St. Louis Blues Pros And Cons From Game 30 At Pittsburgh

The St. Louis Blues had been riding high, picking up wins in spite of themselves of late. Their luck ran out against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The St. Louis Blues were playing with house money lately given all their injuries, sickness and reliance on guys who were not even in the league at the start of the year. Their luck simply ran out in their second game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in less than a week.

This game was such a polar opposite of what we have grown accustomed to lately. About the only thing normal about this game was the Blues getting good goaltending and having a slow start.

However, instead of overcoming their slow start as they have so many times, the Blues just never got out of their funk. Once Pittsburgh scored, there were very few times it would look like the Blues would make any kind of a comeback attempt.

St. Louis was not without their opportunities. Their first power play of the game, which came at 7:44 of the first period, was the Blues best as they managed three shots on goal.

Sadly, the team just could not break past the Penguins much in later attempts. The Blues did little five-on-five and got shutout for the second time this season.

We knew this game was coming. Even a healthy team is only going to be able to put up points in so many games, so a loss was bound to happen.

It is only frustrating because we have become so accustomed to the Blues overcoming adversity. They couldn’t in this game and it was the bounces that killed them, in addition to some poor play overall.

St. Louis fell 3-0.

Cons: Early start for Pittsburgh

Nobody knows they are going to have a bad game or plans for it. However, if you knew ahead of time a bad game was coming, you would do all you could to keep your opponent off the board in the first handful of minutes.

St. Louis not only did not do that, but let up a goal in the first 39 seconds. NBC was still showing the lineup crawl at the top of the screen.

The thing that didn’t seem to sit well was the positioning of the defenders. Alex Pietrangelo was skating with his man, but Carl Gunnarsson was out at the right circle.

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There was at least five feet between the nearest defenseman and the guy that tipped the puck. Brayden Schenn was right there, but a forward should not be the closest guy to goal in most instances.

Regardless of that, it just put the Blues in a bad spot on a night they were not going to be at their best anyway. Maybe they could have gotten the engine revving and into the game if it stayed scoreless longer – the Blues did keep Pittsburgh off the board a long time even after that first goal.

Pros: Binnington

I’m going to be forthright here and say this is going to be the only positive from this game. Jordan Binnington was outstanding and the game would have been far out of reach if not for him.

By the time Binnington’s game finished, he had already faced 33 shots and turned away 30 of them. However, the way the game was going, this was originally looking like it might be one of those 40-45 shots against games.

The Blues slowed the Penguins offense a little as the game went along, but they still relied on their goaltender far too much to keep them in the game. The offense surely was not doing enough, despite 28 shots.

Binnington was not peppered with shots left and right, but the quality of some of the chances was more than you should see from a team like the Blues. There was one shot alone that should have made it 4-0.

As far as the goals against, there was not much Binnington could do. The first goal was a deflection at the last moment right in front of him.

The third goal was a breakaway. He got a piece of it and maybe he could have stopped it, but breakaways are 50/50 at best.

The second goal is the only one you could take issue with. Maybe, and I stress maybe, he should have done better with the rebound control. That said, it is harder than any of us think to actually steer some pucks away and it just happened to go right back to the guy in front of the net who finished it off.

Overall, Binnington won’t be happy with this game since three goals went in. That’s how a goalie’s mind works.

However, this game would have been out of reach long before the final period if not for him. He is the only reason the Blues had a shot at any point.

Cons: Take your pick

The biggest problem with the Blues was that everything seemed to go wrong at once. There was no one thing to single out or any one player or group that was bad. Everyone just had a bad game at the same time.

The power play was almost non-existent after that first one. After having three shots on the first power play, the Blues ended up with eight shots on four power plays. Eight shots in general won’t cut it, but when you get three right off the bat and only have five spread out over three power plays, it just won’t work.

The defense was not great here. They were allowing gaps, getting out of position/away from goal and either not jumping into the play or picking the wrong times to jump into the play. Oddly enough, though he is not known for his defense, Vince Dunn was the only defender who was not a minus player on the night.

The Blues were very disjointed in the offensive zone. The third Penguins goal came as a result of regular possession by the Blues and suddenly, they just let it slip away. Instead of taking shots or dumping the puck, guys that really have no business dangling were trying slick moves. Even at their best of times, that’s not what the Blues are about.

28 shots is not bad and Tristan Jarry made a couple decent saves. However, for the most part, the Blues did not challenge the Pittsburgh netminder enough. There was not enough net-front presence and the drive to the target was not there.

As said, you can’t really point out this guy or that guy and say you are the one that has to play better. It was just an off night for everyone not named Binnington.

Overview

This is one to just toss in the trash and not really review. There are always teaching moments, but I did not see a lot in this game that was really fixable. It was mostly just sloppy and slow and unlikely to happen again.

The funny thing was many fans expected this game the last time the Blues played the Penguins. It was the second of a back-to-back, the Blues were coming home from a road trip and just had an emotional win over a divisional opponent. Instead, the Blues beat the Pens 5-2 in that one.

So, I think many just figured there was nothing to stop the Blues roll. If they put up five goals just when we think they’ll be the least energized, why doubt them?

Nobody can sustain that forever and the Blues just ran out of gas. The Penguins got the bounces, had the bounce in their step and never let their foot off the gas.

For the Blues, there really is not a ton to change. It was an off night and they were still in the thing until the end. A few less mistakes here or there and maybe they steal a point.

Just forget about it and move on to the next one.