St. Louis Blues Pros And Cons From Game 8 Vs. Winnipeg

The St. Louis Blues came out of the gates in Winnipeg poised for a repeat performance from their Toronto game. Unfortunately, there was no encore as they fell in overtime.

The St. Louis Blues continue to find ways to disappoint. Just after they got our hopes up with a sensational game against Toronto, they hand the game and important divisional points to Winnipeg.

The Blues lost the game in overtime by the score of 5-4. However, the final does not tell the entire story.

What makes the loss even more disappointing is the fact that the Blues had four leads (depending how you analyze it). St. Louis led 2-0, 2-1, 3-1 and then 4-3.

Clearly none of them lasted. St. Louis found ways to keep allowing Winnipeg into the game instead of stepping on their throat and taking away all the oxygen.

Now, beyond just losing this game, the Blues have failed to get more than one point out of any Central Division showdown.

Cons: The Icings

We will cut straight to the chase on this one. There are a bunch of different things you could pin this loss on, but I pin it on the icings.

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The goal that tied the contest at three goals was directly after icing calls. Sammy Blais was mere inches from the center line, meaning it was senseless to ice the puck. Even Darren Pang, who rarely criticizes much, said Blais had to be aware.

That was only one of several times the Blues got caught icing the puck and Winnipeg made them pay.

The Blues have made a terrible habit of this. They ice the puck when it is not necessary and somehow fail to ice it when it would be prudent to do so. Rarely has it been so evident as it was this game.

Pros: The Second Line

With all the inconsistency from the Blues, it has been hard to figure out lines with this team. We saw the forming of a formidable trio in this one, though they likely won’t stay together long.

The line featuring Ryan O’Reilly, David Perron and Zach Sanford was taking it to the Jets throughout this game. They accounted for two of the Blues goals.  Just as impressive was the passing.  They looked like they had been together for years with some of the passes they strung together.

O’Reilly was particularly on fire in this game. He scored a goal and picked up two assists.

O’Reilly has really started to turn things up. He’s getting more into the flow of game with this team. Now, he just needs to get his teammates to follow suit.

Cons: Not Helping Your Own Goaltender

We can argue all night about how Jake Allen played in this game. Allen played well for long stretches and was too far in his net on one or two of the goals.

Regardless of that, he simply did not get the defensive help he needed or that he received in Toronto. The Jay Bouwmeester own goal was a prime example.

Bouwmeester is having a rough go of it right now, causing issues for this team. That was evident on the Jets first goal, when Bouwmeester strangely put his butt almost right in Allen’s face and then inadvertently deflected the puck into the net.

This was not the only time the Blues got in their goaltender’s way. They continually backed in toward their own crease on defense.

Then, when they needed to be closer to the net than their opponent, they often were not. How in the world you can let world class scorers in behind you when the game is on the line is beyond me.

They lost puck battles in key areas of the ice and failed to exit their zone on multiple occasions, one of which directly led to a goal as well when Vladimir Tarasenko weakly backhanded it toward the blue line. The defense lost track of people, did not guard the back door play and left Allen all alone on the game winning goal.

As fans, we get upset at the minute things at times, but when you can hear the disappointment in the voice of Chris Kerber, you know things are really going south.

Pros: The Blues Got A Point

Unlike Bernie Federko, I only take this good thing so far. Federko made the claim that this was a good point in a tough place to play.

I merely say it’s good the Blues got a point. It was far from a good point. If we had done what Winnipeg did, battle back from several deficits and lost in OT, then it’s a good point.

This is points lost really. Nevertheless, you cannot come up empty in Central Division battles and the Blues have gained three points out of four games in the division, even though they lost all four.

Every point is critical though, so not finding a way to blow this in regulation is still important, even if it stings.

Overview

The Blues have to figure out a way to play with a lead and not crumble in the third period.

St. Louis is now 2-3 when leading after two periods of play. I understand that in today’s NHL, no lead is safe. Despite this, good teams win the vast majority of games when they have leads heading into the third period or at least gain the lead in the third.

The Blues find ways to give games away. Even at their best, this has been somewhat of an issue. So, clearly, it would become even more of a problem when they are not quite at their best.

If you only look at the boxscore and did not know how everything transpired, getting a point in Winnipeg is a decent result with how the Jets have owned the Blues lately.

Watching the game and understanding how this team continually falls back into bad habits, this is more of a crushing defeat. It might not be as bad as Montreal, but this is still really bad.

The Blues have to be able to win these games, not settle for cheap, morale victories.