The St. Louis Blues aren't that bad of a team. They can outplay the best teams in the league for long stretches.
Unfortunately, they often have to play a flawless 60 minutes to pull off the win. They did not get a flawless 60 minutes in their second game of the season against the Minnesota Wild.
As proof of that, the Blues came out in the first few minutes against the Wild and dominated. They had a few early chances and didn't even let the Wild into the offensive zone for about two minutes or so.
Nevertheless, as has been the case throughout the season, the Blues let in the first goal. St. Louis lost a puck battle at center ice and then got out-physicaled for the puck. Ryan Hartman flung a shot from the right circle and it snuck under the right pad of Jordan Binnington for a 1-0 lead.
St. Louis outshot the Wild in the first and outplayed them overall, but were down going into the intermission. The Blues would tied the game, but not until the second period.
Scott Perunovich continued a good run of form, scoring his second of the season. He sprang into the attack through the middle of the ice as the Blues skated up the right wing. Jordan Kyrou found Perunovich on the left circle and he snapped a shot through to make it 1-1.
The Wild came at the Blues with gusto for much of the rest of the period. The Blues failed to clear the puck on three occasions on the same play, but Binnington made some good stops to keep it tied.
Things felt pretty even overall, but it went south in the third period. Minnesota opened the scoring about six minutes in.
The Wild were on the power play, but it had just elapsed as the shot was taking place. Kirill Kaprisov had an unbelievable deflection on a shot from the right circle to make it 2-1.
It felt like the game was slipping away, but the Blues plugged away and earned a power play. They tied the game about four minutes after the Wild goal.
Robert Thomas fired a pass from the point to Pavel Buchnevich on the right circle. He was lined up for a shot and then slipped a pass to Jake Neighbours on the back door and it was 2-2 with the Blues seemingly lined up for at least a point even though the period was only half over.
That feeling was short lived as the Wild re-took the lead three minutes after. Jonas Brodin got credit for the goal on the slap shot, but it just knicked off the diving Nathan Walker, having the Blues tip in yet another goal against their own goalie.
St. Louis should have had a four minute power play somewhat late in the period. All four officials somehow missed a high stick on Braden Schenn where he bled.
Kaprisov added an empty net goal late in the contest. The Blues were right there with the Wild, or better than them for stretches, but just had far too many mistakes that cost them. Minnesota won 4-2.
Con: Clearing the puck
The St. Louis Blues are improved defensively whether fans want to admit it or not, even with their current injuries. However, like a football defense that never gets off the field because the offense goes three and out on three pass plays, the Blues shoot themselves in the foot and force themselves to do way too much defending.
As mentioned, there was one offensive play for the Wild where the Blues had at least three opportunities to clear the puck and couldn't. In a rare instance, it didn't cost St. Louis on that time, but it still tires guys out.
On Minnesota's second and third goals, the Blues had chances to get the puck away and didn't. You can't give good teams second opportunities and St. Louis did that far too much.
Pro/Con: Jordan Binnington
The Wild haven't made the splashy free agent signings, but somehow they've built that team into a sneaky contender. They have the offense to carry them when needed too.
So, the Blues always knew they'd see quite a few chances against them and that was the case as the Wild had 28 shots on goal. Several of those were high quality shots, making Binnington come up with some good saves to keep the Blues in the game.
He made one glove save particularly that felt like a game changer at the time. It seemed like the Wild had an easy back door goal, but Binnington got the glove hand over and it barely went off the cuff to keep it out.
That said, if we're going to point out the players' mistakes that cost the team, one mistake by Binner was costly too. He's just got to save that first goal.
I'm not taking anything away from the shot and Hartman has been a Blues killer. That's a shot on the ice and close enough for Binnington to make the stop. He makes that stop regularly, but in this instance, his pad just didn't seal on the ice.
It's been that kind of year for him and the team. He, and they, play well enough to win, but just have that one poor play that goes against him.
Con: Costly mistakes
Call it luck. Call it mistakes. Call it whatever you want.
The bottom line is that any poor play seems to cost the Blues. That continued to be the case in this game.
Turn the puck over at either blue line and the Wild were right there to take advantage. Lose a board battle and it's heading the other way to the Blues' defensive zone.
I'm not picking on him because he's been very good and played a good game against Minnesota. However, he essentially allowed the empty netter. He could have either sealed the boards off or stepped into Kaprisov so that he could not leave the zone. Instead, he reached out with just the stick, making it a 50/50 battle at best.
Kyrou wasn't alone. The Blues coughed the puck up in an odd spot on the Wild's first goal too.
You go to make a block on the third goal and end up tipping it in. In general, there are just too many turnovers.
There were 12 statistical Blues giveaways on the game sheet. If the stat sheet showed that many, who knows how many times the Blues turned the puck over. I've seen games where they listed it as five or seven and I counted 15 turnovers, or more.
If it's clear that you can't make mistakes, you can't make mistakes that were easy to clean up.
Overview
The Blues are not a great team, but they're not a bad team. Perhaps that's where the disconnect with so many fans are.
There is a vocal minority that would prefer this team just be bad so they go with nothing but a youth movement. That's a different discussion, but the reality is there's talent enough to play with the best in the NHL and often the Blues do. For whatever reason this season, all their mistakes seem to end up in the back of the net.
If either goaltender is off, or even merely human, then the Blues can't seem to win. That's what the case was against the Wild.
Binnington lets in one bad goal and the Blues don't end up recovering. I like their tenacity in that they did come from behind twice, but they give themselves no margin for error.
The constant push to find an answering goal is clearly sapping the energy out of this team. They're forced to rely on their top lines for huge minutes and their top lines are inconsistent at best.
Even more than any other year, you have to look to the build up play rather than just the 5-10 seconds right before the goal. Binnington deserves blame for the first goal, but what about the turnover near the offensive blue line and then getting out worked on the Wild zone entry?
There were two or three things prior to the other goals that could have changed the outcome of those plays too. This team has put themselves in a spot where they have to play flawlessly to win and they're not good enough to have a flawless performance.
St. Louis was clearly better with Robert Thomas in there. The faceoff percentage was much better and the puck movement on the power play actually existed.
Again, it shows they have no room for error. Many teams can't absob the loss of their top star, but the Blues really have a dropoff without their only true center at this stage of their careers.
Fans will continue to look for answers, but there just aren't any right now. Fire Drew Bannister for Jim Montgomery if you want, but it won't have that much of an impact.
Some say blow it up and give all the kids a chance. No offense, but we've seen Cardinals prospects put in spots they weren't ready for and it derailed them. Let's not ruin some of these Blues prospects by forcing them into the NHL on a team that is unlikely to help them succeed at this very moment.
This team has to weather the storm of its own making. They're going to be right around .500 because they're a .500 team for the most part. They can go on a run, but they're not going to have a ton of wins and suddenly find themselves.
Clean up the mistakes and better results will happen, but that's easier said than done.