St. Louis Blues Pros And Cons From Game 6 Vs. Montreal

The St. Louis Blues needed a good, solid game to start their tough road trip through Canada. They got the polar opposite of that and managed to blow the game completely.

The St. Louis Blues knew exactly what they needed to do entering Montreal. They needed to come out with some jump, some fire and take the game to the Montreal Canadiens.

What happened? The Blues came out with no energy, no offense, no defense and no clue. They deserved to lose this game despite the fact they had every opportunity to win and got just what they deserved when the final horn sounded with a 3-2 loss.

St. Louis got outhustled and outshot in the first period of this one, just two games after the same thing happened on a grander scale in Chicago. You would think the Blues might have learned their lesson, but apparently not.

The Blues offense sputtered and coughed and looked lackluster for 90% of the contest, but somehow still managed go get two goals and have a chance right at the end. Even so, this collection of players is nothing close to a team right now.

Cons: Passing

Where to go with this one. There is too much passing. The passing is not good enough. Pass, pass, pass, pass…

First off, let’s discuss the too much passing. Nobody on this team knows what they want to do. They keep hoping the next guy will do something with it.

Early in the contest, Brayden Schenn made some awkward, twirly backhanded pass to nobody and gave the puck away instead of putting a forehanded shot on goal and looking for a backdoor rebound. On two consecutive power plays in the third period, the Blues made several passes that were not only awkward, but would have been impossible for the intended target to do anything with even if the pass connected.

That ties into the idea of the passes not being good enough. You can’t pass just for passing’s sake. There needs to be a purpose.

This team says all the right things and then hits the ice and continually throws blind passes to nobody or puts teammates in trouble with awful passes into coverage or way too far out of their reach. The stats might say otherwise, but this game was the worst of the season in viewing all of those things.

Pros: Jake Allen Continues To Battle

Jake Allen will continue to have his haters, but I’ve seen a shift in people realizing that this is not currently his fault and is actually a big reason the games are not a lot worse. The same was true in this one.

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Montreal, like so many other games this season and past seasons, did not get a ton of shots but the chances that got through were just too high quality. Allen shrugged off a bad start, allowing a goal 39 seconds in, and kept the Blues in the game. It could have easily been 3-0 or worse after the first period, but the Snake kept them in it and when you’re struggling, that’s all you can ask of your goalie.

Eventually this team has to be able to get a win for their goalie. If not, then it doesn’t matter how well any one unit does, they won’t gel as a team.

Cons: The Defending

Rinse and repeat at this point. All the complaints are pretty much copy and paste from game to game right now. However, the defending is just atrocious.

One game after giving him some credit, Jay Bouwmeester basically falls over his own feet the entire game. A careless giveaway at the very start of the game, followed by an inability by him or his linemate to recover, led directly to the first goal of the game.

Alex Pietrangelo just looks lost right now. Nobody knows if it is lack of sleep from triplets or the pressures of being captain or what. Regardless, he looks like a minor league player and that might be an insult to those in the AHL. He’s supposed to be a good offensive defenseman, but can’t recover on any of the mediocre-to-bad passes he’s been getting. Any time the puck gets by him, an opponent is off to the races because he can neither gather the puck nor put the player into the boards. At this point, I’d rather see a penalty than him just allow someone to squeeze on by another time.

Even Colton Parayko is joining in on the fun now. The fanned pass that led to Montreal’s game winning goal was just the icing on the cake. There is no need to make that pass with 11 seconds left even if he does not dust it off. In addition to that, he’s contributing to the passing problem and even though he was unleashing the shot just a game or two ago, he became timid again.

Right now, this is all beyond words. This was supposed to be the core of this team and they are all veterans now and the defense has been the worst part of this squad.

Pros: Brayden Schenn

Ok, so I pointed Schenn’s miscue with the passing. Nobody had a great night in this game.

Despite this, at least you saw some energy and passion coming out of 10. Other than Pat Maroon’s fight, Schenn was the only one that looked like he gave a damn on his shifts.

Schenn was second of all forwards in time on the ice. He scored what was then the tying goal on a beauty of a one-time shot, just when it looked like the team would waste another power play.

Schenn put pucks on net, threw some hits and blocked a couple shots. As mentioned, he was not perfect but he was trying. I am normally one that says everyone tries, but at least you could tell Schenn was. The rest of the guys…I don’t know.

Cons: Power Play

Talk about wash, rinse and repeat, this one has been going on for years. The power play is, statistically, better but it’s still just bad. The talent alone is creating a few more goals and chances, but the problems are still there.

This team continues to give up shorthanded chances against. They just were not made to pay for it in this one. I made a joke on Twitter, but it was actually true – I get why this team does not shoot more. When they miss, and they miss a lot, their misses almost always seem to exit the zone or come close to it.

It’s just pass, pass, pass – stay around the perimeter. There is no urgency to get into the middle and as soon as anyone tries, everyone else is in a bad position to recover if there is a giveaway or missed shot.

Both Blues goals came off the power play and 2/5 is not a terrible percentage. Even so, right now the team seems to either score on the power play or just look as bad as you can possibly be.

Overview

As mentioned, the Blues got exactly what they deserved in this one. They did enough to have a chance at a point, maybe even a win, but they did not deserve one.

The entire team just looks out of sorts right now. It’s almost as though they expect their teammate to make a mistake, so by anticipating a mistake they end up out of position themselves. Despite this, they seem to continually pass the buck offensively, not wanting to take the game by the scruff themselves.

At this point, it’s impossible to say what this team needs. A new goaltender will not help. One defensive player, or even two, will not help. The line juggling makes it impossible for chemistry to occur, but the team gives the coach no alternative but to juggle them.

Eventually, the Blues just have to luck into a good game and hope it gets them rolling. At the moment, they are not giving us any hope that will occur.