St. Louis Blues: Grading Blues Performances In October

The St. Louis Blues struggled throughout October, and though there are signs that things may be starting to turn around, some of the Blues report cards reflect the sloppy play.

The season will (hopefully) not be defined by how the Blues played in October, but after only winning two of the team’s first eight games, the Blues have dug themselves a trench to begin the year.

There are many negatives that fans and media have been focusing on during the first month of the season, but some players have stuck out as big positives that can be used as building blocks for the rest of the year.

The Blues have seemingly discovered line combinations that have clicked toward the end of the month. After starting with a line of Ryan O’Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Patrick Maroon, the Blues have since placed Maroon on the third line, O’Reilly on the second line, and moved Tarasenko with Brayden Schenn and Jaden Schwartz.

Defensively, the Blues have been a nightmare, they have given up three goals or more in nine of the first ten games of the season. In today’s NHL, this is entirely unacceptable, and if this continues, the Blues will be going nowhere.

Jay Bouwmeester, who is among those who will be getting a negative report card, has been less than good so far this season, is a big reason why the Blues got off to a slow start. In reality, it’s not just one player who can change the scope of an entire game, but the play of Bouwmeester and the rest of the Blues defense have contributed to the slow start.

Jake Allen

Grade: C+

Jake Allen has had an up and down start to the season. After a 5-1 loss against Winnipeg on opening night, many Blues fans were already calling for the goaltender’s neck.

Allen made a career-high 49 saves about a week later in Chicago. Allen was without a doubt the reason why the Blues were able to earn a point against the Hawks that night.

He would then go on to play very well against the Canadiens, Maple Leafs and Jets during a road trip through Eastern and Central Canada. The Blues went 1-1-1 on that trip, but Allen and the Blues looked much better than they had to start the season.

Allen’s numbers to start the year are not great. He is 3-2-3 with a .874 SV% and has allowed 3.99 GAA. As mentioned on the previous slide, it takes all five guys to have an effective defensive unit, and some of these numbers are reflective of early defensive turnovers that have left Allen out to dry.

Allen is not going to be considered for a Vezina Trophy anytime soon, maybe ever, but even for Allen, this is a slow and poor start to the year. To make things worse, he was injured during his most recent game against Chicago after being run over by Zach Sanford. It appears that he has a head injury, so it will be something to keep an eye on when he comes back.

I give him a “C+” because he can not be blamed entirely for the Blues struggles this year but at the same time, there are makable saves that he has not been making. A mediocre start for Allen, but one that can be turned around with a nice streak of games.

Ryan O’Reilly

Grade: A+

Ryan O’Reilly has been far and away the Blues best player to start the season. He was acquired in the offseason from the Buffalo Sabres for Tage Thompson, Vladimir Sobotka, Patrik Berglund, and a couple of picks. At least in the short term, the Blues look like clear winners of the trade.

There are so many places I could start praising O’Reilly for excelling in. He plays a tremendous 200-foot game of hockey, and he is one of the best on the faceoff, his ability to make plays is unparalleled on the Blues, and oh, by the way, he leads the team in points.

We’ll start with his defensive ability. We heard from experts from around the league that he plays a 200-foot game. Before his arrival, Alexander Steen was arguably the Blues best in this department. No disrespect to Steen, but O’Reilly’s ability to control the puck in both ends of the ice was noticeable on his first shift as a Blue.

O’Reilly is seemingly on the ice for every faceoff that is in the Blues’ zone. Last season, he led the entire NHL in faceoff wins with 1273 at even strength. It is an aspect of the game that the casual fan may not notice, but starting with the puck takes pressure off of the entire unit on the ice.

His 14 points on the season lead the Blues, he has found chemistry on the second line with David Perron and Zach Sanford on the second line, and he has given the Blues two true top lines.

The decision of giving him the only “A+” was an easy one, and I hope I get to provide him with many many more for the rest of the season.

Jay Bouwmeester

Grade: F

Jay Bouwmeester has been one of the Blues worst players to start the year. After an injury-plagued season a year ago, Bouwmeester has looked slow and often lost on the ice.

We are used to seeing the dynamic duo of Bouwmeester and Alex Pietrangelo on the Blues top defensive pairing. Unfortunately for Bouwmeester and the Blues, his play has cost the Blues some points early on in the season.

At one point in the season, Bouwmeester was a healthy scratch for the first time in his career after playing in over 1000 NHL games. This was a huge wakeup call for the veteran defenseman and has seemingly worked.

After not being dressed for the game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Bouwmeester is making fewer mistakes on the ice. Now, he is still not one of the Blues top 6 defensemen, at least not right now but injuries to Robert Bortuzzo and Carl Gunnarsson have left the Blues no other choice but to keep starting Bouwmeester.

We can (and will later on) criticize the coaching staff for playing Bouwmeester in critical moments during the game but Bouwmeester has taken advantage of minutes late in games. Bouwmeester’s +/- is at -2 so far this season. Usually, I am not a huge fan of this stat, but defensive mistakes are generally the cause for being on the ice for a goal, and he has been on the ice for a lot of bad goals.

Given how he has played this year, it was easy to give Bouwmeester a poor grade. He had been one of the more consistent Blues over the past few years before he was hurt last year but it looks like his career is nearing the end.

Vladimir Tarasenko

Grade: B

Tarasenko is a perennial goal scorer in the NHL and has reached the 40 goal plateau in his career once in 2015-2016 and has been close to achieving that mark again since.

Last season, he had 33 goals and 33 assists finishing second on the team in points, four behind Jaden Schwartz. Tarasenko has excelled when playing with top-tier talent and coming into the season we knew he would get that opportunity.

He started the year playing with O’Reilly and Maroon and struggled to find offensive success while on five on five. He registered one even-strength goal in the second game of the year against Chicago before being paired with Schwartz and Schenn.

Ever since the switch he and his linemates have found great offensive success picking up where they left off last season. The Schenn-Schwartz-Tarasenko line was one of the best lines in the NHL last year, and it has been one of Mike Yeo’s best adjustments this year.

Historically, Tarasenko has played with players like Paul Stastny and David Backes. Both great in their own ways, Tarasenko has found new success with better playmakers.

If October had ended two weeks ago, Tarasenko would have received a different grade. However, his performances against the Hawks and his goal scored against the Columbus Blue Jackets bumped his grade up significantly.

There is still a lot of season left, and if the Blues want to have success, Tarasenko will need to be at the forefront.

Alex Pietrangelo

Grade: D+

Pietrangelo has not been great, and he is in the middle of possibly the worst stretch of hockey in his entire career. Like many captains in the NHL, Pietrangelo has a huge burden placed upon him every night he takes the ice.

Being the captain of the St. Louis Blues is a unique responsibility, and the leadership of Petro is often questioned. From what I have seen of Pietrangelo, he leads by example on the ice. You won’t see him address the media very often, but you can see him teaching the young players on the ice while playing fundamental hockey.

Unfortunately, this has not been the case this season. Pietrangelo has not played well for the Blues so far this season. He only has one goal (on an empty net) and is a team-low -8 on the ice.

With how young and inexperienced the Blues defensive core is, Pietrangelo needs to step his game up on the ice. He is still going to lead the team in minutes and rightfully so, but he needs to start playing better.

Giving the captain of your team a D+ is not ideal. However, given Pietrangelo’s stats and performance to start the season, he has not earned a better grade. Like Tarasenko, he will need to to be the Pietrangelo of old if he and the Blues want to get back on track.

Vince Dunn

Grade: B+

Vince Dunn was one of the best rookie defensemen the Blues have had since, well, Colton Parayko. The sophomore slump is a real thing, but to start October, Dunn is arguably the Blues best defender.

Not only does Dunn excel defensively for the Blues, but he has been trusted to be the point man on the first powerplay unit. Two of his three goals of the season have come on the powerplay including one helper with the man advantage.

The powerplay for the Blues last year was lacking talent, and Dunn did not see time on any unit until much later in the season. However, his ability to see plays developing and then execute key passes is something that this team hasn’t seen since Kevin Shattenkirk.

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Dunn, like many other Blues defensemen, has a negative +/- at -2, but Yeo has trusted him enough to place him on the top pairing with Pietrangelo and has slowly given the 22-year-old more critical minutes.

Dunn has been one of the best players for the Blues this season, and his defensive awareness is only going to continue to develop as he gets more experience.

The only thing keeping Dunn from getting an “A” is because Yeo has not given him more opportunities to excel in big situations late in games. Despite this, Dunn is still off to a great start to the season and has been one of the Blues best.