The St. Louis Blues took on the Colorado Avalanche in a battle of teams going in opposite directions. They kept going in opposite directions as the Blues came up with another W.
The St. Louis Blues winning is becoming a comfortable thing these days. We all know this current win streak, now at nine games, will end eventually, but instead of expecting it to end we almost cannot see a time when it will.
The St. Louis Blues did not play their best right from the get-go, but they managed to hold down the fort while they got their legs under them in Denver. The offense took the longest to get going, but that’s to be expected. Colorado Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov has owned the Blues for much of his career.
Still, the Blues eventually broke him down, even though it took almost three periods to do so. When they finally cracked that egg, they took control of the game in a solid fashion.
St. Louis scored two goals before the Avalanche could really get themselves going in the final frame. The Avs did have a push late, but the defense and the Blues goaltending came up big as they have through this entire streak.
What is so amazing about the difference in this team is the fact they are playing as a team in every sense of the word. Earlier in the year we fried every man for looking like they could not care less about the guy next to them. Now, it seems like the entire 23 man group cares about the next man and wants that person to succeed as much as themselves.
That has made all the difference.
Cons: The First Period
When a team is on a season-high win streak, it becomes tough to find things they are actually doing wrong. So, some of the stuff we talk about is a bit picky.
That said, the Blues looked sluggish when they came out of the gates. Maybe some of it had to do with the altitude or maybe it was playing eight games in 14 days.
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Regardless, it took awhile for the Blues to get going. They were more like a locomotive spinning its wheels to gain traction rather than a well-oiled sports car.
The Blues managed to defend well, only allowing eight Colorado shots in the first. Still, most of the Blues offense did not come until late.
St. Louis did muster 11 shots in the opening frame, but they did not seem to get going until their first power play. That power play came with 16:12 gone.
While the Blues did not score on that, their offense finally took hold. The problem is that you cannot always wait that long to get things to click.
Pros: The Third Period
If we are going to pick on the team’s opening period, you have to give credit to the third. The Blues held serve long enough and finally got things going.
After unleashing shot after shot, Vladimir Tarasenko finally slayed the beast by getting a goal on Varlamov. Tarasenko seemed to be on a mission to score against his friend.
He was taking chance after chance, with several coming from right where he scored. When it finally came, he snapped one home from the right circle.
The Blues scored less than a minute later once Tarasenko got his reward. The suddenly unstoppable Oskar Sundqvist drove the zone, put a shot/pass toward net and Zach Sanford had his stick perfectly positioned to tap it past the goalie.
Then, Jaden Schwartz picked up the empty net goal. It was only his fifth of the year, but these are the types of goals he needs right now.
Schwartz has been gripping the stick so tightly for so long that he needs a couple gifts to really get him out of the funk. The last one was not the best, but it broke the ice. This one was easy, but it gets a little momentum going.
On top of all the offense, this might have been the best team defense the Blues have played. The forwards were backchecking, the sticks were active and the positioning was sound. When things broke down, Jake Allen came up with a save.
It all came together by the final buzzer.
Pros: Jake Allen
I have been very open with my bias toward the Snake, but for full disclosure, I had no intention of including him in the pros. For much of this game he fell in with the same reason Jordan Binnington was not listed as one of the pros against Arizona – there simply had not been much done.
The defense has been so good the last few games that the goalies really have not had much to do. The one defensive breakdown by the Blues lately was the last time Allen was in and saw 44 shots against Nashville.
But the Avalanche came at him with some force in the third period. They tossed 13 shots on goal in the third period alone and 32 overall.
It was that third period that solidified this as being an important one for Allen. He faced a few good chances earlier in the game, but they came quickly in that last period and the Blues needed him to bail them out a couple times. The Snake was up to it.
He had a double pad stack save that stopped a chance right on the doorstep. He also managed to calm down his body movements, which was just as important.
We did see the wrap around almost come back to haunt Allen. It seems to be the thing to do to drive the blocker side, get Allen to slide out too far and then jam it on the glove-side post. The Avalanche tried it, at least, once and almost scored.
Outside of that, Allen was much quieter in his movements. He was going post to post much more, rather than sliding way out of the crease as has been the case of late.
He was seeing shots and getting to the spot instead of staying deep in the net and having to freak out in an attempt to make the save.
It was just as important a win for Allen as it was for the Blues. Now, perhaps, we can talk more about how the team is playing instead of just who is in net.
Overview
As mentioned earlier, it seems hard to believe this is the same team that played so badly earlier in the season. They truly had 20-plus individuals just doing their own thing and now they have one, cohesive unit, excelling in all facets of the game.
All of us are trying to figure out what the reason is, but maybe there is no one reason. I do not believe it is just coaching, though that had an impact. I do not believe it is just goaltending, despite the popular narrative.
Maybe this team just needed to get out of their own way. The talent was always there and just needed to come through and they finally have.
The scary thing is that, as good as they have played, there are still gaps here and there. No, there have not been enough problems to fill up an entire blog section about, but there are still flaws. Can you imagine if they cleaned all of that up too? Could this actually be a risky team to play against in the playoffs?
It’s far too early to really assess that yet, but this has been fun to see. The stars like Tarasenko are doing their thing. The team is clicking on just about every cylinder. Right now, the only fear is that this is just a tiny bit too early and the fire will cool by the time the playoffs hit. We will worry about that at another time.
The Blues are picking up points against their playoff competitors and the Eastern Conference, which is exactly what they have to do.