St. Louis Blues Pros And Cons From Game 60 Vs. New Jersey

The St. Louis Blues were trying to build on a solid foundation built in Nashville, despite a loss. It was the New Jersey Devils that stood between them and a win.

The St. Louis Blues had plenty of reason to be excited going into their first game of the season against the New Jersey Devils. The Blues got to see Jay Bouwmeester since he made his way home from the hospital in Anaheim, the team had played well despite a loss in Nashville and the Blues made a trade that will help them defensively.

However, the New Jersey Devils did not care about any of that. Despite being in the basement of their division and near the bottom of the league overall, New Jersey is at the point where young guys are getting looks and playing for jobs.

One of those players is Louis Domingue, who is either playing to become a full-time starter with the Devils or a job somewhere else, should he be traded. He was one of the big reasons the Blues failed to score in the first period.

St. Louis had 13 shots on goal in the first period, many of them grade-A chances. They had 21 shot attempts and 6 clear scoring opportunities.

In the second period, Domingue kept it up. He denied a great opportunity for Carl Gunnarsson with his right pad on top of shutting down a power play that kept the puck in the zone for long periods of time.

In typical fashion, the Blues finally scored by doing the opposite of what they had been trying. It was capitalizing on a giveaway and just shoving the puck home from just outside the crease that led to a 1-0 Blues lead.

Due to the goaltending, the Blues took awhile before they could add another one. Fortunately, they would add another one in the third period on a nice feed from the right side and the goal from the slot.

The Blues got a little loose in the third period, but only for brief moments. Jordan Binnington was not tested much, but he made the key saves when needed and it was a good bounce back game for him after some sneaky ones got past him lately.

The Blues would get an important win by the final of 3-0. Jaden Schwartz got off the schnide for the last goal and everyone just seemed to be on their game, at least enough to beat a struggling team.

Cons: Domingue

This was a big pro for the Devils, but a bad thing for the Blues. For a lot of this game, there was a worry that Louis Domingue was going to steal it.

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The Devils goaltender was superb, despite the loss. Unlike previous games where the goaltender “stole” the game and the broadcasters gave them far too much credit, Domingue actually made some huge saves.

In previous games, the Blues would get a high volume of shots, but many were from the perimeter or right into the goaltender’s chest. The Blues were getting shots from prime scoring real estate, but Domingue almost always had the answer.

The reason those kinds of things are scary, even when the Blues were up 1-0, is it seems like some fluky goal always goes in against St. Louis and costs them an opportunity to win. Domingue did his part, but fortunately Binnington did too, so he did not allow his counterpart to steal anything.

Pros: Barbashev

If I wanted to be hyper-critical, I could pick on the fact that the Blues top line, even the way it was changed, still has not done enough to help the team win. I could point out that they rely too much on guys that are third or fourth line players – OK, technically Zach Sanford has been on the second line, but still.

However, the focus for this game should be on Ivan Barbashev. The guy just works his tail off almost every game and rarely gets credit because mainly his job is to be the human missile.

Barby actually got a night off from that, though he got two hits. Sammy Blais led the team in hitting in this game.

That allowed Barbashev to be the lone goal scorer for the longest time. His first goal was a prime example of not giving up on a play and cashing in on the doorstep.

The second goal was prettier, but no less important. It put the team up by two and gave them somewhat of a cushion from the worry of one goal costing them everything.

Barbashev and whatever line he is on usually provide such an energy that his play is enough. To score some big goals when the team needed them most was just icing on the cake.

Pros: Penalty kill

The Blues penalty kill has been bad of late. Even when they were not allowing many goals, they just did not look good.

Some will put that on the absence of Jay Bouwmeester. Bouwmeester was an excellent penalty killer, but it was more than just one man missing.

Regardless the reason, the team finally got back to doing good things in this game. They didn’t let the Devils have too much zone time or too many chances.

The Devils had a shot here or there, but it wasn’t too much to trouble Binnington while a man down. The big kill was a third period double-minor taken by Robert Thomas.

The funny thing about that was it was the correct call since Thomas accidentally got his stick blade up in the face of the opponent. However, the refs initially called it a two-minute minor. Even when they’re right, they’re wrong.

Anyway, the Blues came together during that four minutes and had a huge kill that kept all the momentum on their side. If the Devils had any chance in the game at that point, they needed to score on that power play and the Blues did not allow that to happen.

St. Louis was technically three for three on the penalty kill, though one PK was only for five seconds as there was a trip almost initially after a faceoff. Regardless, it was a good confidence builder for some penalty killers that had been beaten up lately.

Overview

As mentioned in my game preview, I don’t take a ton from this game. New Jersey is a bad team at the moment, so it’s not like you can say the Blues have turned a corner and will go on a huge win streak.

Nevertheless, they needed a win and that’s what they got. They played much better than the games we saw prior to the last one in Nashville and took all the good things from that game and built upon it.

Schwartz got on the score sheet, which was important for confidence since he, Ryan O’Reilly and Brayden Schenn are all gripping the stick a little tight these days. All three kept looking to pass, hoping the other guy would take initiative, but a goal finally just fell in Schwartz’ lap, which might be the best thing to happen.

The Blues continue to get good performances by guys you don’t expect to lead them in scoring, but when you’re struggling, that’s what you need. You need everyone to chip in.

Now, the Blues can focus on a troublesome Arizona team that will be in town on Thursday. Maybe they can take the good from this game and make it two in a row. One thing at a time for now though.