St. Louis Blues: Pros And Cons From Game 11 Against Carolina Hurricanes

The St. Louis Blues have had some good success against the Carolina Hurricanes in recent times. By the final horn, it would be another good result even if things were a little sketchy on the journey.

There is a reason they say games are not played on paper. The St. Louis Blues should have been the fresher team after the Carolina Hurricanes played the night before and the Blues last played on Wednesday.

Instead, the teams went toe to toe for much of this interconference matchup. Still, the Blues managed to find their overall game and get the end result.

The first period was a little sketchy at times. We’ll get into the specifics in a moment, but the Blues had to kind of gut this one out.

From an overall perspective, the Blues had to really bear down on this game. They never fully looked like the better team as much as you would like.

Nevertheless, a win is a win.

Cons:

The Blues got outhit in the first period.

Things evened out over the course of the game. In fact, the Blues outhit the Canes 28-27. However, the Blues got outhit by quite a bit in the first period.

Those watching the television broadcast heard Darren Pang say repeatedly that Carolina was not a very physical team. Despite this assertion, the Blues were outhit 13-6 in the opening frame.

Couple that fact with the fact that Carolina should have been weary from playing the night before and it can be attributed to another slow start by the Blues. They did not play bad, but you’d like to think they would come out of the gate a little harder and take it to a team to show their dominance.

Pros:

Dmitrij Jaskin got his first goal of the season.

It was not the prettiest of goals and that actually makes it even better. Jaskin has been an enigma after a bright start in his rookie year.

He shows flashes of the player we hoped he would be and then disappears for long stretches. Jaskin was a healthy scratch for two straight games before re-joining the lineup against Carolina.

He managed to score his first goal of the season with a gritty goal. Jaskin managed to use his size and strength to get to the front of the net. After a long shot saw a rebound come right back out in front, Jaskin pounced on it and made the score.

Cons:

Jeff Skinner continues to own the Blues.

Thank goodness this guy plays in the other conference because he has the Blues number. Skinner has faced the Blues 11 times in his career and he has scored nine goals.

Pros:

Carter Hutton continues to saw wood.

To borrow a phrase usually made popular in football, Hutton just keeps going to work or sawing wood or whatever you want to call it. There was not the overly spectacular saves we have become accustomed to, but Hutton was very good.

He only allowed one goal on 27 shots. He was steady throughout the game, including a penalty kill in the third period.

Hutton made a beautiful kick save early in the game as well, which might have made the difference since it kept the Hurricanes from scoring first.

Hutton also continues to be a road warrior this season. He is 3-0-0 for the Blues this year, all of the wins coming at home.

Cons:

The Blues struggled to get shots through.

Again, how much can you complain when you win and you have 34 shots on goal? It is not so much a complaint, but the Blues could have easily had 50-60 shots if they could have found a few more lanes.

That is how the game went though. Lots of credit goes to the Hurricanes, but it was just a game that was hard to generate anything for both sides.

There were 49 shots blocked by both teams. 28 of those were by the Blues and 21 for Carolina. Those that like defensive hockey were rewarded, but it was a bit of a slogfest since the defenders were so on top of their games.

Pros:

Brayden Schenn kept his hot start to the season going.

He continues to show why he might be the team’s all-around best player. If not for Schenn, the Blues’ faceoff percentage would be in the toilet.

Schenn won 70% of his draws, which could only push the team total to 49%. You wonder how bad it might have been otherwise.

Schenn also scored the game winning goal for St. Louis. Like Jaskin’s goal, it was a good example of the Blues actually crashing the net and pucking up rebounds.

After a good keep in at the blue line, Jaden Schwartz hammered a shot at goal and Schenn was there for the putback.

Schenn now has 10 points in 11 games. Two of his three goals have come at even strength, which was something we wondered if he could pull off or not.

Overall thoughts:

The Blues played well enough to win, but might have been holding back.

You never want to take anything away from opponents. Carolina played their own style and forced the Blues into some mistakes and limited the number of chances.

Still, the Blues seemed to play as though they knew they were not going to be in for a physical battle. They seemed like they wanted to hold a little back for the Columbus game since the Blue Jackets are bigger and more physical.

No matter how you get them, when you can get all the points out of an out of conference game, you take it. The Blues third line continues to improve, even if they are not getting rewarded with the goals. They did contribute to the Jaskin score though.

Next: Third Line Woes Might Sink Blues

The Blues deserved to win and did. However, they cannot allow so many breaks against the better teams in the league.

The good thing was the Blues did not seem to overexert themselves. They should have plenty left in the tank to face Columbus in the third back-to-back of the young season.

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