St. Louis Blues Pros And Cons From Game 16 Vs. Vancouver

The St. Louis Blues began their trip through western Canada in Vancouver. The question was whether they would continue to look tired or come out fresh.

This was a game the St. Louis Blues and their fans probably should have been worried about going into it. St. Louis had not played all that well in their past handful of games, despite quite a few wins.

On the flip side, the Canucks were red hot. They had points in seven straight games and had won five of those seven games.

Vancouver was undefeated in regulation on home ice and had points in all their home games. Meanwhile, the Blues were traveling out west, which can mess with your body having a game at 9 pm on your body clock.

All that said, the Blues managed to get off to a decent start. Their offense sputtered, but they were solid defensively and their goaltender was really good throughout.

St. Louis took too many penalties in this game. Some of them were iffy calls and some were foolish, offensive-zone penalties, but the special teams managed to come up big in this game.

Really, the Blues were pretty good in the overall sense. They handled the pressure well and were in decent position.

It was the offense that was basically nonexistent. They did get over 20 shots, but maybe a quarter of that were actual scoring opportunities that troubled the Canucks goaltender.

Unfortunately, the Blues kept trying to bend and not break but that’s difficult to do in today’s NHL. Eventually, the Canucks just had too many chances and, oddly enough, it was a seeing-eye lob shot that managed to score and tie the game 1-1.

For the third time in a row and seventh time in 16 games, the Blues had to go to overtime. It seemed like it would go to a shootout again, as the Blues have already lost in the shootout against Vancouver. Instead, we saw one of the strangest plays you will ever see to end it all.

Pros: Penalty kill

The way the first period went, the Blues could have easily been losing by quite a bit. They relied on their goaltending and special teams to keep them even.

With the offense extremely ineffective, the Blues had to rely on other parts of their game. Due to some weak calls by the official (there was only one on the ice for much of the first period), that other part was their penalty kill.

St. Louis only had to kill off two penalties in the first, but they were under pressure for a good amount of time during both. In spite of that, the Blues PK stood firm.

The Blues held the Canucks off the shot board during their first power play. The Canucks did a decent job of moving the puck, but the defense for St. Louis was well placed and even blocked a couple tough shots.

Vancouver got a bit more offense rolling on their second man advantage, but Jordan Binnington was up to the task on those chances. It’s not a great way to win to have your goaltender be your best penalty killer, but if those breakdowns happen, it is good to know the guy in pads has your back.

The Blues need to find ways to stay out of the box, but their penalty kill is a well oiled machine at the moment.

Cons: Lack of early offense

I’ve lost count how many games the Blues have failed to register one single shot in the first five minutes. Chalk this game up in that category, regardless.

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The Blues seem focused on defending to open up every game, trying to take their opponent’s best shot. That just is not going to be sustainable long term, even if it is working right now.

The problem is not just a lack of shots. In this game, the Blues went back to being too picky. That has long been a problem for this franchise and something they seemed to have avoided during their run of success.

During the broadcast, the television crew of Darren Pang and John Kelly mentioned that the Blues look for quality over quantity. That might be fine in theory, but the Blues were passing up good opportunities to put the puck on net.

One of the most obvious was a partial break for Sammy Blais. While he was guarded and on his backhand, Blais had the speed and the angle to get a good shot off. Instead, he tried to be cute with a blind drop pass, attempting to connect with Tyler Bozak. In the end, they got nothing as the defender just picked the puck up and skated away.

The Blues may have ended up with the first goal of the game, but they barely had 10 shots on goal halfway through the game. Quality is fine, but you do need some more quantity to get multiple goals.

Pros: Third line

The Blues were up and down as a unit, but the one consistent thing outside of goaltending was the team’s third line. It was not a trio that had been together long, but they seemed to click fairly early.

We saw a little bit of unselfishness with Blais and Bozak early in the game. As the contest went on, Blais, Bozak and Alex Steen managed to gel pretty well.

They were getting in on the forecheck, being physical even if they did not get credit for a bunch of hits and were keeping it simple, yet effective on offense. The rest of hte team needed to follow their example.

It was that line that combined for the team’s first goal. This time it was the exact right idea to pass and Blais connected on a beauty through a little traffic to find Bozak.

Bozak had so much time in front that he could have picked out any corner. He went glove side and made no mistake, giving the Blues a 1-0 lead.

Pros: Binnington

It feels strange to have this many pros and only one negative, but I could not leave Binnington out of this. He was on his game again.

Binnington manages to come up big so often that we are almost taking it for granted and he still does not have a full season’s worth of NHL games under his belt. Still, he continues to prove he is the real deal.

Binnington finished the game stopping 33 of 34 shots. These were not just 33 random shots either.

Binnington stopped a couple partial breaks, a couple odd-man rushes and kept the Canucks off the board on four power plays. Simply put, he was one of the big reasons the Blues won.

It was a shame he could not get the shutout. Of all the shots he faced, the one that went in seemed the least likely to end up as a goal, but those are the breaks.

Binnington did not have to stand on his head, but he was still really good.

Overview

I just don’t know any more. The Blues win and that’s the bottom line.

They are not doing it by the book. They are not doing it in a way that should be sustainable. However, the wins keep coming and the Blues remain atop the Central Division and among the handful of the best teams in the NHL.

They did not get enough shots. The Blues relied on their goaltending too much and took too many silly penalties, even if we disagree with some of the calls.

But, they end up with two points and how can we really fault them for that?

St. Louis just keeps finding a way to get it done.

The way the game ended was just bizarre too. As the announcers have said, I’m not sure I have ever seen a three-on-zero break down the ice. The fact that two Canucks ran into one another to lead to that was somewhat comical.

At this point, you just rack up the points. St. Louis need to keep improving and doing things better than they are now, but if you can play mediocre hockey and still get wins, it sets you up well for the rest of the year.