St. Louis Blues Morning Links: Chance To Rebound Vs. Arizona

Good morning Blues fans! The Blues are home for one more game tonight and then it is back on the road. Hopefully we don’t see as many bad bounces tonight as the previous game.

The St. Louis Blues get to sleep in their beds one more night before heading back onto the road. They are hoping it will be with victorious thoughts in their heads as they play the Arizona Coyotes for the second time in less than a week.

The Blues won the last meeting. However, despite the comfortable scoreline, it was not as dominant a game as it should have been.

While St. Louis won 3-0, it should have been more. The Blues only had themselves to blame for essentially playing down to their competition.

Jake Allen had to be called upon to make more good saves than you would like against a team like Arizona as well. It was more the Snake’s doing than the defense to get the shutout on that night.

None of that is to say the Blues played a bad game. The defense did not have any glaring mistakes or tons of odd-man rushes given up.

It was just one of those games that the team won, so you shrug your shoulders and take the points. If the Blues had shown up for an entire 60 minutes, the game could easily have been 5 or 6-0.

Even with the heroics of Mike Smith, and he played brilliantly, the Blues just never seemed quite focused enough. It was nowhere near their bad play from the winter months, but it just seemed off.

It’s a long season. That was a long road trip. It’s almost impossible to have guys focused with razor-sharp intensity every single night.

When the playoffs are looming though, you would like to see a team as talented as the Blues actually go out and dominate. Even with this turnaround, there is still a bit too much of the game coming to them instead of taking it by the scruff.

Arizona has some good, young talent. They won’t be pushovers by any means despite what we think of them.

Hopefully the Blues are out for revenge. Not so much on Arizona, since they’ve already beaten them, but for the last game.

More from Bleedin' Blue

St. Louis could have won against Calgary if they did not get in their own way. Three goals against were all scored of deflections from Blues players.

That’s how cruel bounces can be in sports. Instead of being in the third divisional spot and a point ahead of Calgary overall, St. Louis is now two points behind the Flames, a point behind Nashville and stuck in that final playoff wild card spot.

It is up to the Blues to decide the rest of their fate. Their schedule is easy on paper, but sometimes those are the hard games to play.

St. Louis needs to come out and show Arizona how good they are right from the opening faceoff. Do that and maybe get some help from some other teams and perhaps we don’t have to see Chicago in the opening round.

Here are your St. Louis Blues Morning Links to get your day started off right.

The St. Louis Blues were definitely down after their loss to Calgary. How could you not be the way it ended? Despite the finish and their relative poor play in overtime, this is not a team hanging their heads and waiting for the next bad thing to happen anymore though. (STLToday)

For those that missed the news, the St. Louis Blues signed one of their goaltending prospects to a three-year entry deal. While he is likely to stay in juniors one more season, the Blues might face another log jam in net in the near future. (Arch Authority)

The Chicago Wolves hit a skid here lately. While they were still picking up points in overtime and shootout losses, they had lost five games in a row. That finally ended with a big win led by several players the Blues are high on. (Wolves)

We don’t always expect much out of teenagers when it comes to singing. Bodies are changing, voices cracking etc. One particular teenager even has more to deal with in his life, but he brought people to their feet in New Jersey with his stirring rendition of our national anthem. (NHL)

The NHL and its player’s union is in a bit of a dog fight over whether to attend the next Winter Olympics in South Korea. However the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) has joined the conversation. They essentially told the NHL they had better not skip this Olympics with any intention of playing in the next. (ESPN)

There is a small chance that Clayton Keller might play his first NHL game in his hometown. The budding star just inked a new deal and will join the big leagues. (ESPN)

Have a great day Blues fans!