St. Louis Blues Pros And Cons From Game 36 Vs. Edmonton

The St. Louis Blues were looking to sweep their home stand before the holidays. Edmonton, specifically their goalie, had other plans.

The St. Louis Blues were confident heading into their second matchup with the Edmonton Oilers in a short span. They had beaten the Oilers 5-2 the last time out and were looking to sweep their home stand before a road trip and then the holiday break.

However, the 5-2 win was good but not a real 5-2 game. The Blues were only ahead 3-2 before they actually netted a couple empty net goals.

The tightness kept up in this game. The Blues came out firing, with 15 shots in the first period alone, but they came up empty handed after 20 minutes.

In the second period, the Blues had even more opportunities, with plenty coming on special teams. Sadly, they went 0-for while a man up, but finally cracked the score sheet after a turnover sprang a breakaway.

The Blues overcame some bad officiating too, to keep the lead after 40 minutes.

Things remained pretty even, with the Oilers perhaps having the better opportunities in the first seven minutes of the third. The Blues managed to snipe one before the Oilers could connect as Ryan O’Reilly had a fantastic pass to set up Mackenzie MacEachern to make it 2-0.

Pros: Top line

The Blues top line has been hot and cold of late. A lot of that has to do with a semi-revolving door on the right wing.

Brayden Schenn and Jaden Schwartz have been the mainstays, but they never quite know who will play with them ever other night. Recently, it has been Jordan Kyrou, though even he gets subbed in and out in-game.

Due to this inconsistency, Schenn had gone a little cold in December. He had four goals in December, after a red-hot October and a good November.

He got the good rub from the television broadcast talking about him in the pregame. He seemed due and he would get his due.

Schenn scored the first goal of the game and sniped it over the glove hand on a breakaway. It was a great setup by Vince Dunn on a long pass as he saw Schenn up ice after an Edmonton turnover.

Beyond just the goal, the trio was solid in all phases. They were creating chances all over the place, including a two-on-one that Schwartz just ran out of room on while trying to pass.

Kyrou has continued to surprise with his talents. In a short span of time, he has really shown that he gets Craig Berube‘s style as he is relentless in the pursuit of the puck on defense.

He constantly surprises opponents by using his speed away from the puck. That’s the way to stay in the NHL.

Cons: Power play

This one goes without saying. Through two periods of play, the Blues were 0-5 with the man advantage.

The power play was not awful. They actually created plenty of chances, including four shots apiece on consecutive power plays.

The problem was all the power plays came within a relatively short span. They all came in potentially critical points of the game.

Pros: Allen

Jake Allen was given the first star of the game and it was well deserved. Why he did not come back onto the ice is anyone’s guess. Let us all hope that he was simply not told by the staff and not injured, since he got up slowly after a scrum midway through the third period.

Allen also deserved a shutout with as well as he played. He should have had one, but we will get into that later.

Regarding his play, it was fantastic to see him do so well at home. Allen has been fantastic on the road and, for awhile, some wondered if he would ever see the ice at home again.

To give Jordan Binnington some rest and because Allen played well in Edmonton, he got the start. It was a wise choice.

Allen was on point right from the start. Even though Edmonton only had 10 shots in the first period and some came late, Allen came up with some big saves including a handful against Connor McDavid.

Allen made some unorthodox saves, but they got the job done. One was an old-school save where he went right to left and had his left pad up in the air instead of the butterfly.

Jake the Snake also came up with a gigantic save toward the end of the game when the Oilers were really pressing.

For a long time, the Oilers did not have a high shot total, but they were getting great chances. In the third period, they had 18 shots alone and Jake came up large for his team and preserved the win.

Cons: Officiating

We have seen far worse when it comes to the officiating in the NHL, but this crew was still a joke. It is understandable that guys have to get their feet wet eventually, but some of these junior officials are either just way too inexperienced or they come in with a mentality of trying to put their stamp on a game.

That’s not the proper way to do things. There were phantom calls, no calls and bad calls.

One of the most frustrating was the no-call on the Oskar Sudqvist hit. Sundqvist touched the puck on a delayed penalty against the Blues and a good second or two after the whistle, he got blown up into the boards.

How in the world that was not roughing or something is beyond me. There was no need to make that hit, even if you are somehow clueless that your team is going onto the power play.

Another one that was irritating was a no-call on pick play at the line in the last minute-plus. The Blues were clinging to a one goal lead and trying to kill a penalty.

That call would have evened things out and taken the Oilers off the front foot. Adding salt to the wound was Robert Thomas being called for a “pick” earlier in the game. He was simply trying to stretch out to stay onside and there was incidental contact. Why that is a penalty but not the one later in the game is a head scratcher.

Another clear mistake was the penalty call against Alex Pietrangelo. Petro was the one with his stick held. As the captain ripped it from the grip of his opponent, the stick swung away. The trail official saw this motion and made the assumption that it had to be slashing. There was no contact at all, but the Blues had to kill a penalty.

Hockey is the hardest sport in the world to officiate, I believe, but there is far too much guessing. If you did not see it for sure, don’t call it. Most fans would rather an official not call something than guess.

Last, but not least, Allen should have had a shutout. I get that it could be construed as incidental contact, but I am tired of this argument that the goaltender probably would not have gotten back into position. These guys are amazing athletes, so how can an official decide that a player might not have made an unbelievable save when we see it nightly?

I fully admit to being biased in this situation, but I would fully understand if it was called interference if the Blues were the one that scored on the same play. The fact that they barely even looked at it also did not sit well.

Overview

This was another big win for the Blues. It is far too early to say anything is a statement win, but the Blues continue to establish themselves as the team to beat in the West.

They defeated the team nipping at their heels within the division in their last game. In this game they defeated the team that has finally ascended to a high position within their division and conference.

Really, the Blues dominated a lot of this game. The Oilers had their chances, but the Blues defense was solid and the goaltending was great.

However, the Blues were just unfortunate not to have more goals. Mikko Koskinen stood on his head with some of his saves and Jordan Faulk was denied with an unbelievable block by the defender’s skate on an apparent open net.

If the Oilers goaltender was just good, the Blues get three or four goals. Instead, they had a nail bitter all the way until the end.

Nevertheless, they got the win and it was a feel-good victory.

Allen played great. Kyrou continues to impress, even though he did not score.

Schenn got off the schnide and MacMac picked up a huge goal with a beauty of a setup by O’Reilly.

Now, it’s off to the west coast with every fan’s least favorite swing as all the games are played so late. No need to worry about that just yet. Let us all focus on the win as the Blues keep chugging along.