St. Louis Blues Pros And Cons From Game 68 At NJ Devils

The St. Louis Blues were seeking their ninth win of the season, which would have been their longest of 2019-20. Instead, they fell flat in the Garden State.

The St. Louis Blues were riding high on their eight-game win streak. However, while the New Jersey Devils were the team the Blues started their streak against, the Devils managed to be the team that ended it as well.

For whatever reason, the Blues never seem to look sharp and rested when they have an extra day or two off. If anything, they always play sloppier given extra time between games.

That was definitely the case against the Devils. Maybe it’s the body clock feeling weird starting an hour earlier or maybe the lack of practice/skating actually throws them off.

Whatever the case, the Blues were not ready in the first period. While St. Louis would actually outshoot New Jersey in the first 20 minutes, the Blues only had around three shots roughly halfway through the period.

Interestingly enough, one of those shots led directly to the Devils’ first goal. Colton Parayko unleashed a bomb from the right point and the rebound went directly to P.K. Subban.

Subban hit the stretch pass to Jesper Bratt. Bratt made a move on Parayko, got around the long reach and snuck home the go-ahead goal on a partial break.

The Blues were mainly held in the game in the first by their goaltender. They would finally wake up a bit, scoring the tying goal on the power play at 12:31. Even the, it was Jordan Binnington making late saves to keep the game tied.

Unfortunately, from the Blues perspective, Binnington couldn’t stop them all. Things unraveled for the team in the second period and the Blues allowed 15 New Jersey shots in that period alone.

They say you can’t stop what you can’t see. That was definitely the case on the go-ahead goal for the Devils as the biggest guy on the ice, Parayko, was directly in front of his goaltender. From the camera angle, you literally could not see the Blues goaltender when the shot was taken.

Things got worse for the team’s shutdown pair of defensemen. On the Devils’ third goal of the game, late in the second period, it was Marco Scandella that screened the goaltender in an attempt to push out the Devils player from the front.

The Blues got a little life after the Devils fourth goal was called back for goaltender interference late in the second. However, they were still down 3-1 after 40 minutes.

St. Louis got a little offense going early in the third, finally crashing the net for some rebounds. Most of their earlier chances were one-and-done. However, Cory Schneider was good in this game, or at least good enough.

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It was a ho-hum third for much of the period, until Jaden Schwartz finally chipped one in with just over three minutes to go.

Sadly, Craig Berube decided to pull the goaltender, which is almost always a death sentence for the Blues. New Jersey would score on the empty net and collect a 4-2 win.

Pros: Dunn

We’ll get one of the few bright spots for the Blues out of the way so this doesn’t all seem negative. Vince Dunn played a pretty decent game overall and continues to be one of the team’s best threats from the defensive corps.

His goal was good situational awareness. You don’t always see defensemen jump up from the blue line, even on the power play, but Dunn was in the perfect spot to jump on a rebound.

Dunn was somewhat fortunate the rebound came directly to him, but again, it’s situation awareness. He needed to be in that spot and he was.

Dunn’s offensive game has been solid over the past week or more. He now has two goals and four points in his last four games. One of the goals and three of the points have been on the power play too, which means he’s becoming a focal point for that particular unit.

Cons: Parayko

It is not very often that you call out your best defender. There’s a reason they are the best and that’s because they hardly ever have an off night.

Colton Parayko had an off night in New Jersey though. That is not to say he was lollygagging or not hustling.

Parayko was doing his best. He still had three shots, four hits and two blocks, which would be decent numbers most nights.

However, when things aren’t going your way, even good things can be bad. As mentioned earlier, one of Parayko’s three shots led directly to a goal.

It was not his fault really, but it was a harbinger of things to come for the big man. The slap shot went off the goalie and right to Subban.

Subban sprang the pass to Bratt. Bratt made his way around Parayko on a play that the Blues defender stops nine times out of 10.

For whatever reason on this play, Bratt got Parayko off balance. That little shake was enough so that Parayko couldn’t take full advantage of his reach and Bratt fought off what little stick check was left available.

Later in the game, Parayko would screen his own goaltender. Unlike other screens we have seen from other defenders, Parayko was not standing like a stone in front. He was actually trying to move the forward out of the way. However, the shot came with him eclipsing his goaltender like the moon blocking the sun.

Parayko was a minus-3 for the night. It was just a rough one for one of the steadiest players the Blues have on the back side.

Pros: Binnington

It is very easy to sit there and say four goals got past Jordan Binnington, so it was an off night. That could not be further from the case.

Don’t look at the flat numbers for this one. .903 save percentage doesn’t tell the whole story.

Binnington might have faced 31 shots, but there were so many grade-A chances against that it was somewhat mind blowing. When facing a team that is second to last in the entire Eastern Conference, you would not expect the Blues to surrender that much.

Binnington was called on time after time and made several quality saves to give his team every opportunity to come back if they could get their head out of their rears. He stopped all four Devils power play shots and had to save two shorthanded shots from New Jersey as well.

If you missed the game, just watch the game recap to see how well Binnington played. The only Blues highlights, other than the two goals, were all Binnington saves.

Cons: Empty nets

This one should be a minor issue, but it always touches a nerve. Statistically, pulling a goaltender is a risky proposition for any team in the league.

For the Blues, it feels like a 99% certainty they are going to surrender the goal that puts the nail in the coffin. Who knows what the numbers are, but that’s the visual perception.

It has reached the point where there is a vocal contingent on social media that would rather the team just leave the goalie in and take their chances five-on-five. Count me among those.

The problem is not the actual act of allowing an empty net goal. The issue is the Blues can seemingly never get set up with the extra attacker.

For a team that prides itself on calmness and togetherness, they look like a hive of bees frantically searching for the queen when it is time to mate. They have no idea where the puck is going or what to do with it when they have it.

It is all just a hectic mess and often they turn it over without so much as a shot on goal to attempt tying the game. That was the case against New Jersey. There was a brief push into the offensive zone, but a quick shot from a bad angle led to the puck going to the corner with no Blues pressure whatsoever. Nobody was there to stand up to the zone exit.

The Blues had three guys below the end line when the Devils grabbed the puck. They had five of six guys still 10 feet, or more, inside the zone when New Jersey broke out. Just another disappointing display of rats in a maze, smelling cheese, but having no idea how to get to it.

Overview

Colorado losing to Vancouver in regulation takes a little bit of the sting out of this game. However, the Blues continue to falter against lower tier teams.

Clearly it is not the end all, be all or it would have had an impact on them winning the Stanley Cup last year. However, it continues to be worrisome that this team plays down to competition. If you consider yourself elite, then play like it against the cellar dwellars instead of letting them hang around or, worse yet, dominate you.

Another negative to take away from this game is the sudden rotation of players for the Blues, especially defensively. I fully understand Berube wanting to keep guys fresh for the grueling nature of the playoffs, but they need to win the division, flat out.

Also, while I’ve never had anything major against him, what is the purpose of replacing Justin Faulk with Robert Bortuzzo (yes, I know technically Carl Gunnarsson took his roster spot) when Bortuzzo barely plays.

We can blame special teams minutes if you want, but the fact of the matter is Bortuzzo played a full six minutes less than any other defender. That means someone is double-shifting and using up more energy because they don’t trust Bortuzzo in certain situations. Maybe that would be different splits if the team was not trying to come from behind, but it makes no sense that he played that much fewer minutes than anyone else, especially his partner. Stop messing with the combinations.

This was more than a winnable game. It was a game the Blues should have run away with. It isn’t as though the Devils played some smothering style that took St. Louis out of the game. It was just a lackluster effort by the better team and a bunch of kids playing for their jobs next season.

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St. Louis better figure out how to get up for these kinds of games. They have Chicago up next and the Blackhawks already lit up the Blues defense in the last game. Play a responsible game and shut these teams down already.

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