St. Louis Blues David Perron Would Sit In A Perfect World

The St. Louis Blues’ hand has been forced due to suspension and injuries. They are not in a place where poor play can be properly reprimanded, unfortunately.

The St. Louis Blues find themselves in a rather tricky situation as they trail the Boston Bruins 2-1 in their best of seven series. The Blues have a deep team, but due to injuries and suspensions, they are dependent on their depth instead of utilizing it to the full effect.

So, when you have players like David Perron, that have become more a liability than anything, you no longer have the luxury of benching them like they deserve. Unfortunately, Perron is going to keep getting trotted out there and, barring any sudden change, be fairly useless.

The problem with Perron is he is currently playing a style that is not suited to him. Perron’s contributions in the Stanley Cup Final have consisted of taking penalties and trying to be physical.

One we have gotten used to, even if it continually frustrates us. The other is simply useless, because, as seen in the main photo, all Perron does is fall on top of opponents in the offensive zone. Sure, this ties up a man to keep them from entering the offensive zone, but it also denies the Blues a defensive player too.

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Perron has been nonexistent offensively as well. He has zero points through three games in the final and has not really even come close to scoring.

Perron has six shots to his name through three games. Two shots per game does not sound terrible, but he had zero shots in Game 1 and two in Game 3, both losses. Four shots came in Game 2, when the Blues offense was jumping.

On top of his lack of shots, he has become a black hole for the puck. He is not nearly as bad as he was early in his career, but his decisions are too slow or too poor at the moment.

The Blues keep trotting him out there on their power play unit and somehow, every time it ends on his stick, the cycle dies or slows down. The Bruins, who need no help defending on penalty kills, are given more time to close the gaps because Perron either loses control of the puck or tries his dangles through two players.

The defensive deficiencies are becoming more and more evident as well. Plus/minus might be an irrelevant stat most of the time, but not in Perron’s case. He is now a minus-3 for the series.

None of this even really mentions his penalties. In the grand sense, six penalty minutes does not sound that terrible, but when you are facing the best power play in the playoffs, you cannot allow them an inch or they will take a mile.

Perron’s penalties continue to happen in the offensive zone too. You could almost understand if it was a slash or hook in the defensive zone to stop a clear shot or a break into the zone. No, Perron just gets lazy and grabs, holds or trips people trying to exit their own zone, when he has four other teammates that would help out if he would just get back into position.

So far only one of Perron’s penalties have led to a Boston goal. Admittedly, the call in Game 3 against him was soft, but he put himself in position to allow the official to make a call. The Bruins proceeded to score the opening goal of the game and their top line got some momentum from that after being stifled through two games.

None of this is anything new. Perron has been a penalty machine through the season and his career is littered with offensive zone miscues.

He has been to the final two years in a row now and been more of a liability than anything. Through seven Stanley Cup Final games played for Perron, he has two points and is a minus-5.

Oddly enough, the games he got points in for Vegas, he still did not end up being a plus-player, so his plus/minus could be even worse.

There is still time for Perron to turn things around, but he has to be smarter. He is not an in-your-face type of player, so all these useless shenanigans in front of the net or running into the goaltender is not helping anyone. Perron needs to put the puck in the back of the net to help this team and he has not come close.

He cannot continually take penalties in the offensive zone or he will continue to put his team behind the eight ball.

In a perfect world, the Blues would be able to bench Perron. The last time that happened, it did upset him, but he responded positively and soon after went on a career-high point scoring streak.

Unfortunately, due to time and situation, the Blues do not have the luxury of sitting Perron. If everyone was healthy, perhaps it would be more of an option.

Instead, the Blues just need him to pull his head out, so to speak. Perron has to contribute in a positive manner because, right now, the team’s second line is pretty useless.

Ryan O’Reilly is trying, but not doing much. Sammy Blais is a hitting machine, but needs to do more if you’re playing that high up on the roster. Perron is the key there. If he can score, it lifts some weight off the others. Instead, they are trying to make up for his liabilities while worrying about their own game too.

Hopefully he can turn it around. The Blues need Perron in this series.

Perron is a big reason the Blues are here. He had three goals and seven points against San Jose. So far, in the final, he has failed to provide anything positive and the team does not have the luxury of letting him watch from the press box to send a message.