The St. Louis Blues had a monumental collapse against the Nashville Predators in their last game. Would we see more of the same just prior to the Olympic break against the Dallas Stars?
Well, St. Louis made sure we knew they were not that much of a different team even after trading Nick Bjugstad. The Blues didn't even get a shot on goal until the period was almost seven minutes old.
Despite being outshot badly, the Blues managed to get the first goal of the game. Their once decrepit power play has suddenly shown some life, and it was a nice east-west pass that set up Pavel Buchnevich for the snapper from the left circle to make it 1-0.
Dallas would tie it shortly thereafter. St. Louis had an odd-man rush, but passed the puck right into a Dallas defender, which led to a transition for Miko Rantanen. Rantanen then proceeded to draw all the eyes to him, get all the defenders flat-footed, and hit Jason Robertson on the back door for an easy goal.
The Blues gave fans plenty to worry about when they put the second-best power play on the ice. The penalty kill managed to get through the whole two minutes, although Jordan Binnington had to make some key saves to keep it even.
The offense continued to make enough out of a little by scoring on just their fifth shot of the game. With the Stars on a delayed penalty, Jordan Kyrou peeled around and found space on the right circle and whipped it past the blocker to make it 2-1 with just under 90 seconds to go in the first.
St. Louis did themselves in at the very end. Robby Fabbri took a completely unnecessary tripping call with just 4.8 seconds left, and then Dallas scored early in the second period.
The goal was not said to be a power play goal on the television broadcast, but the NHL GameCenter said it was. Fabbri didn't even have a skate on the ice when the goal was scored. Binnington made the stop on the initial shot, but the puck exploded off his left pad right to Matt Duchene, who put it past the outstretched Blues goalie for a 2-2 score at 1:56.
Robertson kept burning the Blues as he just brushed past Dalibor Dvorsky, cut across the top of the crease without being put on his butt, and then took the puck right back from Colton Parayko. Robertson fired a shot that was stopped by Binnington, but Philip Broberg was outmuscled by Mavrik Bourque on the rebound, and it was 3-2 before the four-minute mark.
St. Louis started showing all the cracks. The Stars had chance after chance, and either Binnington made a save, or the team just got lucky, but the offense was gone. St. Louis continued to look like buffoons when they banked the puck off two of their own teammates in front of their own net and then handed it right to the Stars, forcing Binnington to take a penalty just to prevent a goal.
Binnington made a big backdoor save on Roberton on the ensuing power play. He also came up with a blocker save through traffic.
All of that was for nothing as the ridiculous Blues defense left Jamie Benn alone on the left hashmark. He had enough time to go backhand to forehand and then loft it over the goalie's shoulder to make it 4-2.
The second Blues power play was quite pathetic. It featured some of the worst passing of the season, where anything that was a backhand pass was about three feet away from anyone wearing white.
St. Louis also got a late power play, which was a little more threatening, but still managed no shots. They did hit the post - so, they had that going for them...which is nice.
Although things weren't going all that great, the Blues at least showed a little fight in the third period. They got the first six shots of the period, and Jimmy Snuggerud took advantage of a Dallas change and some flat-footed opponents when he sniped one up high from the high slot to make it 4-3 with about nine minutes left.
St. Louis actually tied the game with 4:29 left. They took advantage of a turnover in their own zone and two Stars running into one another. Broberg drove all the way to the net and dropped it to Alexey Toropchenko, who kept the puck on the ice and beat Jake Oettinger past the left skate.
The Blues had a two-on-one with just over three minutes left, and Buchnevich and Kyrou on the attack. Unfortunately, the puck slipped under Kyrou's stick as he tried to unleash what would've been a goal, and we stayed tied.
Binnington stopped a backhander in tight with 48 seconds left, but the Blues just can't finish anything. All five Blues got caught puck watching on a Dallas rush, and they found Benn for the backdoor goal and a 5-4 win.
Con: Net front
One thing we've said about this team all season long is I don't know what they're supposed to do. As far as protecting the front of their net, I'm at a loss.
In other games, we've seen them actually try to clear guys out from the front. They end up in the penalty box or so lost as to where the puck is that it's almost as though they shouldn't bother.
In this game, we saw the polar opposite. Broberg got outmuscled, and it led to a goal. Parayko doesn't body people up, and it leads to a goal. Parayko turns the puck over near the net, and it leads to a goal.
I'm not even saying those players are directly at fault. I'm not here to point fingers, but no matter who it is, everything for opposing teams is coming in close to the net.
Goalies can't trust anything at the moment. Pucks are going off teammates' skates, any rebound is going in the back of the net because there's no clearing, and there's next to no vision because there are sometimes two screens in front.
Pro: Kyrou and Fabbri
At various points in their Blues careers, we've been heavily on the cases of both Kyrou and Fabbri. At least for one game, both of them were St. Louis' best players.
Kyrou scored a goal and picked up an assist. Additionally, he was one of the few who generally made smart plays with the puck and also kept his feet moving while tracking pucks down.
Fabbri, understanding his position within the league right now, has become a physical force. Once nothing but a dangler and occasional scorer, Fabbri led the Blues in hits in this game.
Con: Situational awareness
Whether in these articles or on my sports broadcasts, one of my favorite phrases is situational awareness. It's the ability to understand how to alter your game based on the situation.
You might go all out in an attempt to check an opponent in the first period, but back off that urge in the third period of a close game. You may defend an entire game and then have to turn on the offense right at the end.
St. Louis has regularly been a bad situational team this season, and we saw it against Dallas. Two failures of situational awareness cost them the game.
Firstly, you have the unbelievably dumb penalty by Fabbri at the end of the first period. While playing until the horn or whistle is an admirable quality, the chance of stealing the puck and creating a scoring chance with four seconds left is minimal to none. By reaching around the player, also with your stick near the wall, your likelihood of getting the stick in his skates is immense. That happened, and the Stars eventually scored on that power play.
At the end of the game, you've defended well all period long. You have the Stars on their heels and have tied the game. I don't care what you have to do, you find a way to get that game to overtime.
Instead, the Blues allowed a Stars defender to just skate into the zone and then stare mesmerized as he finds the seam. Nobody had the awareness or trust in their teammate to do the job, so they were all concerned with the puck carrier.
Not only do you allow a man in on the back side, but you have no clue he's back there, and it's also a left-handed shot on the right side. You couldn't ask for a better scenario if you're a Dallas fan and they finished it off. All you have to do is find a man and let one or two players take the puck carrier instead of every back-checking Blue watching the puck and nothing else.
Overview:
I'm not even mad any longer. This team does nothing but fill me with sadness.
They beat themselves. This roster can be a playoff team, and you won't convince me of anything else, but they're forcing the general manager to make decisions that could impact the team for the next few years because they're an entire franchise of headcases right now.
Your personal opinion matters little to me right now. Parayko is a top-pair defender, and Broberg either is or will be very soon. Kyrou should still be a regular 30-goal scorer. Snuggerud is going to be a sniper in this league, and Dvorsky just needs to shore up some stuff on the defensive end, and he's going to be a player to be reckoned with.
However, they're just clueless and lost right now. The fact that you can battle back and tie the game against one of the top teams in the Western Conference in their barn and still find a way to get nothing out of it is amazing.
Binnington didn't have his best game of all time and often looked frustrated, but he made several key saves that kept the Blues in the game. It no longer matters if it's Binner or Joel Hoefer - this team is incapable of stepping up for their goalies.
Nothing has gone right this season, and fixing one thing just opens problems elsewhere. The Blues' defense allowed nothing but backdoor goals early in the season, so they switched defensive styles and got that taken care of a little. Then the offense dried up.
Now, the Blues have nine goals in two games and have scored three or more goals in their last six games. They have one win in those six games because they can't keep the puck out of their net again and are regularly allowing backdoor goals.
What do you do? Seven defensemen didn't work. Alternating goalies isn't working. Switching defensive combinations isn't working.
I think this team is just mentally defeated. They never mentally recovered from losing to Winnipeg in the playoffs, and now, you see it in their body language; they just expect things to go wrong, and they do.