St. Louis Blues: The Blues At The Predators Report Card

The St. Louis Blues 14-5-5 went into Nashville 10-9-3 in the second of a home and home set. The Blues looking to rebound from a poor showing in St. Louis had some work to do after the last flop.

The St. Louis Blues were abysmal in the previous game against Nashville at home at Enterprise Center. I apologize for not getting a report card for that game posted. We didn’t miss much in that game as the Blues were atrocious across the board aside from of course Jordan Binnington.

The Blues needed a better start and more energy to their game than they had in St. Louis. It felt like a foregone conclusion that this game would be a physical fight from start to finish since the Predators lost one of their star forwards in Viktor Arvidsson after an unsavory cross-check from Robert Bortuzzo.

With the St. Louis Blues fans anxiously looking for the Blues to inflict their will upon the Predators from start to finish in this game we got exactly the opposite for two full periods. The Blues in back to back games went down 2-0 early.

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Nothing about the start of this game and the second period were different from the prior game. The Blues looked uninspired and listless.

It appeared the Blues were set to just take a whooping and try to get out of Nashville without being embarrassed again. The game after a period and a half appeared to be unwinnable if the team didn’t start showing some fire.

A little over halfway through the second period David Perron scored following up his own shot to snipe one past Juuse Saros to bring the Blues within one of Nashville. Still, the Blues looked like they had very little energy, grit, and determination to their game.

The broadcast showed coach Craig Berube doing what he could on the bench to encourage, push, energize, and motivate his team to bring the fight to Nashville.

Perron heard the call and was trying to drag the rest of the team into the fight with some edgy play and instigation. It seemed to work as the Blues play slowly picked up and in the third, we saw a team that was willing to fight.

The Blues energy picked up and even though the Blues were fighting the puck all night long even in the third, they were inflicting their will as much as the puck would allow them to and find a way to even the score in the third on a Brayden Schenn goal from the slot.

The Blues would have chances to end the game as well as Nashville in overtime. Jake Allen was phenomenal in the game giving the Blues energy and making save after save, some quite amazing as Juuse Saros would return the favor on the other end.

The game would go to a shootout and with a goal from Schenn, the Blues would walk away with 2 points that they needed and quite frankly probably didn’t deserve as they really only played one solid period of hockey.

Instead of Schenn getting off a good shot, his shootout attempt was a microcosm of the Blues’ entire game. Schenn fought the puck the entire way down and lost control of it and didn’t get a shot off.

Nashville would end the game on the next attempt as Allen with a save could’ve won the game but Nashville scored to even the shootout and then would end it on their next attempt.

The Blues came away with a point but it wasn’t pretty and quite frankly they were lucky to get it. Let’s get to the grades.

Offense- D 

The Blues seemed listless and uninspired for most of this game and couldn’t generate any real offensive pressure and zone time throughout most of this game. They found themselves being heavily outshot in this one again.

The Blues offense was missing the net as much as Nashville was peppering Allen it seemed in this one. The offense was fighting the puck all night and seemed to be losing battles and turning the puck over whenever they would get it into Nashville’s zone.

The Blues were on the losing end of the faceoff battle in the first game against Nashville on Saturday night and wanted to be better on the dot in this one. Well, they were worse. The Blues were losing 2 of every 3 faceoffs in this game. Puck control starts with winning draws. Ryan O’Reilly appears to be tiring and although he won’t admit it, it appears it’s affecting his game on the dot.

The Blues found a way to even the score on sheer will in the third. Something that had been missing in the five previous periods. Not a great showing by the offense in this one.

Defense- D

In a third straight game, the Blues uncharacteristically have surrendered 40 shots on goal or more. Binnington was able to get a shutout in the first one and fought to give the Blues an opportunity to get back into the last one.

Much like Binnington’s performance the game prior, Jake Allen was fighting and scratching to keep the Blues in this one. Officially the score sheet read 39 SOGs for Nashville.

The Blues were known last year as a shot suppressing defensive, hard-nosed, gritty team. In the last few games, we have seen the complete opposite of that. Is it fatigue? Are the injuries catching up to them? Is the Cup hangover setting in? Probably a little of it all to some degree.

The defense throughout the game looked as tired as Allen did at the end of the game. The Blues game relies on the forwards heavily. The forwards have to be up and down the ice and when they are up ice they need to be heavy on the fore-check, when they are back in their end they need to be filtering the opposition to the outside and forcing them into board battles where the forwards and defense need to come away with the puck.

It’s a taxing and tiring style to play. It’s immensely effective as we’ve seen in the past and at times this season. The Blues will get to that again, but I believe to a degree they are trying to find other ways to win in the regular season while saving their bodies and real push for the playoffs.

Goaltending- A

Jake Allen was very good in this one. He got lucky a couple times when he left his net. His timing for leaving the net is off and at times leaves the goal exposed in situations that aren’t ideal. Especially with the way the team has been turning the puck over.

A couple of times I was holding my breath, but it all turned out ok. Allen was visibly gassed heading into the shootout and I don’t think anyone can say that Allen was the reason we lost this one. In fact, he was a big reason we got one point out of this game.

Sure I’d have liked to see him make that save in the shootout to seal the win, but the offense had opportunities to return the favor for Allen and failed just as much.

They win and lose as a team and although Allen deserves 90% of the credit for the one point he just missed out on stealing two from Nashville in their barn. Allen showed some real grit and battle.

Special Teams- C

The power play failed on three attempts and at times looked just as listless as the 5 on 5 game. The Blues focused on adjustments for the power play to counter Nashville’s penalty kill, but failed in their execution.

This again appeared to be just a lack of will and tenacity coupled with the team fighting the puck the entire game.

The penalty kill did their job of killing off Nashville’s three power play opportunities so the game wasn’t decided solely on the Blues lack of power-play production.

Coaching- C

It’s trying times for Berube and his staff. The team appears tired and feeling the effects of the injuries. It’s not an excuse, but when three of your team’s starters go out for extended periods of time it does wear on the rest of the regulars.

The staff is doing all they can to find other players to fill the voids left behind to contribute in some way to the once useful minutes being eaten by those injured regulars.

I expect to see the recent call ups of Derrick Pouliot and Nathan Walker to be inserted into the next game and hopefully inject some energy at the very least to this lineup.

You could see Berube behind the bench really pushing and prodding his team to ignite some energy. It appeared to work in the third period as his message was getting through, but in a league where every point counts, the Blues failed to do themselves any favors losing 3 points out of four to a struggling division rival.

All in all the Blues found a way to come away with at least one point in this game. A point they probably didn’t deserve, but a point that we’ll take. The Blues week doesn’t get any easier on the road trip.

They flew into Florida last night where they will get ready to face the 12-7-2 Tampa Bay Lightning. The Blues will need more energy in their game and hopefully, the sunshine and opportunity for a round of golf will give the guys the recharge they need. The real grind is on now for the Blues. What they do this from now until January will play a huge factor in how they will need to perform the rest of the way.

They can make it easier on themselves tomorrow by winning today. The team has the system, they still have the team, and they have the coaches to do what they need to in order to stay ahead of the pack, but if the last two to three games are indicators of anything it is starting to indicate that they may not have the will. Time will tell.

Drop the puck!