St. Louis Blues Pros/Cons 2024-25 Game 10

The St. Louis Blues had a great, gutsy performance against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first game following an injury to Robert Thomas. To say it's gone south since then would be generous.

The Blues had a stinker against a still rebuilding Montreal Canadiens team in the very next contest. They had an opportunity to get things off to a better start playing against the Ottawa Senators, but that didn't even come close to happening.

The Blues fell behind 1-0 just 64 seconds in. Following a turnover in the offensive zone, Pavel Buchnevich gave a half-hearted effort to get back defensively and his man was the one to chip it past Joel Hofer for the opening goal.

Hofer bailed the Blues out again just moments later as he stopped a Brady Tkachuk breakaway, but the Senators already smelled blood. They connected on what was sort of a rush play. This time it was Braden Schenn who got caught. He was reaching to lift the stick of the initial attacker, but failed and then he was caught unaware that there was a trailer on the play. Schenn also accidentally deflected the ensuing backhand shot, which ramped over Hofer's shoulder for a 2-0 lead.

St. Louis earned a power play due to some fiesty play, but it was two minutes wasted. The Blues could barely get into the zone and definitely could not hold the zone for more than a second or two.

It got worse later in the period. St. Louis turned it over in the offensive zone, trying to drop it back towards the blue line. Tim Stutzle took it down on a two-on-one and scored himself when Brandon Saad couldn't get enough on a poke check attempt. It was 3-0 with about five minutes left.

Jordan Kyrou had the Blues' best look with about 2:36 left in the first. He drove the net from the left wing and fired a shot to the far post, but it glanced off the goaltender's left elbow and into the corner.

Hofer made a point-blank save with 90 seconds left and the Senators rang one off the crossbar after cycling it around. However, it just wasn't going to be his night.

Although the Blues had some early spark in the second period, the wheels continued to fall off. The Sens got two power play goals, both by Tkachuk. The first one came after a failed clearance led to two quick passes and an easy shot from the slot. The second one nobody closed out on Tkachuk and he snapped it over the glove shoulder.

St. Louis pulled Hofer and put in Jordan Binnington and he got scored on almost immediately. The Blues poke checked the puck right to Ottawa behind the net. The pass in front led to a deflected shot that went over Binner's glove hand and it was 6-0.

The third period was a lot of nothing as the Blues tried to press, but Ottawa was just keeping them at bay with relative ease. The Senators made it 7-0 when the Blues failed to track Stutzle coming into the zone on a chance and he was able to get one high on Binnington.

The Blues finally got on the board and on the power play no less. After some quick passes (wow, that actually works), the Blues found Dylan Holloway in the middle and it was 7-1

St. Louis couldn't close the game out smoothly though. Bolduc fanned on a breakout pass and it went right to Adam Gaudette in front of the net for an 8-1 score.

Con: Power play

Don't let the stats fool you. Most games, you would take a 1-3 night on the power play.

However, the two they failed to score on were just awful. Smart fans know that good power plays only score once every five power plays on average (give or take). It's acceptable to not get goals if you're pressuring and tiring out the opposition.

The Blues looked like children out there. They'd dump the puck in and Ottawa would just corrale it and chuck it down the ice. There was almost no chance the Blues would track the puck or hold the zone.

You couldn't even complain about over passing because they didn't even have the puck long enough to pass it.

At this point, the Blues need to elevate the second unit until the first unit can prove they're worth their salt. They've scored the only two power play goals on the road trip.

Pro: Dylan Holloway

In a game where just about everyone was pretty bad, Dylan Holloway showed up. He scored the goal, got some rare chances for the Blues and got physical.

Holloway was mixing it up after the whistle, trying to spur his team in some way. It didn't have a ton of effect, but you can't blame him for the effort.

Overview

I could have listed so many things as individual cons for this game, but the entire game was just a gigantic dud. That's putting it mildly too.

The penalty kill continues to stink at all the wrong times. Yes, you were facing the best power play on home ice in the league, but it was stagnant.

Guys weren't moving enough, got drawn out of position and failed to realize where the dangerous guys were. They could not take away the seam passes and the goals were just too easy.

Additionally, the turnovers were just horrendous. Every game has giveaways, but the Blues should be given assists on some of the Senators goals since they led directly to scores.

The effort from Buchnevich and Schenn on those early goals was just not acceptable from veteran guys. They're the ones you want to lead by example and it wasn't there on those plays.

I don't understand how this team continually doesn't "have it" in the start of games. Everyone knows when the puck drop is and they all know the Blues have not been good to begin games, so that should be the focus. We've reached the point where fans would appreciate a 0-0 first period for once.

Jeremy Rutherford tweeted out that the Blues have fallen behind by two or more goals in seven of their 10 games so far. I don't care if you won or lost, but that's just not a stat that will lead to many wins at all this season.

There's no answer for what they need to do either. They allow early goals, so you can't say just focus on defense because it's not just allowing a ton of shots against.

You can't say focus on the offense, because they can't get many shots due to being under pressure on the other end. The Senators had two goals long before the Blues even had two shots on goal.

You want to say this was just one bad game, but it's the repeated mistakes that make this more than that. The Blues don't have the ability to overcome those mistakes right now, so somehow they have to eliminate them.

As the announcers said, if you win on Thursday, it's still 2-2 on the road trip, but you're losing to mediocre teams. The fact you're getting vastly outplayed by teams that are likely to miss the playoffs is disheartening, even with the injury issues the Blues have right now.