St. Louis Blues Pros And Cons From Game 44 Vs. San Jose

The St. Louis have a long home stand in front of them, starting with an old foe from out west. More pressing, however, was trying to end a three-game losing streak

The St. Louis Blues were looking to end a three-game losing streak and hoped the lapse defense of the San Jose Sharks would be what the doctor ordered. Things got off to a decent start.

The Blues played a decent first 12 minutes or so. As expected against a team with a defense as holy as Swiss cheese, the Blues were outshooting the Sharks by a 7-3 margin.

Unfortunately, the Blues could not add to that shot total with their first power play of the game. The Blues actually could have scored, but their best chance was thwarted when David Perron could not get his stick loose to a puck in front because of a good defensive play by the Sharks.

The Blues offense went silent after that as well. The Blues got their seventh shot of the period with about 8:32 left in the first. The eighth shot did not come for almost five and a half minutes.

The Blues next best chance came with just over a minute left with a two-on-one that Alex Pietrangelo should have shot, but passed. St. Louis still almost banged it in on Brayden Schenn‘s rebound, but it was much ado about nothing as the period ended 0-0.

It looked as though San Jose was going to gain momentum. They rattled off some shots in the second period at the start, but St. Louis finally got on the board with a snap shot.

In the third, there was a worry that the Sharks had gained too much room. They forced some grade-A saves late in the third and then cut their deficit in half, making it 2-1 with a screened power play goal.

Blues fans were likely biting their nails, after they had given up a lead just days prior. That did not last for long, however, as a deflected shot from David Perron made it 3-1.

The Blues almost made it 4-1 later on. Unfortunately, it was reviewed and called offside.

It appeared as though that might come back to haunt the Blues. Even though the Blues had a late power play, San Jose scored from a bad angle and then scramble in front, making it 3-2.

Thankfully, no more mishaps occurred and the Blues would emerge victorious.

Pros: Second chances

The Blues had a few good chances in the first period, but there really was not a lot to talk about. In the second, St. Louis ratcheted up the pressure after the Sharks came out strong to open up the period.

The problem was the Blues mismanaged some of the second period. The first goal was an interesting example of a second chance.

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The Blues actually gave up a two-on-one attack, but Brayden Schenn came on the backcheck to make a fantastic steal. From there, he ended up getting an assist on a play that was eventually finished off by Tyler Bozak. It could easily have been a scoring play for the Sharks, but ended up as a goal for the Blues.

Then, 80 seconds later, the Blues got a second chance of a different sort. Oskar Sundqvist split the defense with a pass that set up a breakaway for Ivan Barbashev.

Unfortunately, Barbashev’s shot was saved. Instead of giving up on the play, Sudqvist made a steal in the corner and snapped a pass for a one-time goal by Barbashev.

The Blues seemed destined to come up empty handed on that play. Instead, a great follow up by the guy that started the play ended up with a fantastic finish by the guy that failed to finish it a moment earlier.

Cons: Special teams

The Blues had done quite well to gain a two goal lead, but one of the things holding them back was special teams on both sides of the puck. There were opportunities to change the score and the Blues failed to do so.

On the offensive side, St. Louis had three power plays. They were unable to capitalize on any of them.

The pragmatic side says that power plays are hard to score on. That’s why even the best in the league only score once every 10 opportunities.

That said, the Blues can be infuriating at times. Sometimes you don’t score, but you look good and you’re making the defense work. St. Louis, instead, invites pressure by not moving the puck quickly enough or holding it up down low, which begs for the defenders to come on down.

The Blues just fail to even create opportunities, much less get some shots on goal. Those are key moments that can change the complexion of a game. If you even score on one of the first two, it’s a 3-0 game.

Instead, the Blues came up empty on both of their chances and it almost bit them. That was because San Jose did manage to put one in on their chance and also scored short handed.

San Jose had one power play in the game. They took just over 30 seconds to do so too.

The Sharks got some pressure in front of the net, did not allow Jordan Binnington to see the puck and ripped one over the shoulder. At the time, that cut the lead in half, making it 2-1, and gave the Blues a lot to think about after blowing a three goal lead in the last game.

Somehow the Blues, when they are at their worst, manage to give up more chances than they create. How you give up a shorty, regardless of how good San Jose’s PK is, especially late in the game, is beyond me.

A win is a win, especially when you’re coming off a three-game losing streak. You take the two points no matter how they came.

That is not to say the Blues played poorly either. It is more a matter of the Blues not finding ways to finish things off.

For the second game in a row, the Blues gave too much real estate to teams when you knew they were going to make a push. A silly penalty ended up with a power play goal and a Blues power play ended giving a goal up.

These are things that should not happen when you have a two goal lead, much less any other time in the game. The Blues are better than that, but appear helpless in situations where they should be piling on, not giving up.

That said, there was a lot to like. Binnington had a nice bounce-back game, really only giving up one goal after allowing seven his last start.

Perron continued his push for an All-Star slot. He leads all scorers in the Central Division balloting with 44 points. It’s up to Blues fans to make their votes at this point, because this guy has done all he can. He’s scoring goals and at big times, like this game, scoring the game winner.

Schenn picked up his defense, helping out his team’s effort in plenty of ways beyond that key steal. Jordan Kyrou continued to impress as he seemed to have learned from his benching and almost got a goal because of it.

The coaching staff seemed to give a decent amount of trust to Niko Mikkola too. The big Finnish player did not get a ton of ice time, but he had over 12 minutes and his linemate Robert Bortuzzo was not on the ice that much more, which means there was not the double shifting we saw when Craig Berube limited Jake Walman‘s minutes the previous game.

Beyond just the win, the result was important for the standings. The Blues took advantage of the Colorado Avalanche losing, so they increased their lead in the division back to seven points.

Now, the Blues get to face a team not in the Western Conference. The Blues went 9-2-1 in 12 straight games against the West, but not they will face the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.