The St. Louis Blues were trying to end their brief homestand with a win against the Columbus Blue Jackets. However, they had a lot of things to clean up from their previous game against Minnesota and that did not happen right away.
The St. Louis Blues headed into their first meeting of the season against the Columbus Blue Jackets having just won their last game. However, the mistakes we saw against the Minnesota Wild carried right on over into this game.
Against the Wild, the Blues just looked like a team that was going through the motions for much of the game. The Blues managed to win, but it was more due to the fact that Minnesota is in some disarray rather than the Blues dominating things.
The same thing happened as the game opened against the Blue Jackets. Columbus might have a little more talent, top to bottom, than Minnesota, but they have lost some huge pieces in recent years and are also trying to figure things out.
The Blues all but handed things to Columbus on a silver platter. St. Louis was just standing straight up for the first five minutes, allowing Columbus to just knife through them.
When Jordan Binnington would make a save, the Blues would just hand it right to them. St. Louis was quite fortunate to not be down by a goal in the opening minutes.
As the Blues tend to do, however, they weathered the storm and managed to strike first with the opening goal. Unfortunately, as the Blues also tend to do, the lead would not last long.
St. Louis kept climbing their way into the game, but something just seems off. They don’t have jump in their legs right now. Maybe that is because of the short offseason. Regardless, Columbus found a little seam toward the end of the first and connected on a nice two-on-one to deflect the puck in and tie the game 1-1.
The Blues did not come out much better in the second period. There was a good shift by the fourth line around five minutes in that you would hope would spark the team. Instead, the defense was standing flat again and Columbus would take a 2-1 lead.
The Blue Jackets would take advantage of a napping defense and grab a 3-1 lead. Fortunately, even if the Blues are not on their game right now, they do not lack gumption.
St. Louis rattled off two goals to tie the game at 3-3 before the end of the second.
The third period was a little non-descript. The Blues probably played their best in the third, but that still was not all that great.
The Blues at least put on some pressure. They wasted little time in ending the game, scoring just eight seconds into the overtime period. Like their last game, this was not pretty, but the Blues got the win.
Cons: Incredibly slow start
This is something the Blues have to clean up. It is not true, but it feels like the Blues have not had the first shot on goal in any game thus far this season. Even if they have, the Blues are regularly getting outshot by high margins in the opening handful of minutes in every game.
St. Louis continually fails to register a shot on goal in the first five or six minutes in a game. It is almost as though they are waiting to take the first punch from their opponent to see what they’ve got. I doubt that is honestly their game plan, but it is a dangerous route to be taking nevertheless.
The Blues have to find a way to get on their toes early in these games, regardless of their competition. Just because Columbus might be hovering around .500, that does not mean they can be taken likely.
As mentioned, the Blues were literally standing straight up while they were “defending”. Carl Gunnarsson also showed us the exact reason why he has not played since October 17 prior to playing in the last game against Minnesota.
Gunnarsson literally handed the puck to Minnesota twice on the same play, immediately after Binnington had made some saves. Instead of shoveling the puck out of the zone with force, Gunnarsson weakly just tossed it away from the crease and right to the Jackets’ forward.
Adding insult to injury, Gunnarsson was somewhat responsible for a breakaway early in the game too. The Blues did not allow a goal on any of those plays, but it was frustrating to watch.
Gunnarsson is becoming very puzzling. He was so good in the playoffs and was more of an afterthought during most regular season games. Now he’s playing more like a detriment.
Cons: Defense standing still
I try to give the Blues defense more credit than most. I did not jump on the Barret Jackman hatewagon until the very end and I was never really on that wagon against Jay Bouwmeester.
More from Analysis
- St. Louis Blues and Cardinals Similar In All The Wrong Ways
- St. Louis Blues Pros/Cons From 2022-23 Game 82 At Dallas
- St. Louis Blues Pros/Cons From 2022-23 Game 81 Vs Dallas
- St. Louis Blues Pros/Cons From 2022-23 Game 80 At Minnesota
- St. Louis Blues Pros/Cons From 2022-23 Game 79 Vs NY Rangers
However, as a unit, there is a lot to dislike about the Blues defense so far this season and in this game. For a team that prides itself on being stout defensively, they are just not getting it done.
Not all of this falls on the defenders themselves. There is plenty of blame to go toward the forwards as well.
However, in this game it was the defenders that were clearly just standing around. Some of the time they were in correct position, but if you’re not on your toes and engaged, it does not matter. If you’re out of position, it is even worse. We saw both with the Blues.
The Blues were continually standing around early on, leaving Binnington to make several saves. On the Blue Jackets’ second goal, the players were standing around and out of position. In fact, Brayden Schenn was actually closer to the goal than Vince Dunn for some reason. Sonny Milano had far too much time to eye up an empty net on the near side. Even if you don’t follow him around the net like man-to-man defense in basketball, someone had to close him down a long time before it happened.
The third goal was the result of similar play. The penalty kill itself did a good job, but the penalty that led to the Columbus power play was due to reaching out, which is often caused by not moving your feet enough.
Pros: Fourth line
The Blues had some good individual performances by a couple other guys, like Schenn and Robert Thomas. It was the fourth line that was the only one that really gave this team any consistent spark.
Early in the second period, they had the team’s best shift of the game to that point. They created at least two quality chances, even though they came up empty. The hope was that shift would spark the team a little.
It did not for the entire team, but it did for that line. For the rest of the second period, that line consisting of Oskar Sundqvist, Ivan Barbashev and Mackenzie MacEachern were the best trio of anyone wearing the Note.
They were playing like we saw the fourth line play during the late part of 2018-19 and the postseason. They were getting in on the forecheck, hitting people and looked a lot faster than their teammates that actually possess more speed.
They were playing fast because they were on their toes and engaged the entire time. Because of that, they were rewarded.
After the team fell behind 3-1, they were actually given more ice team, which almost breaks from the norm. They continued to have solid shifts and scored the tying goal to make it 3-3.
As you would expect, it was a second effort that led to Sundqvist’s goal. They refused to give up on the puck and he scored on his own rebound. If only the rest of the team played with their spirit.
Pros: Quick ending
As poorly as much of this game went, the Blues put a quick end to it. Though they need to stop going to overtime so much, especially early in the season, they did not waste any extra energy.
David Perron did the same toe-drag move he always does. How defenses have not picked up on that is a bit odd, but as long as it works.
Making it a little sweeter than just a pretty shot, Perron’s goal was counted as a power play goal since it was scored the precise second that the penalty would have expired. Thus, the Blues went 2-4 on the power play.
It was a solid way to end the game, even if the Blues might not have done enough during regulation to truly deserve a W.
Overview
We keep telling ourselves it is early in the season. We keep saying the team is just tired after a short offseason and has not had a lot of time to practice.
The lines are all jumbled up due to the injury to Vladimir Tarasenko. Certain guys that were key in the playoffs have not shown up during this season, such as Zach Sanford.
All of that said, we are slowly getting to the point where just getting the points is not good enough. Yes, wins are the bottom line and this is not college football where you need style points to impress the voters. That said, the way the Blues are winning is just not sustainable.
Hopefully, this is just a dip in the ultimate ebbs and flows of any hockey season. Maybe they are consciously or subconsciously trying to conserve energy until winter actually hits. Whatever the reason, they are playing with fire and will get burned against better teams.
I am glad the Blues won this game. They won the game mainly because of Jordan Binnington. He was not flashy or spectacular, but if not for him, this game would have been over in the first period.
In a game where the Blues scored four goals, the offense was about as stagnant as you can get. The fourth line was the only one that really showed much outside of a few individual plays throughout the game.
Craig Berube also needs to stick with a top line for at least a game. This is the second contest in a row where Robert Thomas, Alex Steen and Sammy Blais have all swapped time on the top line. I get that Berube doesn’t think any one person can just take over 20 minutes of ice time that Tarsenko left out there, but you also won’t get much cohesion if you can’t pick a guy and leave it alone for awhile.
For now, we’ll just take the win and move on to Minnesota tomorrow. This is looking more like a trend and not a good one though. I suppose as long as you collect points, we won’t complain too much at the end of the year.