The St. Louis Blues were looking for some redemption after a disappointing overtime loss to Chicago the night before. Alas, the Anaheim Ducks were not willing to let that happen.
The St. Louis Blues are becoming adept at finding ways to lose. They had a chance to gain their second win of the season and instead lost their second game of the year in regulation.
The Anaheim Ducks were in the same boat as the Blues. They lost a tough game the night prior to Dallas, just as St. Louis had lost to Chicago. Interestingly enough, both teams got blown out in the shot category in those games too.
However, Anaheim managed to keep their energy consistent throughout the game even if it was slightly depleted. The Blues were a roller coaster, falling down by a goal, taking a 2-1 lead and then coughing it up again.
St. Louis fell by the score of 3-2. They had a decent push at the very end of the game, which is somewhat rare, but there was still no goal to tie it up. The Blues needed that earlier in the game and did not get it, which is becoming a reoccuring theme. St. Louis is 1-2-1 now.
Cons: Another breakaway goal
The St. Louis Blues have to lead the league in breakaways or odd-man rushes given up. Another one cost them the first goal of the game.
Though on initial view, it looked like a turnovers, it was just an unfortunate bounce off a blocked shot and then a great stretch pass. However, this seems to happen to the Blues more than anyone. If nothing else, it seems to indicate the guys on the blue line are too flat-footed and unable to react to such things.
Some of it has to do with pure luck, there is no doubt of that. However, the pure amount of breakaways this team gives up is astounding. Jakob Silfverberg had another breakaway he should have scored on but shot wide. You cannot keep that up and expect to be a good team.
Pros: Vladimir Tarasenko
As frustrating as this game was, it was good to see the team’s best player be its best player. Vladimir Tarasenko might not have scored, but he was contributing in just about every other way.
Tarasenko was hustling, skating to all areas of the ice and mucking it up a bit too. No, there was not much physicality, but he was at least getting his hands dirty so to speak.
Tarasenko almost looked like he scored the team’s first goal of the game, but it was deflected in. He also had a nice setup to get the puck in front for the goal that put the Blues up 2-1.
Tarasenko did just about everything right in this one other than actually score. He passed a few opportunities up that you want him to take, but if he plays like this most games, the Blues will get good performances.
Cons: Top Penalty Killers Taking Penalties
For the second game in a row, and perhaps fifth game really, the Blues best penalty killers kept putting themselves into the penalty box. It was a really bad thing in the Chicago game and kept up against Anaheim.
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In this game, the Blues were only shorthanded twice but both times it was Joel Edmundson in the box. Edmundson is clearly one of the team’s better defenders, so being without him for a full two minutes will always be costly.
It proved to be extra costly in this game since Anaheim’s game winning goal was on the power play.
Right now, there is something wrong with this team overall. Even guys like Ryan O’Reilly, who only had one minor penalty in 2017-18, has been taking penalties. Making matters worse, they are often silly penalties that would not happen if guys kept their feet moving, but referencing the problem with the breakaways, there are a lot of stone feet out there right now.
Cons: Bad Defending At Key Times AGAIN
St. Louis is second to last in goals allowed in the third period. That stat alone shows you what is wrong with this team.
You have to be able to dig deeper and defend harder in the third period, especially when you have a lead. The Blues are finding ways to do the exact opposite. They seem to get softer and lazier in those key moments.
On top of all that, your best players are your worst defenders right now. I hate to pick names out when this is a team-wide issue, but right now Alex Pietrangelo has been plain bad.
He looks lost defensively. He can’t pick the right spots to defend, he can’t hold anyone out or outmuscle anyone and is as flat as anyone. He is constantly picking the wrong spots to go forward, which is leaving a lot of open room behind and often leads to the breaks and rushes. As mentioned, it is not only his fault, but when we all talk and hope he is a Norris candidate, it is more glaring when he is not up to snuff.
Unfortunately, Pietrangelo had a key role to play in the game winning goal too. There were other times when the puck could have gone out before then, but he could not pick the puck off the wall and Anaheim stole it from him (another turnover, which is another huge problem) and scored off that.
On the actual goal, the defender closest to the two players in front of the net was actually a forward. That says a lot.
Pros: Jay Bouwmeester
The stat sheet won’t show it, since Jay Bouwmeester ended the game minus-1 but that’s because he played with Petro. Overall, Bouwmeester showed the largest improvement on the defensive end.
This is not to say Bouw played a perfect game. Nobody really did for the Blues, or else they would have won. But Bouwmeester was doing the little things the defenders need to do more.
Bouwmeester was actually bumping guys after the whistle and he was putting a body on people and boxing forwards out. Bouwmeester is not the strongest guy out there, but he was using leverage and did a solid job overall. We just need the entire defensive unit to copy that and do more too.
Overview
This game was a perfect example of why this team’s problem is not goaltending. Chad Johnson played well, though not spectacular. The defense is just allowing too much against even when they do play better.
This is not all on the Blues. Anaheim did a good job of keeping St. Louis around the perimeter and a lot of St. Louis’ 31 shots were not grade-A scoring chances.
At this point, the Blues need this upcoming road trip. They are playing tough teams with good offenses, but they have to be taken out of their comfort zone.
If we are honest, this was somewhat of a boring game to watch. Both teams had their opportunities and the Blues scored on theirs but allowed Anaheim the chance to capitalize on the Blues’ mistakes, which they did.
The Blues have to find a way to win instead of finding ways to lose. You can’t make the playoffs in the first month, which we saw last season. You can cost yourself a playoff spot though.