The St. Louis Blues have done a lot of scoring of late, regardless of whether they won or lost. That finally dried up against a team that is struggling to make the final playoff spot in the Nashville Predators.
Though they were physically present, the Blues seemed to have left their brains in Chicago. It was an unwelcome return of some of the early-season problems that plagued the team.
Nashville scored the first goal in the first five minutes. St. Louis got caught puck watching, allowing Tommy Novak to cut from the slot to the circle and roof one over the near shoulder of Thomas Greiss. It was a play that should have been stopped early and also stopped by the goalie, but we had a 1-0 score.
The second goal came about three minutes later on the power play. Greiss had no chance this time around since it was deflected in front, but it showed the continued struggles of Blues penalty kill.
Though the period ended 2-0, the Blues put up absolutely no fight other than a brief scuffle from Sammy Blais. Three shots on goal is beyond ridiculous and that’s what the Blues had.
Speaking of poor special teams, the Blues inability on the power play cost them a lot. Not only did they not score on any of their power plays through two periods, but they gave up a shorthanded goal to make it 3-0 as well.
The Predators ended the period with another two goals in one frame, making it 4-0 after 40 minutes. The fourth goal was simply lazy defense as nobody kept their feet moving, allowing the initial puck carrier to regain a loose puck near the goal line and nobody boxing out the man cutting to the net who scored.
Nashville technically had a fifth goal. It was denied after a challenge for being tipped with a high stick though.
The Blues finally got on the board with a little over 11 minutes left in the third, but it was as much luck as anything. Calle Rosen got one through traffic from the blue line and it went off the cuff of the goalie’s glove and then off his leg to make it 4-1.
St. Louis could not capitalize on that goal with any kind of momentum. Three minutes later, the Predators restored the four-goal difference when Colton Parakyo had a horrendous turnover on a cross-ice pass in his own zone. This led to a partial break on net, Greiss couldn’t corral the puck and the Preds scooped in the loose puck for a 5-1 score.
The Blues just stunk in the end. They allowed another power play goal to make it 6-1 and that would be the final.
Cons: Special teams
The entire season has been a roller coaster ride for the special teams. The penalty kill was good and the power play was awful and then they’d swap.
In this game, it was just poor all around. St. Louis completely lost the special teams battle and lost the game because of it.
0-4 on the power play is just unacceptable in an entire game and the Blues had four power plays in the first two periods. Making matters worse, the Blues actually had three power plays in the second period alone and did nothing.
Not only did they do nothing, but they allowed a goal. I have an irrational magnetic pull to like anyone who wears the number 25, since it’s my favorite number.
Jordan Kyrou tests that. Offensively, the kid is dynamic, but he just takes too many plays off. If he stays involved in the play, that puck does not get past him and no shorthanded goal is scored against. It was not a great pass by Kasperi Kapanen, but Kyrou just let his mind or his eyes wander.
I don’t even know what to say about the penalty kill. This time around, I couldn’t find a specific thing they did wrong on the first goal other than possibly challenging the shooter earlier. But, the fact they continue to allow a power play goal against in almost every game is just frustrating.
The second power play goal was just letting the Predators get moving too much. It’s too hard to react when you’ve had a player fall down and you’re trying to keep a compact, defensive box. That combination let Phillip Tomasino drive in from the point and get a shot off from the circle. It was likely deflected off someone or something, but he can’t be allowed into that area with such ease.
Overview
You may notice the lack of any pros. It’s odd because we’ve seen far worse games, despite the 6-1 score, but I just didn’t see anything to really pull as a positive.
Nobody had a good game. You couldn’t win a faceoff – only won 25% of their draws.
They couldn’t get shots on goal and when they did, it wasn’t a test. Saros only had to make 21 saves and you could maybe make the case that five of those were even resembling difficult.
St. Louis had no sustained pressure. They were credited with 20 hits, but other than a few flurries of activity and some scraps, there wasn’t any intensity to this game.
The Predators were the better team and the team that wanted it more, which is understandable since they’re still in the playoff hunt. However, you’d like to see some fight and some fire to stick around.
The Blues had no interest in this game. Subconsciously, I think they were holding back since they know the Boston Bruins are in St. Louis to face them on Sunday.
But, when you lose 6-1 to a borderline playoff team, it doesn’t give people much hope that you can do any better against the best team in the league, even if you play your absolute best. We’ll all watch and suffer through it, but that game could get extremely ugly.
This one was bad as it is. If the special teams do ANYTHING positive at all, maybe the game has a different complexion. They did not and here we are talking about another ugly loss.