The St. Louis Blues 5-2-3 went into TD Gardens to square off against the Boston Bruins 6-1-2 in a rematch scenario of last year’s Stanley Cup final. We all expected a good game and for most the game it felt like a cup final game.
The St. Louis Blues failed to get on the board in this game as Tuuka Rask stood tall for his second shutout in just six games played. Rask, like the perfection line in Boston, is on fire. After the shutout, Rask moved to five wins with a 1.48 GAA and .952 SV%. YIKES!
The St. Louis Blues didn’t play poorly in this game. Vladimir Tarasenko was out due to an upper-body injury suffered against the LA Kings. He was starting to heat up and play an effective Tarasenko style of play, so we knew the scoring would have to come from elsewhere.
The Blues played a good first and third. The second they could’ve been better.
The first and third periods were just that, good. They weren’t great. The Blues puck placement wasn’t as effective as it needed to be and didn’t allow them to get in on the forecheck as they need to in order to be successful.
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To me, it felt like Boston was doing to the Blues what the Blues did to Colorado. They were over the top of our forwards and their gap closure was good.
Part of that led to the poor placement of the puck for the Blues and didn’t allow them to get in on the forecheck like they usually do. It wasn’t like the Bruins smothered the Blues. They did enough to keep the Blues from getting to their game consistently. Let’s get to the grades.
Offense- C
Anytime you are shutout it’s not a good day at the office. Rask has been stellar so far this season and is making a case for a Vezina this season, but, that aside, if you can’t score you can’t win.
As I alluded to earlier, the Bruins gap closure was good. But, I feel like it was more the Blues’ poor placement of pucks in the o-zone that led to too many opportunities for Boston to nullify the forecheck.
The game was intense as we expected, but intensity without purpose is wasted energy and the team just felt like they were a little too jacked up for this one. That led to overplays on the dump-ins and some poor play in the second.
The first and third periods by the offense were good, but again they weren’t great by any stretch. It just felt like the Blues were tentative at some points and overly aggressive at others. It wasn’t a bad game, just not enough to solve Rask.
Sammy Blais and Mackenzie MacEachern both went in to hit Connor Clifton along the sideboards in the offensive zone and failed to get the puck which led to a 3 on 2 breakaway ending in an Anders Bjork one-timer goal for the only even strength goal of the game.
If they communicate better on that play and don’t allow that puck to get through it may have been a different game, but with the way Rask has played that may be a long shot.
Defense- B
The defense was good. Llike the rest of the game, just good. They held the Bruins to the outside and allowed only one goal at even strength, aside from the garbage goal at the end with Jordan Binnington pulled.
They managed to hold the perfection line of Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak, and Patrice Bergeron off the score sheet at even strength just like they had against the Colorado Avalanche’s top line two games prior.
The Blues led the game in takeaways, at the end, telling me that defensively we were sound. Looking at the overall game stats, the Blues led in every category aside from blocked shots and special teams. That grade is coming.
If I see the game end stats of this game consistently throughout the season I am confident the Blues will win more games than not and be playoff bound. So the play in this one was close to Blues hockey. It was just not as clean in a few places here and there and that’s all a team like Boston needs to make you pay.
Goaltending- A-
Yet again, Jordan Binnington did enough to give the team a chance to win the game. He allowed one even-strength goal on an odd-man rush that he didn’t have much of a chance to stop.
He’s been solid so far this season and looks like he is going to consistently give the Blues a chance to win every time he’s out there. His positioning and side-to-side movement is stellar. He’s staying square to the shooter and finding pucks through traffic as good as any goalie this season.
Special Teams- D
The game to me was decided by special teams. In the end, the Bruins won this area of the game. The Boston Bruins went 1 for 4 on the power play and the Blues went 0 for 4, despite the power play looking better of late.
Converting at 25.6% for 7th in the league is shockingly good considering the short-handed opportunities the team had been allowing in the early going. The Bruins on the other hand, expectedly so with the perfection line, are 2nd at a remarkable 32.4%.
If the Blues power play converts, we have a different game again. Rask has been lights out, so that does get some credit. However, although the Blues are statistically effective, it just doesn’t seem to me to be effective at the times it’s needed.
The penalty kill has been a pillar for the Blues. Aside from the wicked snapshot from Pastrnak that most goalies can’t stop, the kill did its job. It wasn’t the penalty kill that cost us, although the penalties that forced us into four kills do play a big part.
You can’t commit penalties against a team that is second in the league in power-play conversion with a line that is called the “perfection line”. It’s a recipe for disaster no matter how solid your penalty kill is.
Coaching- A
All in all, with the injuries to Tarasenko and a banged-up Blais, the coaches are getting the players to buy into the team game. We have witnessed s a real attention to play without the puck.
It’s not perfect yet and there are still some gaffs here and there that are costing the Blues, but the staff has the team headed in the right direction. This game came down to special teams and when there was a bounce it seemed to go the Bruins way.
The outcome wasn’t what we wanted. Getting shutout never feels good. I was waiting for the Blues to get something going and although shutout I can’t say we were dominated in this loss. It all came down to special teams for me and one mistake on the forecheck leading to the odd man rush. Statistically, if the Blues have the same numbers they had in this one at the end of most games we will come out with the win.
Drop the puck!