St. Louis Blues Pros And Cons From Game 58 Vs. Nashville

Things started so well for the St. Louis Blues in Vegas, only for them to come crashing down. They were hoping for better with a quick return home against Nashville.

The St. Louis Blues hoped that returning home after a difficult emotional road trip would help them out. However, they were unprepared for a hungry Nashville Predators team that is fighting for a playoff spot.

The Blues spent almost the entirety of the first 10 minutes in their defensive zone. Through the first eight minutes of the game, Nashville outshot the Blues by a total of seven to nothing.

It is understandable that the team would be weary from travel and the uncertainty of their teammate, but Jay Bouwmeester would not want them playing with such lack of enthusiasm.

The Predators struck first after an extended shift in the zone. The puck was behind the net so long that Jake Allen went down to cover the posts back and forth and when it popped back in front the Predators found the.

The only real energy the Blues showed was getting in a couple fights. Brayden Schenn and Robert Bortuzzo both dropped the gloves in an attempt to spark the Blues, but it did not have much of an immediate effect.

St. Louis finally seemed like they were getting into the game with a couple chances on goal and a decent offensive shift. Sadly, that did not mean squat as Nashville picked up a rebound and went down the other way and beat Jake Allen on the stick side.

As a staunch defender of goaltenders, I do feel like it was one Allen might have saved. In his defense, the Blues continue to be blissfully unaware of the backdoor play, no matter how far it is from net.

Then the refs got involved. They called a fake penalty on Nashville that gave the Blues a power play. Despite St. Louis going against the worst PK in the league, they barely threatened. The refs called an iffy slash on the Blues after that and then a trip where the Preds player stepped on his stick. At this point, we should just assume everything will get called.

The Blues came out like a different team in the second period. They scored three goals and looked like a team that should be on top of the standings.

They were not perfect, allowing the Predators to score just 20-plus seconds after the initial Blues goal. Nevertheless, the fight was back in their game.

Sadly, that did not last long. Carl Gunnarsson made a bone-headed play taking a penalty. That led almost directly to a Nashville goal early in the third period to make it 4-3.

The Blues really did not do a ton to threaten after that. They had some chances here or there, but they either put them directly into the goaltender or, in a chance here or there, he made a good save to keep them off the board.

Ultimately, the team game from the Blues is just not working right now. There isn’t enough defense, or goaltending in some instances, to solidify wins.

Pros: The Fight

By fight I do not mean the literal fisticuffs, though that was nice to see. Robert Bortuzzo looked like he was going to lose pretty easily once he lost his balance, but he landed a solid right hand and regained control. Schenn’s scrap was not too bad either, showing Filip Forsberg he is not one to be messed with.

However, the fight I mean is the fight in this team. For all the crap we give them, deservedly so the way things have gone lately, you cannot deny their drive.

That does make it a little more frustrating they cannot find ways to play that hard for a full game at the moment. Nevertheless, just when you seem ready to give up on them, they find a way back.

The Blues were down 2-0 and had barely a shot on goal. Early in the second period, the sudden Mr. Clutch, Zach Sanford, came up with a goal that cut the lead in half.

It was a heck of a pass from Sammy Blais, no doubt. Still, the finishing ability that Sanford has over the last week or so is fantastic.

After the Predators pushed the lead back to two, the Blues could have easily hung their heads. Instead, they finally capitalized on a power play after looking so putrid the other times.

No sooner than the top stars were called out in this very space do they finally get on the board.

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Funny enough, a similar thing happened with

Jordan Kyrou

. The kid was starting to get a little heat from the Twitter crowd, some wondering what all the fuss was about, and then he comes up with the game-tying goal to make it 3-3 or so it seemed.

The snake-bitten Kyrou, the man that has had two goals called back due to his offside, had this goal taken away from him. Apparently, the puck went off the back side of Alex Steen and the goal was changed to him later.

Still, when many were leaving this team for dead, they fought their way back. It just wasn’t for long enough to gain the lead.

Cons: Almost everything else

I hate to lump everything together, but this game was another example of the Blues just not starting well, playing sloppy in the middle and not finding a way to finish.

The Blues were mediocre or bad in just about every phase of the game. They did get one power play goal, but they were given four opportunities against the worst penalty kill in the league.

To be frank, they were somewhat fortunate on the goal they finally did score. On top of that, the Predators penalty kill is a full six percentage points worse on the road and still the Blues failed to even get set up on most of their chances.

Also, we need to stop giving the “top power play unit” so much time. I do not care if they are better players, they cannot even cohesively enter the zone on some of these plays.

The penalty kill did not get it done either. Statistically they were OK. 1-4 is not bad, but the Predators power play was ranked 23rd in the league. That’s not that much better than their penalty kill.

Yet, when it mattered most, the Blues let one in. I respect the heck out of Robert Bortuzzo for his tenacity and physicality, but he is not a penalty killer in my opinion.

The goaltending was not great. Jake Allen, just like Jordan Binnington in previous games, made some important saves to even keep his team in the game. That said, the Predators third goal should have been saved and maybe even the second. Goaltending is not the main issue, but it isn’t the solution right now either.

Defensively, the team just has way too many gaps. When they’re off, they have absolutely no idea what is going on behind them. It has reached a point where teams are constantly trying back door plays because they know they’re available.

The Blues did clamp down on the shots as the game went on, but they’ve still reverted to a couple seasons ago when Allen might only face 19 shots but they were all grade-A chances. Nashville had five shots in the third period and scored on one.

Regardless of shot totals, the defense just is not helping enough. The offense is not scoring consistently, but they now have eight goals in two games and lost both. For a team that prides itself on defense and has, or at least had, the best goaltending duo in the league, if you can’t win with eight goals in two games, plenty is going wrong.

The Blues punished the Predators with 36 hits, but to what end? They didn’t instill fear in the Preds and Nashville spent boatloads of time in the offensive zone, even if they were not hitting the net.

St. Louis continues to be careless with the puck. Perhaps that is the hockey equivalent of baseball when an entire lineup is trying too hard to manufacture runs and then nobody gets runs.

The Blues had six statistical giveaways and lost the puck countless times other than that. When things are not working, that is not the time to try stretch passes zone to zone or rink-wide feeds to players you hope will be there, but are not sure.

I swear, every time Darren Pang said they need to simplify things, they would immediately do something complicated and stupid.

Overview

We are all human beings here and we know there is more at work than just poor hockey. The Blues hearts and heads are not in the right frame at this moment in time.

That said, this cannot fall on the Bouwmeester situation alone. These exact same problems have existed for weeks now and it is just being exacerbated by the emotional swing.

Maybe it’s the hangover coming late. Maybe it’s the All-Star break actually coming at the worst time instead of the best.

Whatever the reason, the rest of the league is playing like the Blues did last season and the Blues are tanking the way the Central Division almost did while the Blues had charged up the standings in 2019.

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They have to fix it. Maybe the soft-spoken Bouwmeester can lead a team meeting and tell them it’s ok to play.

At this point, nobody knows. All I know is they are playing like a team hoping things might go right instead of making them go right. That’s not winning hockey and the Blues will continue this free fall until they get their entire act together.

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