The St. Louis Blues came into their first game of 2018-19 with a lot of hope. One game won’t destroy that completely, but it sure did depress fans a lot.
The St. Louis Blues dropped the puck on their 52 season after a lot of disappointment in how their previous one ended. With a lot of fresh faces in and extra baggage out, hope was renewed for a push toward the promised land.
One game at the start of the season won’t make or break any team. However, one sixty minute game can sure alter our moods rather quickly.
St. Louis came out with a lot of energy and pep, matching the mood of the people in the stands and those watching at home. Unfortunately, as we have seen in previous years, they could not find the finish to all the build up.
The Blues played reasonably well in the first period, but it was an early Winnipeg Jets power play that led to the only goal scored in the first two periods.
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Then, for whatever reason, the wheels fell off in the third period for the Blues. They allowed four unanswered goals, before finally putting one in the net themselves. It was a rather embarrassing end to what started off as a promising game.
Cons: The Haters Have Ammunition And Boo Birds Were Out
St. Louis Blues fans are getting into some rather bad habits. While I do subscribe to the theory of someone paying their money can react how they want, I will never understand the mocking “Bronx cheers” attitude that we saw in this game.
Jake Allen goes out there and busts his butt every night. If you don’t think he’s good enough talent-wise or between the ears, that’s your own opinion. But this nonsense of basically wanting him to fail just so you can be smug and say you were right is just garbage.
The Allen bashers were out early, proving they know little besides their own bias. The first goal was deflected in, giving the Snake little chance.
The second goal started with a terrible pass, was made worse by the team’s captain foolishly diving for a puck he would never get and then back checking forwards only giving half effort. Five-hole goals are never good to the eye, but he had to choose where he thought the shot was going and he gambled on high and lost.
The third goal was an odd-man rush, with little defensive help. The fourth goal was deflected as well.
The fifth one is the only one you can blame him for as he overextended out of his crease. By then it did not matter.
Pros: Faceoffs
It’s a small thing, but something that will certainly pay dividends as the season goes on. While the Blues did falter on some key faceoffs, their new players were as advertised in the faceoff circle.
Robert Thomas won 57%, Ryan O’Reilly gained 59% and Tyler Bozak won 77% of his draws. Though the Blues offense could not connect on this night, they were given opportunities by setting up their offense in the zone.
Additionally, they aided their penalty kill by winning faceoffs as well. There are going to be nights where those guys are just off. However, if they win 58% of their faceoffs on most nights, the Blues will have every opportunity to do good things. It’s about the finishing after the faceoff win.
Cons: Same Old Story
We’re going to lump this one all together. The power play is still ineffective, the defense keeps shot totals low but allows way too many quality chances and the team failed to generate enough offense.
To their credit, the power play looked like a different unit with a different scheme. Also, it is time we all admit that we are overly sensitive about the man-advantage too. That said, it’s easy to understand why when the team had four chances to score on the power play and did not. Making matters worse, they allowed a shorthanded goal when they were on the verge of tying the game. They can look as good as they want, but at this point we would rather ugly goals than pretty plays that lead to nothing.
Talking about the defense, you have to consider that this is not the full unit. That said, it may not matter. Just as happened in far too many games in 2017-18, the shot totals were fairly low but the quality chances were way up. Too many odd-man rushes and too soft on the back end. Blame Allen if you want, but this game still ends up a loss even if you put a Hall of Fame goalie, in their prime, in the net on this night.
Last, but not least, is the lack of offense. Again, blame Allen if that’s your cup of tea but you have to score to win the game. We are still in a situation where the team is expecting the Snake – or any goalie – to put up shutouts to win. With one goal scored, Allen has to allow zero to win. That’s just not going to happen on most nights. League leaders rarely get double digit shutouts in a year anymore, so you have to find a way to score, even on a hot goalie, if you’re going to win.
Pros: The Young Guys Looked Good
Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou looked good – Kyrou especially. They made rookie mistakes, including Thomas’ giveaway that led to the late goal. Even so, they looked like guys that can have a good impact on this team going forward as long as we don’t go down that weird path of saying a rookie has to score twice as much just to hold their spot.
Thomas showed some good maneuvering ability and simply needs to be more careful with the puck in those tight quarters. Kyrou showed some fleet feet and a willingness to shoot. Kyrou, in fact, was tied for second on the team in shots taken in this game.
It is harder to measure their performance in a crap game, but they showed well overall. The only thing we need worry about with Thomas is the more talented fourth line experiment had a big fail in this game giving up two goals against. If he is not blamed for that, they’ll all be fine.
Overview
All of us, myself included, need to just take a deep breath. We were not going to win the Stanley Cup on night one and we did not lose it either.
Though it stinks to rely on as an excuse, this is still a team coming together. They have chemistry to build with five players on the ice that did not play a single minute with the 2017-18 team.
It is simply frustrating to see the same old problems rear their ugly head, whether that be the inept power play, lack of scoring in general or whatever frustrated you the most in this game. There is no reason to go overboard though.
The Blues are still going to be a team to be dealt with. They simply have to iron out the kinks and start hitting on all cylinders. If this team fails to generate offense, then we can say it is a coaching issue because there have simply been too many upgrades in personnel.
St. Louis has their chance to turn the page quickly. They’ll see the Blackhawks on Saturday. Hopefully the result will be as far from this one as possible.