The St. Louis Blues ended their 2019 with a game against the Arizona Coyotes. While the desert dogs have been a thorn in St. Louis’ side, the Blues had momentum entering this game.
The St. Louis Blues entered their final game of the calendar 2019 with an eight-game win streak on their coattails. The Arizona Coyotes were stumbling to the last look of the year having lost their last three games.
Still, Arizona had won five of the last seven against the Blues. Even when the Blues were at their best and the Coyotes near the basement, they seemed to give St. Louis fits.
The Blues were determined to not let that happen. While very only three players were around for that game, the Blues were determined to not end 2019 as they did 2009.
Determination does not always lead to results though. That was the case for the Blues early in the game that marked the halfway point in the season.
The Blues did not have their trademark slow start, but it was still not the greatest of starts. Things just felt too loose.
The Coyotes got the first few shots on goal and then the Blues answered. It was too much of a back and forth, zone to zone game for the first two periods, really.
Arizona would get the first goal of the game. It was a screen shot that Jake Allen never really even saw.
Fortunately, the Blues did not take too long to tie things up. A lot of nice passes were strung together to set up the tying goal.
The first period went by and it was 1-1 and the second period went by and it was 1-1. It was not for lack of trying, again, as the Blues had almost 20 shots in the second period alone.
The Blues inability throughout the second period came back to haunt St. Louis in the third. Instead of cleaning things up, the Blues were just sloppy enough to give Arizona some extra chances.
St. Louis had been playing with fire and eventually got burned. Failing to clear the puck out of their zone, the Coyotes got in behind the defense and sniped a 2-1 lead with under 13 minutes to go in the third period.
Sadly, the Blues just sort of unraveled from there. It was not as though they played terribly, but it was just sloppy and disjointed.
They failed to get pucks out of their own zone on several occasions and everything just seemed to work against them. They could not score on a key power play late in the third and took a boarding penalty with just over two minutes left in the game.
The Blues had decent puck possession with the net empty, but they could not score and could not hold the zone and an empty netter made it 3-1. That would be the final.
Cons: Track-meet second period
It’s kind of hard to consider a period where you were firing the pucks with regularity a bad period. Still, the second period was not great.
The Blues took far too many penalties in the first period. Arizona repaid the favor and took three of their own in the second period.
However, instead of taking advantage, which the Blues have done recently, we saw the return of the team that likes to pass it around and not really do too much. The Blues did created a few chances, but there was not enough tough saves forced out of Antti Raanta. The Blues either hit him, missed the net or forced one save but could not capitalize on a rebound.
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Making matters worse, the Blues failed to score on a five-on-three power play – again. We are entering year four of no goals with a two-man advantage.
Beyond just the power play inadequacy, the Blues just were not playing their game. They got caught up in a track meet, as Ken Hitchcock used to call it.
It was up and down the ice, taking valuable energy out of the legs. There was one shift in particular that it looked as though it was three on three as there were three, separate odd-man rushes – two for Arizona and one for the Blues.
The Blues had 18 shots on goal in that period. While some were quality chances, you just never got that feeling it was about to go in. That is not to say the Blues could not have scored if they got a bounce here or there, but it was just a period with an odd feel to it.
Pros: Third line
The Blues might not really like to assign numbers to their lines, but we really know their order based on ice time. With that in mind, the third line is starting to grab hold of the high place it had for this team in 2018-19.
The only main difference is the rotation on the wing. The constants have been Robert Thomas and Tyler Bozak.
Their chemistry and consistency is really pushing this team. Thomas still has a lot of growing to do, but you see a lot more comfort and ability to make the plays.
St. Louis connected fantastically with this line on the ice for the goal that tied things up. It was set up by Thomas, who went cross ice to Alex Steen. Steen then fed out front from below the end line and it was finished off by Bozak.
The goal was Bozak’s third goal in three games. He has finally found a solid scoring touch.
It is not as though we should have doubted that was there. It was more a feeling of wondering when it might come around since Bozak was so snake bitten earlier in the year.
Bozak still takes a decent amount of faceoffs, but switching to the wing for Thomas seems to have done quite well for his offensive game. Their ability to switch in and out of the middle when necessary, keeps each one fresh and defenses guessing.
Cons: Kyrou
Don’t take this the wrong way. Jordan Kyrou did not have an awful game. He did not really have a bad game.
The problem was it was not a very good game. We saw a little more of what the coaching staff sees to keep his ice time a little more limited than fans would like.
For several games in a row, Kyrou was impressive. He was getting better each and every game.
He was defensively responsible and when he made a mistake, he quickly made up for it with a well-timed poke of the stick to jar the puck loose. The opposite was true in this game.
Kyrou made several key mistakes in the first and second period. In the first, he took a silly penalty that led to a power play goal. We can argue if it was a soft call, but the bottom line is his stick touched someone on the shoulder.
Later in the game, Kyrou had a couple bad turnovers that set up good chances for Arizona. He was also not clean on some zone exits, coming close to giving the puck up if not actually doing it.
When the Coyotes took a 2-1 lead, Kyrou was involved in that play. It was not directly his fault, as the Blues had other chances to clear, but he was not as strong with the stick when coming to help as he could have been.
As said, it was not a terrible game. It was a game where you saw a rookie making some mistakes as opposed to the potentially high-level player we have seen prior to this.
Overview
This was a disappointing way to end what had been a fantastic calendar year. It was one of those losses that you just chalk up as a loss and move on, but Arizona continues to be some kryptonite to the Blues.
Arizona ended the Blues seven game win streak when they won in a shootout in November. Now, they end the team’s eight game win streak with a more dominant 3-1 win.
While much of this article focuses on the Blues’ ineptitude, it must be said that Raanta did play a good game. He was not standing on his head, but he made several big saves right when the Coyotes needed him the most.
The Blues got good goaltender from Allen as well and the score could have been further out of reach if not for him. That said, he looked a little uncomfortable in net for the first time in awhile. Too many screened shots made him look as though he had no idea the shot was even coming.
As a team, the Blues just did not have it on this night. Maybe the odd travel schedule or the holidays were catching up to them. Maybe it was just an off night.
Nevertheless, it was a little let down before the ball dropped.
Hopefully 2020 will be just as good for the hockey team as 2019 was. Hopefully it is even better, personally, for all you readers.
Thank you very much for your readership, whether you agree with our opinions or not. We sincerely thank you all for helping us reach new goals in 2019 and wish you the happiest of new years in 2020.
Let’s go Blues!