The St. Louis Blues took on the Minnesota Wild in their second preseason game. Just as much as the previous night’s loss did not matter, this night’s win was not incredibly important, but it was good to have a W.
The St. Louis Blues were up in Iowa to take on the Minnesota Wild in a game in Des Moines. Similar to how the Blues have regularly played a preseason game in Kansas City, it was designed to help grow the game, spread the fan base and in this case reward fans who have supported Minnesota’s AHL team.
After one period of play, it seemed like the Wild fans were going to be the happier ones at the end of the night. It would take some late game heroics from one of the Blues newest additions for there to be a happy trip for the Blue Note.
Fortunately, those heroics did come. Just as the previous night’s loss had to be put in the rearview mirror, this win is not incredibly important. It is still good to get wins whenever you can and build that habit.
Cons: Giving Up Early Lead
While the Blues struck first, scoring 5:54 into the game, that lead was short lived once the Blues allowed a goal. Minnesota did not score until late in the first period, but scored twice in the span of two minutes.
That’s not good team defense. It’s enough to allow a goal, since shutouts are pretty rare in today’s NHL. However, to allow a team to basically come right back down a few shifts later and put another one in on you is a slight lapse in defensive awareness.
The team probably got a talking to in the first intermission seeing as they put the clamps down defensively and did not allow a goal in the second. Those kind of lapses can cost you in the regular season though.
Pros: Samuel Blais
Samuel Blais is a guy on the fringes of this team now. After making the Blues out of training camp in 2017, he’s someone fighting just to be one of the first call ups during the 2018-19 season. He made a good case for himself in his first preseason game.
Blais got the first goal of the night and it came on the power play, which is something the Blues sorely need. While this does not go down in official scorebooks, it puts Blais on the coaching staff’s radar very early in the preseason.
More from Analysis
- St. Louis Blues and Cardinals Similar In All The Wrong Ways
- St. Louis Blues Pros/Cons From 2022-23 Game 82 At Dallas
- St. Louis Blues Pros/Cons From 2022-23 Game 81 Vs Dallas
- St. Louis Blues Pros/Cons From 2022-23 Game 80 At Minnesota
- St. Louis Blues Pros/Cons From 2022-23 Game 79 Vs NY Rangers
Blais is unlikely to make the team out of camp a second time. However, if through his determination, he can make the decision very tough, then this team will be even deeper.
Cons: The Stat Keeping
I listened to parts of this game on the radio, so got a pretty good sense of how the contest went. If you only went by the stats, good luck figuring out what really happened other than the score line.
If you look at the stats on Google, apparently Tyler Bozak had 17 shots and Blais had nine. That’s impossible or close to it, so we know those aren’t right.
However, if you look at the supposedly official stats on NHL.com, there is basically nothing. The shots on goal say 3-2 instead of the score. They do have somewhat accurate shot totals for most guys, but there is nothing about time on ice, blocks, hits etc.
This game was at an AHL facility. I find it hard to believe you could not have found quality stat keepers since the AHL keeps these same stats for their games.
Pros: Ville Husso
Similarly to how you can’t dog the previous night’s goaltenders too much since nobody outside of the arena actually saw the game, you cannot give Ville Husso too much praise. That said, it was a good start to his young career this season.
All indications are that Husso will start the season in the AHL so that he can play instead of spending the year as a backup. He is making his case already to get some NHL games though.
Husso turned aside 23 of 25 shots, again depending on the stats, earning himself a .920 save percentage. Those are not gigantic numbers, but they are good for preseason, playing with guys that you’ll either be with in the AHL or are fringe NHL guys.
Husso was not called on to make many spectacular stops, but right now they just need him to be steady and keep improving and he seems to have done both.
Pros: Tyler Bozak
When the Blues brought in Tyler Bozak, goals were not even part of the package. Bozak is a grinder that is going to give you some tough minutes, play hard, win battles and faceoffs and make his teammates better. He looked like a sniper on this night.
With the Blues down by two goals in the third and coach Yeo having said he wants the team to have a “win the game” mentality, even in the preseason, Bozak put the team on his shoulders. He scored at 15:01 of the third period and then again, 27 seconds later, to give the team a 3-2 lead.
Bozak then switched mindframes to help this young squad defensively in the final few minutes. He showed good leadership, taking the team to victory with his offense and his overall play. We probably should not expect many two goal nights during the season, but Bozak is no slouch offensively as he proved on this night.
Overview
A win is a win. On social media, I got all the “it’s just preseason” comments from my previous Pros and Cons article. We are all aware of this, so pointing it out on Facebook is not exactly sharp criticism. Anyway, this win is just as meaningless, but it also is not.
As Yeo said in his postgame after the Dallas contest, you want your team to have that winning mentality. You can’t go into these games and think you’re not playing with this person in the regular season or you won’t be having to defend for this goalie. You go in looking to win and play your best.
There were stretches where the Blues were not at their best, but they are still working out plenty of kinks. If there are still holes in the final preseason games, then we can worry.
For now, it was good to get a win. You had the right guys on the score sheet, including an assist for Klim Kostin and Husso played solidly too. A good night for Blues hockey.