One of the last times the St. Louis Blues actually had a good game, they faced the Vancouver Canucks on the road. They were hoping for a similar performance against them on home ice.
Similar to the Detroit game, the Blues came out well and scored first. With the first few shifts played fairly evenly, perhaps slightly favoring the Blues, it was Dylan Holloway to score through the legs to make it 1-0 at 3:23.
Sadly, also like the Detroit game, the Blues allowed an unfortunate goal. Jordan Binnington was rushed on a forecheck, and the puck was knocked away by Evander Kane. It went off the side of the goal and in front of the goal line, where Blues killer Kiefer Sherwood banked it off Binner's pad and glove and in to tie the game.
The Blues gained a power play late in the first and nearly scored on a Dalibor Dvorsky one-timer, but that rang off the post. It should be noted that the Canucks hit the post shorthanded just moments before.
Thankfully, the power play did get it done on the other side of the break. Jimmy Snuggerud drove into the zone on the right wing after a cross-ice pass, and he rang one off the bar and in to make it 2-1.
The Blues were playing well and were the better team through most of the run of play. You could sense things coming through as the Blues kept giving up rush plays. Eventually, a bad line change led to a breakaway for Sherwood, who connected on his second of the game and fourth against the Blues to tie it 2-2. For the second straight intermission, it was tied.
Sherwood ended that just over seven minutes in. The Blues continue to have bad luck as the Canucks came in on the right wing, broke a stick on the shot, and it just fell right to Sherwood, who used two Blues as a screen and rifled it over the shoulder of Binnington to make it 3-2 Vancouver.
The Blues gained a power play around the midpoint of the period. It looked like it would go by the boards, but a shot from the middle went off the blocker and came to the right, where Pius Suter knocked it in for a 3-3 tie.
St. Louis had a flurry of chances with a little over four minutes left. Mathieu Joseph drove the net, but came up empty on the chance. The Blues couldn't take advantage of the defender without a stick when they allowed a frozen puck after a couple of good looks.
It looked like the disaster was on with 2:42 left when the Canucks scored on another lucky bounce off the Blues defender and went right to Kane. The Blues challenged for goalie interference, won, and it remained tied. The Canucks looked more like scoring late, but the game went to overtime.
In overtime, both teams created rushes for the other team by missing the net and rebounds coming out of the zone.
In the shootout, Kyrou got stopped on a backhand, and then Sherwood hit the glove-side post. Snuggerud came in with speed and shot it right into the pad. Binnington stopped Elias Pettersson with the right pad.
Then the Blues lost in Blues fashion. Brayden Schenn didn't even get a shot off as it just trickled into the corner off his stick. Jake Debrusk sealed it with a low shot that won the game 4-3 for Vancouver.
Cons: Shootout
I don't care how entertaining people think it is; ending a game in a shootout is ridiculous. I know they can't play until they drop in the regular season, but no other sport ends a game with a one-on-one competition.
Overtime is a joke as it is, dropping it down to three-on-three. Again, I don't care about the openness and speed. It's not hockey at that point. Missed shots literally leave the zone and end up in the back of the net elsewhere.
However, in this game, the shootout was particularly bad. Jordan Kyrou comes in on net, dekes and dekes and dekes and then telegraphs a backhand shot the entire way.
Snuggerud at least just wired a shot and hit the pad. The Schenn "attempt" was just embarrassing. It would be amusing if the team weren't in such a rut, but it was another example of nothing going their way at the moment.
Pro: Early Dvorsky
Whether Jim Montgomery was unhappy with his play or it was just how the game went on, I didn't see much of Dvorsky in the second half of the game. In the early part, he was good.
Dvorsky looked solid at center and won 69% of his faceoffs. He was fast and did not look overwhelmed by the moment.
Frankly, Dvorsky was unlucky not to get a goal in this game, and even Monty said he thought it was coming. He slammed one off the post to end the first and had a couple of good chances in the second.
Con: Bounces
I've reached a point where I don't really believe in luck. It's mostly a mental state that we use as a crutch to explain bad things.
However, there's no denying that the puck won't bounce the Blues way right now. Other than the goalie interference call, it seemed like all the little bounces went the Canucks' way.
Even though Kane's goal didn't count there, it went off a Blues defender and right to him. The first goal hits the side of the net, could have gone anywhere, but goes right to Sherwood.
You can make the case that the Blues need to stop reaching or just dump pucks out, but it's hard to focus when you're scrambling and pucks end up right on the opponent's sticks.
Pro/Con: Power play
The Blues got two power-play goals. That's a good thing, and they can say that was a big key in getting them a point.
However, their penalty kill allowed a goal, and the power play also gave up several shorthanded chances. When the power play did not score, and even for long periods when they did, it looked inept.
Overview:
This team really has me at a loss. I don't mean to take it personally because they're not loafing or not trying to give fans their money's worth. However, when we as fans lose sleep by staying up later than we normally would to watch, and in my case, discuss the game, it sucks to keep getting these results.
What are they supposed to do at this point? We say bad defense, but they only allowed 18 shots on goal. That's pretty decent defending to keep the puck away, but every single mistake ends up in the back of the net.
St. Louis is getting decent goaltending from Binnington. He made some good saves. Ideally, he would've re-established his positioning better on the first goal, but that's such a scramble for a goalie that you just want to get where you can see the puck. It didn't work out. When most of the goals aren't his fault and you only face 18 shots, how can he improve his stats when he has zero chance to make the save on these grade-A looks?
The Blues were the better team over the course of the game. However, as we've seen all blasted season long, every mistake costs them, and they don't make the opponent pay for theirs enough.
I don't know what to ask of this team. They don't allow many shots against. They had nearly 40 shots on goal themselves and still came out on the short end.
It still remains about confidence and body language. You can tell they're a team expecting something bad to happen. Until they find a way to crush an opponent and not even give them a sniff at hope, these types of endings will remain.