St. Louis Blues Pros And Cons From Game 9 Vs. Columbus

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TORONTO, ON – OCTOBER 20: St. Louis Blues Left Wing Zach Sanford (12) celebrates the goal by teammate Right Wing Nikita Soshnikov (90) in the 2nd period with other teammates during the regular season NHL game between the St. Louis Blues and Toronto Maple Leafs on October 20, 2018 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, ON. (Photo by Jeff Chevrier/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

Pros: The Second Line

Ok, I’ll be honest in that I’m reaching on this one. However, my small amount of OCD likes having pros and cons be even when possible.

With that in mind, despite the final score, I was pleased with the line of O’Reilly, Perron and Sanford. Zach Sanford‘s goal might have come in garbage time, but it was still a good example of sticking with it.

Sanford dumped it off, the shot came in, he followed it to the net and put in a nifty backhanded goal.

On top of that, the Blues just looked threatening more often with that line than the others.

Bozak and his rotating wings have been somewhat disappointing, though they are not given much chance to shine overall. He did pick up an assist on the Sanford goal. Also, the top line is inconsistent at best, though Schwartz and Tarasenko scored.

This line has been the best, overall 200 feet of the ice, for the team the last two games. While I fully concede that plus/minus is a misconstrued stat, it should be telling that Sanford and Perron were the only plus-forward on the team and O’Reilly was even.

I’ll admit, I’m grasping at straws to find some positives, but I just have to. This team is going to drive us all bonkers otherwise.

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