St. Louis Blues: Pros And Cons From Game 49 Against Arizona

The St. Louis Blues had a golden opportunity to send a message to the league they were back. Instead, they sent a message to the division that it is there for the taking.

The St. Louis Blues crapped the bed against the Arizona Coyotes, plain and simple. I have a bad habit of burying the lead in my writing, but there is no getting around this one.

St. Louis came into this one with every reason to show up. They had won two games in a row, they were coming back home, they were playing against the worst team – record wise – in the NHL.

Yet, the fans were the only ones who showed up to this game wearing blue and ready to go. The Blues might as well have not even taken the ice. It might have been more entertaining if they had not. At least it would have been something interesting to talk about.

Instead, they made those of us loyal enough to stick around want to gouge out our eyes or pull out our hair. To be honest, I never want to turn games off early, but if I did not feel it necessary to stick around for my writing, I would have given up on that game by the second period.

It is almost unbelievable that a team can fail to show anything resembling interest from the start. They have a habit of playing down to their competition, but this was beyond that. The Blues either did not give any respect to Arizona or did not respect the game enough to come out hard from the start.

This team continues to be an enigma. They can play with and beat some of the league’s best. They can look like an unbeatable group, capable of getting big moments from every player up and down the lineup. Then, they can look like a mess of an organization not capable of even entering an offensive zone, much less winning anything of importance in the spring.

The team will rebound, of that I have no doubt. It was just incredibly discouraging to see this team flat-out dominated.

Cons:

St. Louis sent out impostors for the first period.

Someone needs to contact Hollywood because they are missing a lot of makeup and rubber masks. That has to be what happened. Someone sent out actors who were made up to look like the Blues players, but were not actually them.

That is the only viable excuse. All other reasoning points to this team just not giving a damn and that is a frightening thought.

Rarely do I ever question the actual fortitude of these players, but calling them a shadow of themselves in that first period would be giving them too much credit.

There are no excuses. They are not tired. They are not road weary. St. Louis is not struggling to deal with injuries. They simply did not care enough to show up at the start of this game.

Maybe they looked at the standings and thought it would be easy. You cannot do that. You are not a team talented enough to simply show up and win.

The Blues got outshot 23-7 in the first period alone. They did not get their fourth shot of the game until they were already down by three goals.

It was an embarrassing situation to watch. St. Louis looked like they were killing a penalty the entire period as a good 60-70% of the frame was spent in their zone.

Pros:

Brayden Schenn scored again.

To be forthright, it was considered not giving any pros. As a fan, I felt there was so little done correctly, it was not worth pointing anything positive out. However, as an analyst, you have to put that aside and find the few things that did go right.

One of those was clearly Brayden Schenn scoring another goal.

Schenn was not in the “dirty areas” but it was another example of going to the goal and getting rewarded. While it was set up by a failed clearance, Schenn still had to do the hard part. We saw another open net end up with a shot hitting the post later in the game, so it was not a given for the Blues to score here.

The goal gives Schenn two goals in his last two games. He also has three points in that same span.

He still does not look incredibly comfortable out there, but he does seem to be finding his game for the first time without Jaden Schwartz. Hopefully he can continue this run.

Cons:

The Blues left their goaltenders out to dry again.

Let’s get something out of the way. It pains me to say it, but Jake Allen screwed up with the first goal he gave up. As a fan of his and a firm believer that he is the only one capable of taking this team far in the playoffs, that pains to say, but it is the truth.

Pros:

The Blues got two power play goals.

Go figure, huh? The team’s power play has been nonexistent prior to this game. They were 1-27 prior to this game against Arizona.

Just when the team has perhaps its worst overall game of the season, the power play comes to life.

St. Louis went 2-3 on the man advantage in this contest. They looked incredibly strong and almost scored on the second power play as well.

Neither of the goals were something to write home about. When you’re nearing the bottom of the barrel, you don’t complain though.

Schenn was in the right place at the right time. Alexander Steen was a bit lucky, but again, in front of the net where the business of scoring goals regularly happens.

By then it still seemed too little to late and proved to be so, but the Blues at least gave themselves a chance with those two goals. Maybe they can use these as building blocks to rebuild their shattered special teams unit.

Overall Thoughts:

There is really nothing more to say.

As fans, we blow our stacks, yell at the television, throw things, stomp around and who knows what else. A friend of mine said this writeup would probably need a censor button.

I responded in a joking manner, but was serious when I said this performance did not even deserve a meltdown reaction by the end.

If this article had been written in the middle of the second period, it would have been much worse (if possible). By now, there is not much else to say.

Take away the record of the opponent or how well the Coyotes actually played – they do deserve credit for doing a lot of good things. Strip all that away and you’ll be left with the Blues playing, perhaps, their worst game of the season.

We usually look back to the two Florida crapfests, but this one might have been worse. St. Louis gave you brief moments of hope in those games. There was never anything that made anyone believe coming from this game.

Toss this game film on the fire and forget it. There can’t be anything learned from it.

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The Blues have to turn the page quickly. They need to not think they can win by showing up anymore.

Next: Vince Dunn Needs To Be A Permanent Roster Player

Just because they beat Ottawa the last time, does not mean it will happen on Tuesday. You have to show up and play every single game.

Perhaps this game will have taught them that.