St. Louis Blues Morning Links: Blues Forgot To Wake Up

Good morning Blues fans! We are clearly in for a rough series with ups and downs, not only from game to game but within each game as well.

The St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators were clearly affected by the early start time. Unfortunately, it affected the Blues much more than the Predators.

Both teams looked a bit weary at the very start, but the Predators were able to push through it in the ways you want from your professional teams. They pushed aside that weariness, found their game and their physicality and took the game to the Blues.

The one thing we have seen from this team under Mike Yeo has been their ability to bounce back. While they still may during this series, they had no bounce back during the game.

The Blues just never woke up. There were brief glimpses of course. St. Louis did not go completely quietly into that good night.

However, one goal just won’t cut it. Unless you get some performance beyond what he did against Minnesota, Jake Allen is just not going to save this team by himself.

The Snake is playing well enough right now, but he is not quite the savior he was in round one. Compounding that issue is the Blues inability to do anything positive for a full 60 minutes.

Win or lose, the Blues have not played a full 60 minutes against Nashville. That has good connotations and bad, but right now it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

The biggest issue at the moment for the Blues is an inability to score the first goal and taking too many penalties. Not scoring first has forced the Blues to play catch up the entire series.

That takes a large toll in and of itself. The Blues have to find a way to put themselves on the right foot and play from ahead.

For the second game out of three, St. Louis was not able to keep their composure and Nashville made them pay. Technically the Predators did not score on any of their powerplays, but they pressured the Blues and one goal came immediately as the penalty was over.

The issue with the penalties, regardless of goals scored or not, is the idea that Nashville is getting in the Blues heads. St. Louis did a good job of doing that to Minnesota and it seems the tables have been turned.

The Blues cannot allow themselves to be dragged into the muck by the Predators. On the flip side, someone besides Ryan Reaves has to step up and stick up for the team.

One example of that is this reoccurring theme of knee-to-knee hits. Nashville does not have the reputation of a dirty team, but it is hard to imagine that it is pure coincidence that multiple hits have involved legs and knees.

The Blues will need to figure both that out and their own game. They have the talent to win this series. They just have to get it done and right now they are not getting it done at all.

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

For the third straight game the Blues came out and played well from the get go. For the second game out of three, the team had no push after allowing a goal. On top of that, coach Yeo was not too happy with anybody’s performance top to bottom. (Blues)

The St. Louis Blues are pretty beat up right now. On top of the knee-to-knee hits, Alex Pietrangelo narrowly missed being blasted in the face by a puck. Also narrowly missing something horrific was David Perron. (SB Nation)

The Blues failures to clear pucks and get quick line changes was another drawback from their Game 3 loss. While that one instance was not a lone wolf, the team’s play was not unnoticed. Due to that, expect some different lines and lineups in Game 4. (STLToday)

Next: Tarasenko A Finalist For Postseason Hardware

No offense to the Washington Capitals backup goaltender, but the possibility that Braden Holtby not being the Game 3 starter seemed slim. However, you can never tell what curveballs coaches might throw so the official announcement was still interesting. (ESPN)

Speaking of goaltenders, Cam Talbot often gets overlooked because of the Oilers’ incredible offense. However, he was a big reason they got by San Jose. So, his words following a less than stellar Game 3 against Anaheim had importance. (NHL)

Have a great day Blues fans!