better job of being consistent. Unfortunately, the thing they are most consistent with is inconsistency.

The plus side of that statement is they have lessened the impact of such inconsistencies. Instead of being wildly inconsistent from game to game, they have narrowed it down to period to period or even shift to shift.

That still isn’t good enough to win a championship. It is possible to win in the regular season that way though.

The Blues are finding ways to do that. Even at their worst, they are still almost finding ways to make the best of bad situations.

The Blues opened the week off quite strong. Playing the Bruins in Boston and seeing David Backes for the first time in another uniform, the Blues brushed all that aside.

It was not easy as their former captain opened up the scoring, but the Blues took care of business. Three second period goals and a rare empty netter gave the Blues a 4-2 win to open the week.

From there it was all downhill and I don’t mean in terms of getting easier. The Blues were walloped by the Washington Capitals. The box score would tell you otherwise.

The Blues may have only lost 4-3, but it was not even remotely that close. Alex Ovechkin was allowed to single-handedly defeat the team as he scored a hat-trick.

St. Louis’ defense had no answers. Carter Hutton was left out to dry. Still, the Blues almost pulled something out of a magic hat.

They scored two late goals to cut the lead to one. They had just left too much to overcome and could not get a valuable point from the contest.

It almost appeared as though the same problems would happen against Minnesota. The Blues had 16 shots in one period and out shot the Wild in the first, yet fell behind 1-0.

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Fortunately, they didn’t take an I should have stayed in bed mentality. They came out even more aggressive and it paid dividends.

The Blues couldn’t hold onto a well-earned lead though and let Minnesota tie it in regulation. The Blues would win 4-3 in a shootout final.

It was not the prettiest of weeks, but the Blues got it done. They can’t continue making the mistakes they are, but wins are wins right now.

Blues Weekly Stats

Vladimir Tarasenko – 2G 1A 3P
Patrik Berglund – 0G 2A 2P
Jaden Schwartz – 2G 2A 4P
David Perron – 0G 4A 4P
Dmitrij Jaskin – 0G 1A 1P
Paul Stastny – 2G 1A 3P
Jori Lehtera – 2G 0A 2P
Nail Yakupov – 0G 1A 1P
Robert Bortuzzo – 1G 0A 1P
Colton Parayko – 0G 4A 4P
Jay Bouwmeester – 0G 1A 1P
Alex Pietrangelo – 1G 2A 3P

Jake Allen – 69 saves/72 shots, .958 save percentage, 2.40 goals against
Carter Hutton – 21 saves/25 shots, .840 save percentage, 4.05 goals against

View from the Midwest Division Recap

Looking Forward

It’s more home cooking for the Blues all week this week. The games are not easy, but if the Blues can keep up their solid play at home, then the points should come.

St. Louis will open with a tough game against Dallas on Monday. The last time the two played, Dallas came to life with a 6-2 win. The Blues need a much better effort from everyone involved.

The Blues will see the Lightning come to town on Thursday. The Lightning have not been great away from home and Ben Bishop has not had a good November. St. Louis will need to take advantage of both of those items, assuming Bishop even gets the nod, which is not a given.

Things wrap up against Winnipeg on Saturday. Though the Jets offense is not clicking as well as it had been, they are still a dangerous team.

The Blues need to clean up their game. Only allowing two powerplays to Minnesota was a good start, but there was another too-many men penalty. Eventually, all these dumb penalties will have to catch up to them eventually.

Even if it doesn’t lead to losses or goals against, it means fewer chances to score.

The Blues can really make some headway in the division with more home wins though. This is a good time to get them.

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