The St. Louis Blues were hoping for a turnaround after a couple bad games. The start gave some hope, but the Blues eventually emerged with another L.
The St. Louis Blues had two very disappointing games to bookend New Year’s Day. They were not terrible against Arizona, but you could tell they were just off. Things were just a mess against Colorado.
The fear was this would become a trend and the Blues did not allay those fears in the first few minutes against the Vegas Golden Knights. St. Louis looked slow defensively and sloppy on the offensive end.
Once they kicked it into gear, however, the Blues were off to the races. They got a power play goal to kick things off as their captain kept his hot streak going.
Less than six minutes later, the Blues doubled their lead. A fantastic play by Jake Allen, playing the puck, set up an odd-man rush for the goal.
The Blues would finish off the period up 3-0. As mentioned in our preview article, Oskar Sundqvist was the hot player against Vegas and capped things off with a goal.
The Blues were not perfect in the first period of this game. It was close enough, however and clearly they got the job done.
20 minutes does not a game make, however. The Blues came out hard in the second and tried for the killing blow, but the Vegas goaltender was a literal shield against that death stroke.
Some huge saves sparked the crowd and the team. The Golden Knights turned a potential blowout into a close game by scoring two quick goals.
St. Louis was fortunate to keep the lead. It was 3-2 after 40 minutes.
That luck ran out in the third. Vegas held onto their momentum and basically flipped the script.
Their game-tying goal was similar to the Blues third goal. It was just a classic net-front goal that came from hard work and the defending team unable to clear.
The Blues continued to unravel in the third period and the Knights would eventually grab the lead. St. Louis was caught on a big bounce back into their zone and they failed to clear the puck with some noodle-waving sticks. Vegas fired a partially screened shot from the high slot and a 4-3 lead.
Just when you thought the Blues were cooked, they battled back again. Another power play goal, this time a blistering slap shot from David Perron, tied the game 4-4.
The Blues still barely gained a point from the game. A late penalty call put Vegas on a four-on-three, but the Blues got a big save and more blocks to send the game to overtime.
St. Louis let the Golden Knights off the hook with more mistakes in the overtime period. After killing off the remainder of the penalty, the Blues just never quite found their way in the ridiculous three-on-three portion.
Robert Thomas had a bad turnover on the boards and Vegas got a breakaway. The final score was 5-4 and even though the Blues got a point, they dropped their third game in a row.
Pros: First period domination
The Blues came out a little sluggish to open the first period. However, once they got going, they kept going.
St. Louis outshot Vegas 11-8 in the first period. The Blues, by far, had the better of the chances.
St. Louis had a couple odd-man rushes, one of which led to a goal. They were clicking on their passes, skating well and just playing Blues hockey.
The first goal was off a solid zone entry. Faceoff wins and zone entries seem to make the big difference as to whether the Blues have success on the power play or not. Then, Alex Pietrangelo kept up his push for a bigger contract with another goal.
After that, the second goal was set up by the one person that did not get a point. Catching Vegas unaware, Jake Allen fired the puck up the wall and that sprang an odd-man rush.
Ryan O’Reilly set up David Perron. Perron then found Jaden Schwartz who fired it home for a 2-0 lead. It was a shame that an extra man touched that puck since Allen deserved a point.
Lastly, Sundqvist continued his dominance over Vegas. He came into this game with four goals and seven points.
He added to that with his 10th goal of the season. It was a greasy goal in front of the net, which is what the Blues need more of.
Cons: Falling apart in the second
As good as things went in the first period, they went just as bad in the second. At first, the Blues were not playing that poorly.
In fact, it looked as though things would go similarly to the first. The Blues continued to rack up chances and should have been up by four or five goals.
More from Bleedin' Blue
- St. Louis Blues Prospects Shine And Fizzle In Prospects Showcase
- St. Louis Blues Giving Nick Ritchie A Look Is No Lose Situation
- St. Louis Blues Torey Krug Already Injured Before 2023-24 Season
- St. Louis Blues Need Kasperi Kapanen To Be On Best Behavior
- Former St. Louis Blues Forward Going Into Hall Of Fame
However, that did not happen. The Golden Knights managed to take advantage of their goaltending and turn the game around.
After being dominated, the Golden Knights rattled off two goals in just over two minutes. Vegas held onto that momentum for a good while too.
By the time the period ended, the Blues were fortunate to still have a lead. The refs called a weak penalty and the Vegas power play was creating.
The Blues relied on some blocks and a big save by Allen to end the period still up by a goal.
Cons: Running into a hot goalie
Credit where credit is due for the Golden Knights. The Blues would have crushed Vegas and stamped out their spirit if not for Marc-Andre Fleury.
Fleury made two huge saves, whether he knew much about it or not, in the second period. Those were almost sure goals and would have put the Blues up 5-0.
In fact, the Blues could easily have had six or seven goals by the time Vegas actually scored. Unfortunately for St. Louis, Fleury was on point.
There really was not anything the Vegas netminder could do about any of the goals in the first period. Maybe the Sundqvist goal could have been stopped, but that’s about it.
He was the main reason that his team had any shot of coming back. Sometimes we forget how much momentum a big save can give a team, but we saw it first hand in this game.
Sadly, it came at the Blues expense.
Cons: Officiating
The reffing in this game was not horrendously awful, but it still bears mentioning. It has been said for years, but the NHL has the most consistently inconsistent officiating in pro sports.
That is quite a statement with the NFL hot on their tails lately. It is getting worse too.
The problem with this game was the softness of all the calls. No matter who you were cheering for, you could have made a case for none of the penalties to be called at all.
Just about every call in this game was weak. The Blues did give the refs a choice to make by putting their stick in the midsection, especially Thomas, but they weren’t really penalties.
If you want to call it that way, so be it. However, when the Blues were given a holding call that was barely holding, one of their guys were tripped. In a normal game, I’d say there was no need to call that, but with as soft as the penalties that were called were, that needs to be called.
Instead, they just kept calling things that got sold by one side or the other. It didn’t help matters that they would have been free to call an extra minor on Max Pacioretty when he dropped the gloves but David Perron did not, but whatever.
Overview
The biggest problem from the Blues perspective was you could tell a few guys were playing with players they were not accustomed to. Especially early, the team looked a little lost.
Later in the game, the defense was the unit that looked a little lost. There were some scrambles and guys not really playing a scheme but more playing what they thought might happen. Some of that was due to the change in defensive pairings and some was the absence of Colton Parayko.
However, like in Arizona, this game came down to goaltending. Allen was not bad at all, but Fleury was great.
You don’t normally say that about a guy that allowed three goals in one period. It was his saves that spurred his team on.
Vegas got a few bounces, such as an almost goal being cleared away from the line. They also looked like the hungrier team.
The Blues seemed like they were ready for the game to be over after the first period. Vegas just kept coming, wave after wave, the way the Blues usually do.
Former Blues, such as Ryan Reaves and William Carrier leading the charge only added salt to the wound.
Hopefully some home cooking will cure what ails the Blues. Their defense has become surprisingly leaky lately. Now St. Louis will have a five-game home stand to end this three-game losing streak.