St. Louis Blues Pros/Cons 2024-25 Game 17

The St. Louis Blues needed a rebound performance against the Buffalo Sabres after stinking it up against Washington and giving up the lead late in Boston. Initially, things looked good.

The Blues got the opening goal of the game and Brandon Saad had a much needed score for himself. It was a goal just like the Blues have had good success with, crashing in on a rebound and Saad got it from the deep slot.

However, realistically, the game could have been 2-0 to the Sabres before that. Binnington made an unbelievable save going from right to left to make a pad stop and also barely got a piece of the puck by windmilling his glove hand shortly after that.

Unfortunately, to be fair, Binnington could have been better on the tying goal. Buffalo was on the power play, but Binner cheated off the post just a little and flattened himself along the goal line. The Sabres took the shot since Binnington was playing the pass and it snuck under him to make it 2-1.

The Sabers took the lead late in the period. This time Binnington had no chance on a shot from the right point as he was screened by his own defenders and one of the Sabres. The puck whizzed by over the blocker shoulder and into the upper netting.

The second period was a mixed bag to start. The Blues seemed better but also took an early penalty that threatened to end that momentum.

St. Louis killed it off and tied the game not long after. The Blues got another struggling player on the board, this time with Pavel Buchnevich tying the game. Jordan Kyrou broke into the zone and this time, smartly, dropped the pass to the blue line. Buch took a couple strides to the net and rifled one just under the blocker.

St. Louis took the lead into the intermission as Saad got his second. Another goal from in tight, this time Saad got the puck on the right post after deflecting a couple times, but he banged it in for a 3-2 score.

Although the Blues had the better run of play to open the third, the Sabres tied the game around five minutes in. Somehow that goal got challenged for goalie interference and the Blues won, further proving that goalie interference is the biggest nonsens call that nobody understands and I say that even though it benefitted the Blues here.

The Sabres would eventually get the game tied though. With just under seven minutes left, Buffalo got the puck behind the net, drew the defense and Binnington towards a wraparound attempt that never came and then slid it to a wide open Alex Tuch for essentially an empty net.

Things unraveled in the closing moments. Oskar Sundqvist got called for a goalie interference penalty in the final minute of regulation. The Blues penalty kill did their job for about 90 seconds, but eventually they broke down and Rasmus Dahlin had a onetimer from the right circle over Binnington's right shoulder and the Sabres won 4-3.

Pro: Brandon Saad

This was a solid rebound performance for Saad after being in the doghouse. Saad had limited minutes two games and then played on the fourth line against Boston.

He rebounded with two goals against Buffalo and also played a solid, overall game. He was good on the puck, made sound decisions and rubbed a couple guys off on the boards.

Both goals were gritty too. Saad still has the skill to score some pretty goals, but he was crashing the net and good things happened.

Con: Another injury

The Blues are a team that has to win with a great effort from everyone on the roster. They don't have the upper-level talent to just take teams down with star power.

So, every minute lost is damaging the team because the roster gets thrown into flux. With key players already out and the Blues down two defensemen before the game even began, St. Louis lost enother one.

This time, it was P.O. Joseph to miss the remainder of the game. He had an awkward collision and went into the wall and never returned after being helped to the locker room.

The Blues will be playing a lot of tight games as it is and now they are likely to have to play at least their ninth defenseman in the next game. Nothing was said officially, but the way the season has gone, if he couldn't return to the game, it's unlikely he plays the next one.

Pro: Pavel Buchnevich

Similar to Saad, Buchnevich needed a game like this. He has had assists in several games of late, but it just didn't feel like he was making any kind of impact.

In this game, he actually looked like someone deserving of top-line minutes. He scored a goal, generated a couple quality chances and played solidly on both sides of the rink.

The only thing holding Buchnevich back in this game was his faceoffs. He finished the game 6-11, which isn't that bad percentage wise, but still lost some key draws. Overall, it was a much needed improvement.

Con: Another collapse

If you look at each game individually, the Blues have improved each time after the Washington embarassment. Unfortunately, the end result was the same.

The Blues were up by two against Boston and allowed three unanswered. That's just rough.

In this one, they had a one goal lead, fell behind by one and then another lead going into the third period. Although the game went in a different manner and the Blues did get a point, it still stands out that they lost another game late.

Overview

Nobody wants to hear it, but it should be noted that the Blues just aren't having any luck right now. Outside of the nonsense goalie interference call, the puck just didn't bounce their way in this game.

Kyrou rips a fantastic shot, but it hits the post instead. Maybe the Blues have a two-goal lead late in the third instead of just one.

Fans will almost surely blame Justin Faulk for the tying goal, but what's he supposed to do there? This isn't basketball where you just guard a man. He has to assume the play could go to the far corner and take a spot on the side of the crease. Faulk is playing the correct position if the puck carries over to the other side, but it didn't and the defenders didn't have time to react.

I'm sure idiots online blamed Binnington there too, but they've never played goalie and don't know the difficulty of trying to look over each shoulder to guess where the puck might go behind the net. He made a move that 99% of all NHL goalies would do on the same play and it didn't work out this time.

Once the pass is made to Tuch, there's just no chance for Faulk or Binnington to react quickly enough. If either one of them play it differently, then we'd get on them if Buffalo did carry it around and they were out of position on the other side. Don't judge things based on slow-motion replays.

In a similar vein, it sucks that the defenders screened Binnington for the Sabres second goal. If Binnington sees the puck, he might be able to make the save there. However, with Buffalo often sending two players towards the crease to create the traffic, where are the defenders to go? If they're not on the hip of the offensive player, fans would say they were out of position and yell that they all suck anyway. There's really not much different they could do.

Even the penalty by Sunny was just bad luck. Fans can scream that you can't run over the goalie that late in the game, but it was just ill-fated positioning. Sundqvist got off balance trying to avoid the shot from the wing and fell into the goalie in the process. It wasn't like he just blindly skated into the guy for the heck of it.

Ultimately, the Blues just kind of deserved to lose this game. Had it gone the other way, they also played just well enough to deserve the win, but they played the whole game 50/50, so whatever the result was would have been fair.

St. Louis just doesn't have the depth to absorb all these injuries. They've spent a lot of energy in comeback attempts in previous games and now you've got guys playing up and down the lineup with no consistency because the coach doesn't have any other option.

Right now we are likely to see Leo Loof play in the next game and not because he's earned it. He's going to play because St. Louis will have lost three defensemen in that scenario and that's not counting not having Torey Krug all year.

You're without your top center (possibly your only real center on the roster), you lost your second-best defenseman in Philip Broberg and this team just doesn't have enough to overcome all that. They were a borderline playoff contender with everyone healthy.

What stings is not taking advantage of a team in a similar boat. Buffalo didn't have Tage Thompson nor their normal starting goalie..

Even though they scored the first goal, there just wasn't enough offense in the first period. Win or lose, it's the same mistakes every game.

The disappointing thing right now is that, unlike so many other fans, I don't believe this team is as bad as it looks. However, almost nobody on the team is playing with confidence, so everything snowballs.

It may take some random final score like the Ottawa game, but in reverse, to get them out of this funk.