The St. Louis Blues hoped a coaching change would inspire them to play better and get some wins under their belt. Unfortunately, the Craig Berube era got off to a rough start.
The St. Louis Blues have gone through coaching changes before. In fact, they seem to be making a habit of these early to mid-season changes, but the results are a little mixed.
When the Blues got rid of Davis Payne, they brought in Ken Hitchcock and he paid dividends quickly if not right off the bat. The same was true when they replaced Hitchcock with Mike Yeo. The first game was not always a win, but the team responded quickly.
So, the Blues are going to have to hope they learn from this Nashville game to the point where they can actually start winning. St. Louis played a much more heartfelt, inspired game, but the end result was just as poor as any game they’ve had in recent weeks. So, it begs the question of what the impact has been.
We cannot judge Craig Berube or his impact on this team yet. He had one practice and one game. You could tell there was a slight difference in the team, but the same mistakes keep costing this team. During the rest of the season, we are going to tell if coaching can have any influence on that since these are mistakes we have seen for two coaches prior and now a third in his first game.
The Blues offense continues to be dry as the desert, even though they looked a little better. The defense continues to be bad and the passes were far too weak.
The playoffs are becoming a dream that we’ve long forgotten after waking, but it is not impossible. There were positives to see, but this is still a disjointed team with no clear path in sight.
Pros: Robert Thomas
This game was a long time coming for Robert Thomas. There have been a couple games in his early NHL career where the league seemed a bit too big or too much for him, but he has gradually started to show the talent that Blues fans have been salivating over.
Thomas continued to show that in this game. He is strong on the puck, despite a being somewhat smaller and weaker than his opponents.
Making things easier for him is his incredible hockey sense. That is a phrase that often gets over used, but this guy knows where to be on the ice and, most times knows what to do with the puck.
His biggest detraction has been that he’s making too many plays that would work in juniors but won’t in the NHL. That is just a learning process, however.
Finally, after all his hard work, Thomas got rewarded with his first NHL goal and it was a beauty. Thomas took the puck on the left circle, drug it a little bit and then fired it into the opposite-side upper 90. He left no chance for the goaltender to get it.
I’m not about to say the flood gates are going to open for this kid, but as mentioned, this has been coming. He has been very close to scoring before and keeps getting better with every game out there. On this night, he was easily the Blues best player overall.
He needs to get stronger, but it is easy to forget he is only 19. He has plenty of time to add some strength to go along with his game.
Cons: Just Not Enough Offense
Credit goes to Pekka Rinne, as he continued to own the St. Louis Blues. However, there just is not enough offense coming from this Blues team right now.
They finally scored a goal, ending a streak of six periods of being shutout. They simply could not generate enough chances overall though.
St. Louis had 29 shots overall, but you could probably count on one hand the really quality opportunities on goal. They were much better than in their previous two games, but they simply are not generating enough second and third chances. Eventually, you have to bury a team if you can keep up the zone pressure.
Additionally, the Blues power play has just dried up. People got on my case when I criticized it earlier in the year, but this has been coming. As good as the man advantage was, it was feast of famine and the Blues are in a famine that rivals the Irish Potato Famine.
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They were 0-4 against Nashville and really only had good chances on one of those power play attacks. Two were mediocre and one was just awful. On top of that, they gave up two short-handed goals, but we will get to that later.
The issue is this team simply looks disjointed. I realize they have key injuries and the lines are a mess, but you practice with these guys day in and out. Even if you’re not firing on all cylinders, you could be firing on two or three. The Blues have one or no cylinders going right now.
They’re not getting to rebounds with consistency. Even though they are going to the front more, there is just not enough screen pressure on Rinne or any goalies really. Also, I’ve seen more Blues floundering around on the ice like fish in the last two games than in the last two seasons. Either guys are getting pushed around or they are constantly overskating. Neither are good.
This team has to find a way to score more consistently because the defense will not save them.
Pros: Better Intensity
You know things are not going well for your team when you have to point out having a few shoving matches and taking a couple penalties as a positive.
As far as the penalties go, you never want to put yourself shorthanded, but the Blues finally stuck up for themselves. In fact, a couple times, the ref bailed out the Predators. For example, David Perron‘s stick was being held like a vice grip, so he shoved the guy a few times. Instead of having the balls to just call the hold, the refs put Perron in the box too. Still, I’d rather see some emotion out of him and the others in such a way.
The same was true throughout the game. There were more scraps after whistles and guys were making sure to clear out the net after saves. Funny enough, the one time they did not clear the net was on the Predators’ first goal.
You can tell the Predators are much more comfortable with a scrappy, physical game and the Blues were really no match. Despite that, it is good to see them attempting to answer. It has been getting embarrassing to see your own players get sat on, face washed and goaltenders bumped with no response.
Hopefully that will be the biggest impact Berube can have. That was his style of game when he played, so maybe he can get some of these creampuffs to actually show some spine and stick up for one another.
They showed a good bit of that in this first game against Nashville. Hopefully it can become a trend.
Cons: Weak Passes And Bad Luck
The Blues did not deserve to win this game. Despite what Darren Pang said at the end of the game, 4-1 was probably about right for how this contest went. That said, the Blues could have still been in it and earned a point if they were harder on the puck.
A disturbing trend of late is this constant use of light, feathery passes. It is about as opposite to what they need to do as you can get.
Nashville fired their passes with steam and they still stuck on the tape as though there was glue there. The Blues either fired them hard but nowhere near a teammate or tried to get it there with some light touch that led to easy interceptions.
None was more evident to that then the Predators first shorthanded goal, which ended up being the game winner. Robby Fabbri took a cross-ice pass at the right point. He tried to feather one along the line and Filip Forsberg was off to the races.
Even as a Jake Allen defender, I will admit that he probably could have saved that shot, but the bottom line is that this has been a reoccurring theme. The Blues give up way too man shorthanded or breakaway opportunities on passes just like that.
We constantly praise hockey players for their vision, but either they go blind at random times or they simply have no clue about how hard to pass it or if their teammate will get it if they put more on it. It is costing this team dearly.
The Blues were only credited with nine giveaways, but two of them cost them with Nashville scoring directly off those turnovers.
On top of that, you’ve got some lucky plays going Nashville’s way. The Forsberg goal, the puck never settled down, making it more difficult to read where the shot would go.
There will be many criticizing Berube for pulling the goalie so early, but nobody can expect a slap shot to ricochet all the way out of the zone. Those are just the bounces the Blues are not getting right now.
Overview
The Blues might have some bad luck, but they certainly are not making their own luck either. Though they played better, there is just too much individual effort and not enough from the team.
Vladimir Tarasenko has been great in the last couple games with his effort and just not rewarded with goals. He was oddly nonexistent in this game. Ryan O’Reilly is clearly trying too hard, feeling he has to carry this group and it’s just too much even for his broad shoulders.
Fans will continue to harp on him, but Jake Allen played very well in this game. If not for him, this game could easily have been 6 or 7-1. Panger can say it was close, but there is a Grand Canyon-sized gap between these two teams right now.
Maybe this team will re-gel once they get guys healthy. When you’re missing several out of your top-nine forwards, it is hard to keep things rolling. That said, it is not an excuse. They still have top-line talent and they are not getting the job done.
The defense is still playing better than it was, but better than awful is still not great.
It’s nice to see a little feisty play out of this team, but it still feels so alien from them all that you feel it won’t last. Hopefully they prove me wrong because this team needs to be able to hang their hat on something.