St. Louis Blues: The Blues At The Flames Report Card
By Joe Warden
The St. Louis Blues 11-3-3 went into Calgary to meet the Flames 10-7-2 who have recently started to find a little success winning four in a row. Could the Blues continue their own win streak extending it to seven games or would the Flames make it five in a row for themselves?
The St. Louis Blues entered the game with Jacob De La Rose debuting in Alex Steen‘s stead. Steen is out for four weeks with a high ankle sprain suffered in the second period of the previous game.
De La Rose is a 6’3″ 215lb centerman who was being inserted into the line-up on the third line playing left wing with Tyler Bozak at center and Sammy Blais working the right-wing this time.
De La Rose is a penalty-killing defensive first minded player. Just the kind of player the Blues could use while Steen is out. He hasn’t shown the kind of offensive game that Steen still can flash at times, but could be a nice fit and may learn to produce in the Blues system. Time will tell.
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The Blues came out physical in this one right off the bat. The fourth line continued to hum along and pressure the opposition unlike almost any other fourth line in the league.
Ivan Barbashev after getting his first goal on an empty-netter continued his scoring by putting the Blues ahead in the first period after cleaning up a rebound and stuffing it home past David Rittich.
Every line for the Blues was pressuring and smothering the Flames. Doing everything to shut down their speed game and ultimately making the Blues look like the faster club. It looked like a game where the Blues were going to trounce the Flames.
The Blues went up 2-0 on a Ryan O’Reilly power-play goal from David Perron and Alex Pietrangelo. Again, all was clicking for the Blues after two periods and the Flames looked beaten.
Then the Flames made some adjustments in the third period and played with a little more desperation. The Flames would even the score on Matthew Tkachuk and Travis Hamonic goals.
No one picked up Tkachuk as he came down into the slot firing a wrister past Jordan Binnington. Hamonic then scored on a backhand on the doorstep of the goalmouth after knocking the puck past Colton Parayko along the sideboards and a slight misplay by Binnington when he reached out with his stick to corral the puck when it caromed off the side of his net essentially setting it up for Hamonic to knock home.
The game would go to overtime. Nothing new here. David Perron again wins the game in OT for the Blues on a feed from O’Reilly and Pietrangelo extending the Blues win streak to seven games and capping a great road trip for the Blues. Let’s get to the grades.
Offense- A
The Blues offense was generating chances and creating pressure almost the entire game. They were integral in slowing down the Flames rush and breakouts.
The grade isn’t so much for scoring a ton of goals as the only amassed one 5 on 5 goal, but what they did most of the game was wear down the Flames and slowed them down. They were able to get a goal and then finish it off in overtime.
It would have been excellent if the team could’ve closed it out in regulation, but such is life in the NHL right now. Not many teams are able to hold a lead in this league. There is so much skill in the league today that even a small window of opportunity can result in a goal these days no matter how good and sound you are defensively.
Defense- A
The Blues defense was terrific aside from Matthew Tkachuk’s goal where the only attempt to cover him was a weak stick check when he received the pass from Mangiapane.
The Blue were stifling the Flames speed and clogging up the neutral zone. Whenever Calgary did have a chance Jordan Binnington was there to shut the door.
Again, they did allow the Flames to tie it up in third and failed to close out the game, but most of that was due to the desperation in the Flames game and the Blues failing to match it for a few small periods of time.
Goaltending- A
Jordan Binnington again was stellar making the saves he needed to and aside from the one mishandle was nearly flawless. So long as he keeps playing like this he will definitely find himself amongst the top goalies considered for the Vezina Trophy at the season’s end.
Coaching- A
Craig Berube and the staff had the guys ready for this one. They came out flying and displayed what St. Louis Blues’ hockey is.
They were hitting everything that moved with the fourth line setting the tone. It’s been great to see the guys still adhering to the Berube mantra and buying in on a team basis. It has been the singularly biggest reason this team, despite injuries, continues to roll right along.
St. Louis Blues Pros And Cons From Game 18 At Calgary. dark. Next
It is relieving and almost comforting to know that this team has a style that they all know, believe and dedicate themselves to playing almost day in and day out. I remember days as a Blues fan always thinking in the back of my mind, how are they going to lose this one.
Well for today’s St. Louis Blues and this fan it has completely shifted and became a thought of they could lose this upcoming game, but I wonder how they will win it now?
The team doesn’t play again until Tuesday, November 12th at home against the Arizona Coyotes 9-6-2. Arizona, like the Blues, are a defensive first minded team with excellent goaltending in Darcy Kuemper and Antti Raanta.
Drop the puck!