The St. Louis Blues continue to be a puzzling team with puzzling players. While we all knew the Nashville win wasn't going to cure everything, St. Louis quickly returned to their struggles against basement teams.
Despite dominating the Buffalo Sabres for the most part, the Blues found themselves down early to the worst team in the Eastern Conference. In what would become a theme, faceoff wins proved to be important.
St. Louis lost a draw in their own zone and Buffalo went tic-tac-toe for the first goal nearly seven minutes in. It was a shot pass to a wide open man on the back door, giving Jordan Binnington no chance.
What made matters worse was that Buffalo's first shot on goal after St. Louis had decent pressure up to that point. For whatever reason, Binnington hasn't been able to get any rhythm early in his starts.
It got worse for the Blues as they lost the early special teams battle. The Blues failed to score on their first power play, despite some good chances. Meanwhile, Buffalo scored on their first power play when the Blues didn't close down on Tage Thompson in the slot and he snuck one past Binnington's armpit.
St. Louis took another penalty moments later, making it feel like they'd be down 3-0. Luckily, the penalty kill did their job for a time and drew a penalty, pushing it to four-on-four.
This time, a Blues faceoff win led to a goal. A quick draw went to Colton Parayko who fired the shot. The puck snuck through the goalie's legs and Brayden Schenn was able to pop it in to make it 2-1.
It stayed that way into the second, but not for more nervous moments. St. Louis almost scored on an early wraparound attempt by Parayko and a rebound chance for Oskar Sundqvist. Then Buffalo got a breakaway almost nine minutes in, but the Sabres shot high to keep it a one-goal game.
Buffalo got another breakaway about 15 minutes into the second. This time, Binnington managed to get his left arm/shoulder on the puck to keep the scoreline the same.
Both teams traded chances in the third. Robert Thomas rang one off the crossbar from the slot in the first minute. About 20 seconds after that, Buffalo got a break down the left wing, forcing a save from Binnington.
Just when it seemed like it wasn't going to be their day, the Blues finally tied it. They drove the net, only to be stopped. The puck popped to the right and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made a swiping save with his glove arm. However, the puck stayed loose and Nathan Walker jammed it in before Luukkonen could cover and it was 2-2 with over 13 minutes left.
About two minutes later, Buffalo almost retook the lead after a deflection in front went off the post. St. Louis took a penalty on that same offensive pressure and the Sabres would score then. Jason Zucker went from the crease to the slot to open up for a one-timer that made it 3-2.
It got worse shortly after. With the Blues pressuring, Buffalo set up a breakout, and Justin Faulk mistimed his step-up, allowing an easy zone exit. Binnington mistakenly set up for a cross-ice pass, which kept the five-hole open and allowed it to be 4-2 on a shot when he thought to pass.
St. Louis got screwed late. They should have made it 4-3 with a backside Robert Thomas goal, but the referee was in poor position to see the puck and blew the play dead, assuming the goalie had the puck when it was never even close to cover.
The Blues managed to keep great zone pressure in the final minutes but didn't threaten the goal very well. Buffalo took the W by a final of 4-2.
Con: Binnington's luck
Lots of detractors will blame Binnington for this loss. While I'm not among those people, I can't deny that there's just something off right now.
Number one, the offense just doesn't seem to show up for him regularly. People will say Hofer won against Nashville, but he also let up four goals on about 20 shots. The Preds ended the game with 30 shots, but they just started throwing anything at the net late.
Hofer got seven goals in support and the Blues played with a big lead most of the game. Conversely, the Blues fell behind in this game and never got the lead.
But even the most fervent Binnington fan can't deny that he needed to be a little better. The first and the third goals aren't stoppable unless the puck hits you.
While it was a good shot, I'd like Binner to make the save on Thompson and the fourth goal was just a killer. Likely, the Blues don't tie it anyway, but that's just a bad look to try playing the pass and have the shot go through your legs.
Pro: Creating chances
I'm not going to blame this game on bad luck because the Blues offense could have been slightly better. However, you can't ignore the fact that they got to good areas of the ice and put 37 pucks on target.
They forced a lot of defending from Buffalo too. The Sabres needed a lot of their 23-shot blocks to keep St. Louis off the board, and they also had good sticks in the lanes for passes.
The Blues ran into a goalie on a hot night. The same offensive output on most nights gets them three or four goals.
Con: Special teams
Blame the goalie if you want, but this game boiled down to special teams. The Blues power play got nothing done and the penalty kill didn't do their job.
I give credit to the shots that scored for Buffalo, but the build-up was not great hockey by the Blues PK. The Sabres have the 29th-ranked power play in the league and they were passing around St. Louis like the Blues were training cones, especially on the second power-play goal.
You don't even need the eye test to tell what happened. St. Louis went 0-4 and didn't even challenge the goalie after the first power play. Meanwhile, Buffalo went 2-3 on their power play.
Overview:
Oddly, I'm not overly depressed about this loss, but I'm at a loss about what this team needs to do. There's just no consistency whatsoever.
While the win over Nashville was fun, it still showed the flaws of the team. As mentioned, the final box score might say 30 shots against, but Nashville did all their scoring on a limited amount before the Blues defense stepped up to keep more things from the perimeter.
In addition to the special teams, it can't be denied that goaltending proved to be the difference. One need look no further than the first period. Thompson sneaks one through the armpit of Binnington, and later, Luukkonen makes a save that was labeled to go through the armpit.
The offense is there one night and gone the next. Defense is fine one night and not the next. The bottom line is that this team basically has to play from in front.
They have the tenacity to come from behind, but it's too much to ask game after game. They played with a lead against Nashville, and all their mistakes got covered up with a win. Play a similar game against Buffalo but fall behind, and everything gets magnified.
You just can't have this type of hockey right now. The Blues are putting together a few wins here or there, but they can't stay above .500 by enough due to their poor start. They're at a place where it's going to take more than two-win streaks or even four out of five.
They need points in like seven or eight straight, with most of those coming from wins. Additionally, it's another loss against a bottom feeder. I could argue that Buffalo is more talented than your average basement dweller, but the reality is that they had 30 points before this game. The Blues, for all their flaws, are still within clawing distance of Dallas and even Colorado, but they can't get out of their own way.
They better put their foot on the gas early in the Winter Classic. St. Louis may be unbeaten outdoors as a franchise, but given their track record against teams below them, it could get ugly in Chicago if they're not careful.