The St. Louis Blues know they are almost always going to have a tough time with their main rival. Still, the Blues needed a win to stay above the competition in the division.
The St. Louis Blues took on their rival, the Chicago Blackhawks, for the fourth and final time in 2019-20. The Blues had already won the previous four meetings, but St. Louis had never swept a season series against the Blackhawks.
The Blues could not afford to be focused on that. They needed to simply win to keep themselves above the Colorado Avalanche, who would be in action later in the night against San Jose.
The first period started fast and loose for both teams, but neither team generated much off of it. There was a lot of zone to zone action, but few shots in the first handful of minutes.
The Blues got the first shot on goal. Chicago created the better of the chances as the period went on.
The shots would even out at the end of 20. It was 0-0 after the first.
The Blues started taking a little more initiative in the second period. While Chicago still created chances and Jake Allen had to make some good saves, it was the Blues that struck first.
After driving into the zone, the Blues circled the net. When it came to the left side of the goal, Robert Bortuzzo popped it over the goaltender from the goal line.
The Blues kept giving Chicago power plays in the middle frame, but the Blues managed to kill them off. St. Louis started getting a little careless near the end of the period, but their goaltender would bail them out.
The Blues were not bad in the second period, but they were careless. They allowed far too many chances against considering they were holding onto a one-goal lead and relied heavily on Allen.
At first, it seemed as though the Blackhawks would carry all their pressure into the third period. St. Louis weathered the storm and poached a goal on a turnover.
Alex Pietrangelo would score to double the lead on a backdoor play after the Blues held the zone. The rest of the game rolled by and St. Louis would hold on.
Allen was forced to make an additional nine saves in the third, but he kept them all at bay. The Blues coalesced defensively and kept themselves above water at the top of the heap with a 2-0 win.
Pros/Cons: Penalty kill
One of the best things about this game for the Blues was their penalty kill. Some might be wondering why it would be a bad thing then.
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Well, it was more because the Blues had to rely on their penalty killing so much. St. Louis gave the Blackhawks four opportunities to score on their power play.
Many of them were silly penalties too. Sammy Blais was called for a high stick by trying to lift his opponent’s stick from behind, which almost never works and almost always gets called.
Ivan Barbashev was caught holding onto Jonathan Toews. Oskar Sundqvist was whistled for an elbowing call, which is a made up call. The penalty is fine, but the glove hit the guy, not the elbow.
Barbashev was also called for a slash that should not have been a slash. I get the fact we want forwards to have more free reign in the zone, but the stick tap did nothing to disrupt Patrick Kane.
Regardless, the PK unit stepped up big time. Of course, they were bailed out with some good saves, but they made quick, smart zone exits and limited Chicago’s chances quite a bit.
Pros: Doghouse guys
Whether it has been with the coaching staff or the fans, there have been a few guys that were in the doghouse lately. A couple names that pop out immediately are Robert Bortuzzo and Sammy Blais.
Blais falls into the category of being in Craig Berube‘s doghouse a little bit. While it was not seen as a demotion by the staff, it is hard not to think of Blais being put on the fourth line as anything but. In all honesty, he had not seemed quite the same player since returning from injury.
In this game, he bounced back quite a bit. He was flying around, generating speed, creating havoc and throwing hits. Blais returned to his human missile ways. He obliterated anything that moved en route to eight hits, which led all players for either team.
In terms of players that were in the fans’ doghouse, Robert Bortuzzo had himself quite the game. Bortz had been playing with regularity, in terms of games played, but there was often a large gap between his ice time and the next lowest defenseman, indicating he was being taken out at key times.
In this one, Bortuzzo was on the PK for almost five minutes. He blocked a shot, was credited with a hit and also scored the game winning goal.
A guy not known for his scoring ability had the confidence to join the play and end up all the way on the end line. From there, he was calm enough to settle the puck and roof the shot from an almost impossible angle.
The goal is just Bortuzzo’s second of the year, but it came at an opportune time. Overall, he played well enough to earn every minute of his playing time, which was almost even with his linemate Vince Dunn.
Dunn contributed to this win by getting into some fisticuffs too.
Pros: Allen
Despite having 29 shots, the Blackhawks did not generate a ton of offensive chances. However, the ones they did get through were tough shots.
The Blues relied heavily on Allen late in the first and almost the entirety of the second period. Chicago had 13 shots in the second period alone and the Snake came up big on each and every one.
Allen did not have to stand on his head, but he was quick, smart with his positioning and made the tough saves look easy.
Allen continued to be solid against Chicago. In his career he is now 11-6-4 with a .920 save percentage and two shutouts against the Blackhawks. Funny enough, both shutouts came against the Hawks this season.
Allen is now number two in franchise history for wins and shutouts. He played very well in this game and deserved the shutout earned.
Overview
From an overall perspective, this was an odd game for the Blues. There really were not a lot of bad things to point out, as shown by the lack of cons.
However, the Blues did not play particularly well either. Chicago did not present the fight we thought they might, especially coming from what was supposed to be a desperate team clawing for a playoff spot.
St. Louis, again, played down to the level of their opponent. Perhaps, subconsciously, they were keeping something in the tank knowing they ahve to play Florida tomorrow and then out to Anaheim for Wednesday.
Whatever the reason, the Blues were not all that sharp. There was plenty of effort and determination, but not much execution.
The insurance goal by Pietrangelo was a thing of beauty with nice passing and a keen eye from Jaden Schwartz on the set up. However, it only came via a bad zone exit by the Blackhawks.
One could argue the Blues forced the turnover, but it’s six in one, half-dozen in the other.
The bottom line is the Blues would not likely have won a game against an upper echelon team playing the exact same way. However, if you can not put the pedal to the floor and still win, more power to you.
The Blues now face the Panthers at home tomorrow night (Monday). Florida is another team scrapping for a playoff spot, so St. Louis cannot take anything for granted and still have Colorado to worry about, win or lose against San Jose.