St. Louis Blues Pros/Cons 2024-25 Game 16

The St. Louis Blues were coming off one of their worst performances of 2024-25. For the second time in a month, they lost by a score of 8-1.

They were looking to rebound, but the Blues often struggle against struggling teams and the Boston Bruins are in a similar boat to St. Louis. However, the Blues got off to an ok start.

They were not perfect, allowing an unguarded backdoor shot that missed the net in the first minute. The Blues also took an offensive zone penalty on the forecheck, but an important Jordan Binnington save on David Pastrnak kept it scoreless.

The Blues best chance came with Jordan Kyrou set up on a breakaway almost seven minutes in. He went to the backhand and put it wide.

Unfortunately, the offense continued to be missing in action. After having the first three shots of the game in the first couple minutes, the Blues only had three shots the rest of the period.

The Blues were still on their heels to open the second. They took a penalty in the first 90 seconds and only some Binnington saves and a head-scratching miss on an empty net kept the game tied.

For once, St. Louis finally took advantage of that good fortune. About midway through the period, the Blues finally got a powerplay goal at home. The pass came from the right circle, hit Jordan Kyrou for a one-timer in the slot and then Brayden Schenn knocked in the rebound for a 1-0 lead.

The astounding power play struck again. Moments after Oskar Sundqvist was denied on an even strength play, he got set up for a backdoor play to make it 2-0 as the power play was winding down.

St. Louis had an early chance in the third period. Nathan Walker came in on an odd-man rush, but hit the post with the shot to the blocker side.

That missed chance haunted the Blues as the Bruins came down about a minute later and scored. Boston barely connected on a cross-ice pass and Morgan Geekie snuck the shot along the ice just past Jordan Binnington's skate.

The Bruins kept up the pressure and eventually tied the game almost halfway through the third. An awkward zone entry by Boston on the right led to a scramble near the circle. The Bruins fed it back to the point where they scored through a double screen of Blues players.

With just over four minutes left, the Bruins had a clear look from top of the crease as Brad Marchand put one toward goal. Fortunately, Binnington kept his right pad on the ice and made the stop.

Binnington couldn't stop them all though. With 1:46 left, the Bruins got a shot from Pastrnak on the left circle and it just barely slipped through the elbow for a 3-2 lead. That would end up being the final.

Pro: Power play

Give credit where credit is due - the power play finally showed up in this game. St. Louis had been 0-20 with the man advantage on home ice and had not scored a power play goal, overall, since October 24.

So, to finally break that streak is pretty good by itself. To get two goals was even better.

I fully realize it's easier said than done, but both goals showcased what the Blues need to be doing with more regularity. Instead of trying to set up pretty plays with someone on the dot like Alex Ovechkin, they need to get pucks to the net and look for rebounds.

One could argue that the Sundqvist goal was a typical Blues-style play where they looked for the backdoor, but they still got the puck deep into the zone and got the defense scrambling. It wasn't your typical one-and-done kind of stuff.

Con: Third period

Statistically, the disparity for the two teams doesn't show up in the third period. Shots were 11-8.

However, tell me how many grade-A chances the Blues had in the third period. When did they have sustained zone time and really tire out the Bruins?

They didn't. The third period was an example of exactly what has been wrong with the Blues this season.

Like a football team that relies too much on its defense, the Blues gassed themselves. Maybe they had eight shots, but I can't remember a clear situation where they had multiple looks or kept the Bruins in their defensive zone.

It was the typical one shot and out stuff and then the Blues were the ones defending, even though they had the lead. Somehow they played into Boston's hands, even though they were up by two goals.

Overview

I don't know how to feel about this game. It was a better effort, but it's still a disappointing loss.

Overall, I'm just tired of a lot of things surrounding the Blues. I'm going to be blunt - if you blame Jordan Binnington for this loss, you know nothing about hockey and even less about goaltending. Come at me if you want, but that's the reality. I'm sick of seeing texts or social media posts that are as braindead as anything out there.

I'm also tired of there being a lack of context for fans of this team. A loss is a loss, but I'll take the way the Blues lost to Boston over the Ottawa/Washington result any day.

Yes, it's frustrating to see them falter in the third period and not have sustained success overall. However, sometimes you just can't get past yourself. Sometimes athletes and teams just go through periods where the harder they try, the worse things can get because they're not doing the simple things.

Blame Binner if you want, but why is one of the elite shooters left wide open for slap shots not once, but twice on the same play? Why does this team play with grit and determination for 20 or 30 minutes here or there and then revert to the style that gets them into trouble?

Where are the stars? Schenn had a goal and Kyrou had an assist and a big check in the third period, but what are they doing to really impact the game? Where is Pavel Buchnevich? Even when fans were hardest on Vladimir Tarasenko, at least he was having some impact on a game or a shift. Buchnevich is nowhere to be found.

This isn't a bad loss. It's just a loss. Coming on the heels of being destroyed by Washington, it was a better effort and there were positives to be had.

The issue is that this team could be decent if they were fully healthy, but no team is ever really fully healthy. So, if they can't find ways to win more often, it may not matter by the time Robert Thomas and Philip Broberg get healthy.

The Blues have to find a way to generate more offense. They're not devoid of talent, but you wouldn't know that with the paltry shot totals they produce. On to the next one though.