The St. Louis Blues needed to clean things up if they hoped to get a win over the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers tend to take advantage of just about every type of mistake that the Blues tend to make.
The game started reasonably well with the Blues outshooting the Oilers through the first 12 minutes. Unfortunately, it's often about the quality of chances, not just numbers.
Edmonton struck first with 7:35 left in the first when the Blues had some sort of weird line change going on. Colton Parayko had gone off, but the Blues had two of their left-side defenders out there and the confusion left Corey Perry wide open in the middle for a deflection and a 1-0 lead.
Things went rather poorly in the second period. The Blues were doing a decent job, overall, of containing Edmonton, but the Oilers did what they did, which was take advantage of mistakes.
Jordan Binnington had a poor exchange with Philip Broberg and the Blues proceeded to turn the puck over. That led to Connor McDavid being set up in the slot and he buried it for a 2-0 lead.
Then the referees handed the Oilers a power play with about six minutes left in the frame. The goaltender made no attempt to get out of the way, but the officials still called it goalie interference even though Skinner was about three feet outside the crease.
McDavid set up Zach Hyman on the back door for the power-play goal. It was 3-0 going into the third period.
St. Louis had their best shift of the game a little over two minutes into the third. Robert Thomas, Pavel Buchnevich and Jordan Kyrou kept connecting on passes and a couple chances on goal, but the tips either went wide or got stopped.
The Blues kept up the pressure, however, and would get rewarded. After keeping the puck alive in the offensive zone, Thomas found Dylan Holloway in the slot with a nice backhand pass. The former Oiler roofed the shot over the glove hand and it was 3-1 with over 14 minutes left.
The Blues got their first power play of the game with about nine minutes left. Although they could not score on the five-on-three, Kyrou did snap one off Jake Neighbours and past the goaltender from the right hashmark and it was 3-2.
Unfortunately, the momentum was stonewalled with 5:42 to go. The Oilers just chucked a puck at the net from the right-side wall. Either Jordan Binnington didn't see it clearly or got screened, but it got past his arm and it was 4-2.
The Blues pulled their goaltender, but only really threatened once. The Oilers held on for the two-goal win.
Con: Binnington
Let's get this one out of the way. As someone who played the position, albeit not at the highest level, I do a lot of defending of the goaltenders. However, I can still call it like I see it.
I do not think the Blues lost because of Binnington. They did prove that it's very hard for them to win if he or Joel Hofer are not at their very best.
It was just an off night for Binner. He looked solid for the first half of the game, but once he lost his swagger, he seemed off.
That fourth goal was just a head-scratcher. None of the camera angles shown showed what happened, so we can only assume he took his eye off the play for a split second. That's all it takes from a goalie's point of view since even the most minute change in position can have a huge impact.
Nobody is stopping those backdoor plays, but the fact the puck kept squeaking between the pads seemed to affect him too. He got bailed out on both times, but he seemed a bit rattled by it.
Pro: Battle
The Blues were not great in this game, but they played well enough that they could have won. What I liked about the team game was their ability to battle.
They could have easily rolled over in the third period, already down three goals. Pack things up and head west to prepare for Vancouver.
Instead, the Blues fought their way back into the game. I'd like to have seen how the game ended if it stayed 3-2 for longer, but those are the breaks.
Overview:
We can finger-point and use the blame game all we want. The bottom line is this was just one of those games.
The Blues played well enough. They limited the Oilers' chances and outshot their opponent by a decent margin in the first and third periods.
You hold the defending Western Conference champs to 21 shots and have 31 yourself, you're going to come out on top more often than not. Instead, the Oilers capitalized on every break and the Blues didn't.
That first goal set the tone for the game. Not only did you have six players on the ice and then down to four when the goal scored, but you had three defenders out there at once and the two that stayed were both lefties who never play together. The miscommunication there was monumental. Perry simply cannot be that wide open.
Everything that could go wrong did go wrong on the second goal too. The handoff from goalie to defender was poor and then Broberg fires a puck off Parayko that goes to the best player in the league in the worst spot on the ice from a Blues perspective.
The third goal came from a play that should never have been a penalty. If goalies come out of the crease, they should be like any other player and Skinner not only didn't move but purposely made himself an obstacle. That's just not the spirit of the interference call.
We discussed the fourth goal. It was a killer no matter what happened.
On the flip side, the Blues had chances and couldn't capitalize. They had partially open nets and never even got shots away. They had plenty of rebounds pop loose but never had someone in the right spot.
Even with all that said, they had an opportunity to come back and possibly win. It just wasn't in the cards on this night.
Ultimately, this team still needs some roster shifts that can't come until the offseason. However, even as a doubter, I have to say things look better under Jim Montgomery.