St. Louis Blues: Pros And Cons From Game 22 Against Edmonton

The St. Louis Blues have found themselves in an unfamiliar position against the Edmonton Oilers the second time around. They were the conquerors from the very onset.

As great as the St. Louis Blues have been in the 2017-18 season, there have been few games you could say they dominated from start to finish. You can’t say that any longer after their beatdown of the Edmonton Oilers.

Things got so bad that Blues fans were actually calling for the destruction to stop.

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It was all in good fun of course.

The Blues took the game by the throat right from the get go and never let up. They scored barely over three minutes in and the flood gates opened.

St. Louis had two goals in the first and another two in the second. Then a whopping six goals came for the Blues in the third.

The third period alone was the final score for most games. Luckily the Blues won that battle too, 4-3.

That’s really all that needs to be said – the Blues crushed this game from start to finish. The only sour note was giving up that many goals.

Pros:

The top line is just unbelievable right now.

Brayden Schenn had two goals and four points. Jaden Schwartz had a goal and four points. Vladimir Tarasenko had two goals, including the first goal of the game, and a Gordie Howe hat-trick (goal, assist and a fight) in addition to his four points.

The top line has now combined for 85 total points after their 12 points in this game alone. Beyond just the scoring, they are doing the dirty work of getting to pucks on the forecheck as well.

Obviously you are going to have bad games over the course of a season. Right now, this line seems to be able to do everything and do everything well.

Cons:

The three goals.

This one is a bit nit-picky. There was really nothing Jake Allen could do on any of the goals.

Each one was a good-to-great pass that resulted in either a one-timer or back-door goal. You could argue the defenders might have kept track of the guys in behind them. However, for the most part, those goals were good plays by the Oilers.

The disappointing thing is that the Blues let their guard down enough for that to happen. They had played so well, you would hope for the shutout. That just was not the case in this one.

Really the main drawback is that Allen played well overall, but his stats will take a hit with the .897 save percentage in this game.

Pros:

It was a decent first game back for Jay Bouwmeester.

He didn’t end up on the stat sheet, although he was a plus-1. He got over 19 minutes of ice time though and didn’t seem to have much rust.

Of course, it helps that the team around him is clicking on all cylinders. However, it is upon the player to perform himself.

Bouwmeester did that. He defended well and created some offense also. This won’t go down as his best game of the season, but it was a good jumping off point.

Cons:

The Blues got blasted in the physical department.

We’ve discussed in past games that the hit totals seem to be very subjective at best. Sometimes it is difficult to tell what is being classified as a hit.

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That said, the Blues got taken to school in this category. Edmonton outhit the Blues 32 to 11.

Whether the Blues were not given their proper total or given too many hits, that is an unacceptable number. Yes, your offense didn’t need that extra jump, but you just have to be throwing more hits than that.

11 is just too small and if your opponent is hitting you almost three times as many as you hit them, that’s not a recipe for success against tougher teams.

Pros:

The Blues got scoring from their true secondary guys.

We’ve heard tell of the Blues getting good scoring from secondary guys. More often than not, those analysts or writers were actually talking about the second line.

St. Louis got true secondary scoring against Edmonton. Dmitrij Jaskin got a goal where he looked like a legit sniper.

The fourth line picked up a goal again as well. This one featured tic-tac-toe passing from some rather unusual participants before the eventual finish.

Both goals featured some fantastic effort by all involved.

Pros:

Colton Parayko was on his game.

Normally we alternate back and forth with pros and cons, but there was not much else the Blues did wrong despite what Mike Yeo said in his press conference. So, another pro worth mentioning was Parayko having a great game in all phases.

He was strong in the defensive zone, putting a body on people and getting sticks in lanes. He helped in the transition game as well.

On that goal from the video above, it started with a poke check from Parayko. He then followed it up and jabbed it up the wall, which sprang the attack.

Parayko also scored. Ok, the goal was credited to Schenn with a deflection, but Parayko has continued to look comfortable with his shot. He has really started to come into his own with the offensive side, which was something we were worried about just a couple weeks ago.

Overall Thoughts:

It was fun to watch, but can’t be taken too seriously.

What a game. Now, even as fans, we take that and put it in our back pocket and say that was fun and forget it. It has no bearing on future games.

The Blues have a brilliant offense this season, but they aren’t going to score anywhere close to 8 goals a game with regularity. St. Louis is not going to run roughshod over other teams consistently.

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The Blues better not think other games will be this easy either. We’ve seen what happens when they get too confident and usually it means this scoreline goes in reverse.

For one night, it was fun. It may have gotten to the point where we wondered if we could even cheer anymore, but we enjoyed every second of it. Now, we can all enjoy our turkey and switch focus to some tougher games on the weekend.