The St. Louis Blues are getting extremely comfortable with the extra period. They took the Boston Bruins to overtime and came out the other side with the extra point.
The St. Louis Blues continued their late-season trek through some shark infested waters. They were facing one of the league’s best and hottest teams and managed to take their game to the next level.
The Blues managed to play very well from start to finish, though their offense took a little longer to get out of the locker room than the rest of the game.
St. Louis gave up the first goal of the game when the Bruins scored on the power play. Boston was fortunate since the puck went off the official, but Ryan Donato blasted a shot right over the shoulder of the goaltender to take a one goal lead.
That lead held up the entire game until about half way through the third period. That’s when the Jaden Schwartz show took over.
Schwartz scored the tying goal in the third period. The Blues also almost managed to end the game in regulation. It took a desperation save to get the Bruins the point that would guarantee them a playoff save.
The Blues were not going to be denied. Playing in their third straight overtime, they picked up their third straight win as Schwartz ripped a shot just over the right pad of Anton Khudobin to give St. Louis a 2-1 win.
Pros:
Jake Allen continued his resurgent stretch.
The Blues have benefitted from some great goaltending from the Snake in the last week or two. Ever since the San Jose game, even though they lost, Allen has been on point.
There was a goal or two he might have liked to have back in the Chicago game. Outside of that, Allen has been superb.
He has been a big reason the team turned things around. Picking up his game at the right time, with Carter Hutton getting injured, he has given the defenders confidence to go forward once again.
Allen was not tested a ton in the Boston game. He only faced 22 shots total. He shut down two Boston power plays though and if not for a bad bounce off the referee, he may have had a shutout. There was nothing anyone was doing once Donato got it that close to net with no resistance.
Still, the shots stopped were of decent quality and Allen was up to the task on all but one.
Cons:
The offense took awhile to get going.
You almost wondered if it was going to get going at all. Despite the Blues overall good play, the offense sputtered a bit.
St. Louis had a measly five shots on goal. They also had only five shots in the third period, but so did Boston so it evened out a bit.
Of course, you are going up against the second stingiest team in the Eastern Conference, so that matters. However, with your playoff lives on the line, you’d like to see them get a few more pucks on goal.
Fortunately, their low shot total did not cost them in this game the way it did in San Jose.
Pros:
The defense was great.
In any game, you’ll get an occasional moment of lapse judgement. So it was impossible for the Blues to play a perfect game from start to finish.
That said, they had one of the best defensive performances we’ve seen in weeks, if not the season. They were just thwarting everything.
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In recent weeks, the Blues looked like they were going to allow a goal every break down the ice. In this game, you expected them to stop whatever was coming their way.
They limited the amount of shots through. They had good positioning overall and limited the odd man rushes. When they did allow a break down the ice against them, their stick work was fabulous. They broke up so many odd-man rushes by knowing when to attack the puck with a well timed poke, it was a wonder to watch.
Pros:
Schwartz was a man on a mission.
The Blues offense picked up quite a bit in the second and even more in the third. The biggest difference between the first and third was the amount of attack, since the shot totals were the same.
That said, this game ends 1-0 Boston if not for Schwartz. There were some fine moments for Brayden Schenn and a couple other guys. However, it was Schwartz that put the team on his shoulders.
The first goal was a good team play. Schenn fired a great cross-ice pass to Alexander Steen. Steen then had a nice drop pass and Schwartz wired it in.
If the first goal was good, the second one was great.
Schwartz went coast to coast, driving past the defenders as though they were nothing. He then picked the same spot, going blocker side, just above the pad to score on another blistering snap shot.
Beyond that, Schwartz was just buzzing all over the ice. These are the exact players you need to step up with injuries going on at high levels.
Overall Thoughts:
The season is getting extremely interesting.
Every time you think the Blues are dead, they sit back up. They’re doing it so dramatically right now that they make the Undertaker from WWE look underwhelming.
The Blues picked up their physicality. Boston is normally known for being physical, but the Blues doubled the amount of checks thrown, putting the Bruins down over 40 times.
Next: Jaden Schwartz Voted One Of NHL's Most Underrated
St. Louis’ offense needed to be a little more consistent. The power play is still something that is holding this team back as well.
However, they are getting what they need right now. St. Louis is getting good goaltending, they’re getting timely scoring and, most importantly, they are winning.