The St. Louis Blues should have had plenty of jump and energy with an extra day off before their game against the Boston Bruins to open their road trip. You'd have thought that would have been the case, but you'd be wrong.
St. Louis had an "ok" start to the game, but as usual, their best shifts came from the fourth line. At this point, I'm tired of this team allowing guys who won't get 20 goals on their best year to be their best players.
Conversely, St. Louis relied on Jordan Binnington to bring back his 2019 form with some big saves in the opening half of the game. It wasn't enough, though, as it became the Alex Steeves show.
Jordan Kyrou didn't get the puck deep enough on a line change, and Boston came out on a break. A three-on-two became a two-on-one against the flat-footed Blues and the Bruins set up a backdoor goal that gave Binnington no chance.
About five minutes later, it was 2-0 when Morgan Geekie scored. This time, Philip Broberg lost a board battle, somehow both defenders ended up in the right corner and the Bruins hit the man in the slot for a one-timer.
The Blues looked like they would turn things around in the second. Pavel Buchnevich had a roof shot goal on a great behind-the-net feed from Colton Parayko to make it 2-1 at 1:59.
Instead of bouncing back, it went downhill from there. The Bruins rattled off three unanswered goals.
Victor Arvidsson rifled a slapshot over Binnington's shoulder around six minutes in. Pavel Zacha got one at 12:26 and then scored a power play goal with 0.2 seconds left in the second period, and it was 5-1 going into the intermission.
The way the game and the season have gone could be summed up on a play about four minutes into the third. Brayden Schenn was open on the halfwall and just held the puck until two Bruins converged on him, and he ran out of options. Boston stole it and went the other way.
The Blues gave it the old college try with a goal about nine minutes in. Pius Suter was denied by an unbelievable kick save, but Dylan Holloway took the rebound around the goal and found Suter for a one-timer in front. It was 5-2, but Boston came back and forced more Binnington saves on their next two shifts.
Ultimately, the Blues didn't do anything of consequence at the end of the game. Even with it only being a three-goal game, Jim Montgomery didn't see enough to pull the goalie and even went so far as to play two defenders and rookies during the team's final power play.
Cons: Misleading stats
If you only looked at the stats after the game, you'd wonder how the Blues managed to lose. If you're inclined that way, you'd also likely blame the goalie.
After all, St. Louis won the shot battle 39-27. After two periods, they had more offensive zone time and more high-danger chances. Reality told a different story.
I'm not sure what the statisticians were watching, but the Blues were one-and-done most of the night. Joonas Korpisalo rarely had to make any stops on rebounds or scramble plays. He saw the vast majority of his saves cleanly.
Meanwhile, maybe Binnington only saw 27 shots, but he wasn't stopping any of those five. If you want to be harsh, maybe he stays on his feet longer on the Arvidsson shot, but that's still a headhunter and difficult to save.
What good is offensive zone time when you're not connecting on your passes into the danger areas or forced off to the perimeter most of the time? The stats favored the Blues, but nothing else indicated they had a chance.
Con: Second period
In years past, when the Blues have struggled in the second period, you could say it was due to the long change. They were often caught on the ice and tired. This season, they don't really even have that excuse.
Sure, there's plenty of those where they don't clear the puck, or they don't get it deep enough, but that happened in the first period too. In this game, they were just soft and couldn't even contemplate stopping the bleeding once it started.
The goal to make it 3-1 may have come about four minutes later, but the Bruins started pushing almost immediately after the Buchnevich goal, and St. Louis never had an answer.
On the first Zacha goal, the Blues lose a board battle in the offensive zone, and then there's not a Blues player within three feet of the puck the rest of the way down. Nobody challenged the Bruins through the neutral zone, and by the time Zacha hit the blue line, both defenders had to back off because he had momentum and they were caught. Ideally, perhaps Cam Fowler challenges more, but these guys are so afraid of allowing someone around them that they give too much space in front of them and just end up equally inept.
I just don't understand how even if you get the goal early in the period to make a game of it, you completely lose the plot and allow three goals on eight shots.
Overview:
At this point, I don't get what the Blues' goalies are supposed to do. With the exception of the first couple of weeks of the season, both Binnington and Joel Hofer have been stealing points for this team.
But the Facebook frauds that masquerade as fans continue to say it's goaltending and (insert goalie name) has been weak all season long. Watch the games for a change instead of just looking at the stats.
Hofer and Binnington have terrible stats this year, but what's Binnington supposed to do? Even if you say he might want one back, that's still four goals on 26 other shots, and he had no chance on any of them.
Binnington and Hofer are the only two giving this team any chance most nights. Even Montgomery said in the postgame that Binnington was the team's best player despite the score.
Offensively, it's a farce right now. I don't care if you put in Patrick Roy or Marty Brodeur right now. You're not winning if this team can only score one or two goals a night.
They're mediocre five-on-five, and the power play either rattles off five goals in four games or goes two weeks without a goal. That might be hyperbole, but not by much.
Looking at the stat sheet, it's nice to see close to 40 shots, but again, how many were actually troublesome for Korpisalo? For as many shots as he faced, it didn't feel like he had a very large impact on the game.
The Blues have to figure this out, and the only ones that can are the ones wearing the sweater. The coaches have given them the game plan, and they're not doing enough. We're all sick of hearing the same answers after a game, but nothing changing.
Something has to change. Losses are rarely as close as the finals might look and wins aren't even that much fun. More often, they're a brief relief when they do happen.