The St. Louis Blues have been notorious for not closing out opponents. However, one year ago one of their many enigma forwards lived up to his hype in defeating Winnipeg.
A year ago, the St. Louis Blues journey to a Stanley Cup was no different than any other playoff. While the team and fans had high hopes and aspirations, there was no evidence yet to think they would go all the way.
That began to change in what would become the final game the Blues would play against the Winnipeg Jets. Jaden Schwartz, who had already had a good series, finally lived up to the potential everyone had seen in him.
Over the course of their history, the Blues have been notorious for not finishing teams off when they had the chance. When the team went to the conference final in 2016, that’s what cost them. They spent so much energy in six game series with Chicago and Dallas that they were burned out by the time they faced San Jose.
Coming off an emotional victory over the Jets in Game 5, where Schwartz came up with the late-game winner, the pessimist part of the brain told you the Blues would have to win a Game 7 in Winnipeg. They would find a way to lose Game 6 at home.
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That’s where Schwartz came in. Just 23 seconds into Game 6 of the opening round of the 2019 playoffs, Schwartz struck again, giving the Blues a 1-0 lead and all the emotional momentum you could handle.
He was not done there. Having scored the only goal of the first period, Schwartz doubled his pleasure by scoring the only goal of the second. This one came on the power play, set up by Tyler Bozak and Vince Dunn.
The coup de grace would be a goal just four minutes into the third period. That gave the Blues a 3-0 lead and a natural hat trick for Schwartz.
Unfortunately, the Blues would need all three of those goals. They allowed the Jets to score twice in the third period, including a shorthanded goal late in the frame.
While the win was huge, the performance was even bigger for Schwartz. There has never been any doubt that Schwartz is one of the more talented players on the Blues, but he never quite hit all the marks the way fans hoped. In this game, he finally did.
Like so many other Blues, including Vladimir Tarasenko, you can see all the talent and potential within Schwartz. For whatever reason, they fail to become the scoring assassins we want.
For all his skill, Schwartz has never hit the 30 goal plateau, even though he is capable of it. He got 28 goals in 2014-15, scored 24 in only 62 games in 2016-17 and had 22 before the season got cut off in 2019-20.
While it is unlikely that Schwartz would have scored eight goals in the Blues 11 remaining games, he still would have come close. The main problem, like Tarasenko and so many others now and before, is Schwartz is actually too good a teammate.
Instead of looking for his shot, he is often looking for someone to pass it to. That’s all well and good, but wingers are supposed to shoot. Let the centers be the playmakers, especially since the Blues have so many talented centers now. That is a luxury they were not afforded in the past.
The Blues need Schwartz to be more of a scorer. It would be more of a luxury than anything to have two 30-plus goal scorers, but Tarasenko should be getting into the 40’s. That’s another matter.
This season, Schwartz was really building off that hat trick performance. He was scoring goals at a solid pace and had the potential to at least tie his personal record for points in a season.
What is more, he was doing it with slightly less ice time. When Schwartz scored 24 goals, he was doing it with almost 20 minutes on the ice.
This season, he was averaging 18:11. That’s four seconds less than his average ice time when he hit 28 goals.
That does not sound like a lot, but it means he is more efficient with his shifts. That saves energy over the course of a season.
Schwartz was exactly what the Blues needed in that game, that series and the playoffs overall. His shooting percentage was 19%. In the clinching game against Winnipeg alone, he shot 75%, scoring three goals on four shots.
That is the kind of player the Blues need. Getting assists and helping your teammates is great, and the Blues are fantastic at that, but they need guys to grab the reigns at times.
Schwartz was able to do that against the Jets. Four of his 12 playoff goals in 2019 came against Winnipeg and three in that fantastic Game 6.
We saw Schwartz carry that over into the 2019-20 season. He reverted a little bit, but all scorers are a bit streaky and he still had a knack for the dramatic, tying his career high with four game-winning goals.
If Schwartz can continue to be that kind of player, coming up in the clutch, then he will continue to be worthy of being on the top trio.