The St. Louis Blues 12-4-5 look to get back to their winning ways in a home matchup against Hometown Hero Pat Maroon and his new club the Tampa Bay Lightning 9-6-2.
The St. Louis Blues point streak came to a crashing end last game against the Anaheim Ducks at home on Saturday night. The team had been collecting points, albeit the last two were earned in overtime losses over the last 9 games.
Despite the analytics going against the Blues at 5 on 5 and the high danger scoring chances surrendered compared to the ones the Blues have been creating for themselves has been poor the team was still collecting wins and points.
With the Blues failing to get pucks into the net as of late, Craig Berube decided to change things up and shuffle the lines. Klim Kostin impressed enough in his first game as an NHLer to get another crack in the lineup. He lined up on the fourth line this time with Ivan Barbashev and MacKenzie MacEachern.
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Despite playing well in the first period and the line shake-ups appearing to be effective across the board with each unit getting some all-important grade-A chances the Blues found themselves trailing after Vince Dunn appeared to lose the puck and his man.
That’s all the Lightning needed to jump ahead 1-0 on a squeaker through the pads of Jordan Binnington by Anthony Cirelli.
The Blues again were not playing bad, In fact, they were playing the closest thing to shut-down Blues hockey we’ve seen from them all season. In a game that would end with the Blues nearly doubling up the Lightning in shots on goal 34-18 the St. Louis Blues found themselves on the winning end and it didn’t take overtime to do it.
The Blues would tie the game on a goal by David Perron from Colton Parayko, who was a young man possessed from the second period onward and Ryan O’Reilly. It was a harmless backhand to the net from Parayko that wasn’t corralled by Andrei Vasilevskiy.
In the past, the Blues wouldn’t have the net-front presence to scoop up the rebound and stuff it home, but in this instance and throughout the game the Blues were hovering around the crease and Perron was there to snag the puck and beat last years Vezina winner to tie the game at one apiece.
It was the kind of goal the Blues have been missing for much of the season and it’s those kinds of goals that will allow the Blues to thrive or die the rest of the season.
The game from that point on was primarily all Blues. Whenever Tampa Bay was pushing and pressing the Blues were there to stifle the momentum and Binnington was there to make the saves.
The Blues would take a 2-1 lead on an absolute snipe from Oskar Sundqvist that was set up by a ridiculous pass from Robert Thomas. Vasilevsky had no clue what happened or where the puck was as he just hugged the post and tried to be as big as possible and appeared frozen.
The Blues would hold onto the lead and Jaden Schwartz would ice the game with an empty netter at 19:55 in the third officially snapping the three-game skid and getting the Blues a much-needed win in regulation. Let’s get to the grades!
Offense- A-
The offense was crowding the front of the net for much of the game and generating grade-A chances. Something the Blues were failing to do much of this season.
Craig Berube juggled the lines and moved Tyler Bozak to the wing on the first line creating what Darren Pang dubbed the Sasky line as all three players on that line grew up in Saskatchewan.
The line I was the most leary of, the third line, consisting of Zach Sanford and Sundqvist on the wings centered by Thomas were very effective.
Sanford still hasn’t converted on his opportunities and he had some good ones in this game, but overall the line was tenacious and moved the puck very well.
Robert Thomas looks like a true center, which is his natural position, and could start to take off in that role as he has proven to be more of a playmaker than a shooter. (I still want to see him shoot more, but if he makes passes like he did setting up that Sunny goal I won’t complain)
Again, the guys nearly doubled up the Lightning in shots on goal and a good number of them were some grade-A chances. Some of them, unfortunately, missed the net, which has been a bugaboo of this team right now, but if you create them, they will come.
Defense- A
The Blues successfully displayed and executed their shot-suppressing game. They held a talented Tampa Bay team to only 18 shots on goal and Colton Parayko was a man possessed in this game.
Not only was he defending like the shutdown d-man we all know him to be, but when he had the puck on his stick he took it and ran it down the Lightning’s throat.
I can’t think of many players in the NHL, let alone defensemen, who can do what Parayko does. He stifles the other team’s top guys and then when the puck is on his stick and he sees a window of space ahead of him he is shot out of a Colt 55 cannon and goes from end to end pushing the entire defense of the opposition deep into their own zone.
We have watched this guys game grow and grow over the years and I believe the best is still yet to come from the big man. He was blasting shots from the point with regularity in this one and although he needs to work a bit on letting the puck get deeper into his stance to keep it from elevating so much he is truly developing into a force in the NHL.
Goaltending- A
Aside from the one goal that squeaked through his pads to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead, Binnginton was his usual, calm, steady, reliable self. Keeping the game in reach until the Blues offense was able to tie it up and take the lead.
When Binnington is in the goal you just know that the Blues have a chance to win every game. The guy is rarely off and when he is it is brief. After a sub-par performance against Anaheim, he did what he has always done and that is bounce back with authority.
He wasn’t tested much, but when he was called upon to make a save he did so with relative ease. He stunned Pat Maroon on what was the best opportunity for the Lightning up to that point. Maroon was shown staring at the jumbotron trying to understand how he stopped that shot.
Special Teams- C+
The Blues killed off both if the Lightning’spower-playy chances and that in itself is fantastic. The Lightning boast the 2nd best powerplay in the league. Anytime you shut that down it’s a win.
The reason for the C+ is that the Blues #5 ranked power play failed to convert on 4 tries. I am sure I am not alone in this, but when it comes to the Blues, I want my cake and eat it too.
I mentioned in the “report card” for the Anaheim game that I’d trade a top 5 powerplay for better 5 on 5 play. I got what I wanted, but none the less when the #5 powerplay fails 4 times to convert on the 21st ranked penalty kill it deserves a lesser grade.
Coaching- B
Give it to Craig Berube. He didn’t stick with the status quo and did something we haven’t seen him do much. Instead of just shifting one or two guys Chief took the lines and nearly put them in a blender and saw what poured out.
It worked and worked well for their first games together. You could see some potential for growth in each of the lines. Like they are still getting the feel, but what we got out of the gate was encouraging.
I expect to see these lines rolling out for the next few games and unless there is a dramatic drop off from one the lines the Blues coach will ride them till they’re drying up.
I only give a B on the grade because I don’t see the thought process of having Justin Faulk and Alex Pietrangelo out there in the closing minutes of a game together hanging onto a one-goal lead.
These two turn the puck over like a diner cook turns over pancakes on a Sunday morning. Now I can see that Parayko and Jay Bouwmeester were out there one shift prior, but there was a point where Faulk and Petro left the ice and in a short while were back out there again.
The Blues lost the turnover battle again in this one. Something that I wouldn’t be surprised was lead by the captain and Faulk.
The Blues won this game. It wasn’t handed to them. It was earned. This team is not going to blow teams away offensively. It is going to take a workman’s like effort night in and night out. They have the system and the players to make that style work as we’ve seen on their cup run last year.
The penalty kill has dipped overall, but I expect that to get better. They have fallen to 17th overall and that is not a position a St. Louis Blues penalty kill is typically in so we can expect that to improve.
The powerplay will regress some, but if it can stay in the top ten as it did last season it should do enough to win us enough games to get into the playoffs.
I liked what I saw in this one. Generating some good chances and staying aggressive. We need Parayko to continue what he did in this game all season long. The team needs to bear down a little more on getting the shots they are taking to hit the net, but the fact they are getting to the front of the net in this one is encouraging. That will be needed throughout the season for them to be successful.
The St. Louis Blues 13-4-5 host the Calgary Flames 10-11-3 on Thursday night at 7 pm
(CST). If the Blues play as they did in this game I expect another 2 regulation points and the Blues to continue to sit atop the Central Division.
Drop the puck!