The St. Louis Blues didn't have much time to ruminate about choking in the last minute against the Dallas Stars. They traveled from Dallas to St. Louis just prior to a snow storm and had to be ready to take on the Los Angeles Kings.
Unfortunately, they weren't really ready. The Blues only had seven shots on goal and they seemed to be moving with cement in their skates. There was little to no speed or even ability to lit the skates off the ice.
On the other side, the Kings weren't lighting things up. They only had five shots, but they got one to hit the back of the net.
St. Louis continued to be weak around the blue lines. After losing a puck battle at their own blue line, the Kings came in with the Blues flat footed and beat Joel Hofer up high on a shot from the slot.
When the Kings scored 1:11 into the second period, the game seemed lost. St. Louis lost another board battle where they had the numbers advantage and yet let the opponent kick the puck off the wall to a teammate. LA then scored from a left-point shot through a screen.
That actually woke the Blues up. A turnover in the Blues zone led to a rush up the ice and Dalibor Dvorsky roofed a shot over the goalie despite having three players tracking him down. It was 2-1 just a little over a minute after the Kings goal.
St. Louis kept their power play hot (at least hot for them) with another goal at 6:30 of the second period. Hofer made a glove save with the Blues on the power play, but tossed it back out to Pavel Buchnevich to keep things alive. St. Louis went on a rush play where it went from Jimmy Snuggerud in the middle to Buchnevich on the left and he found Brayden Schenn on the right for the power play goal to tie it.
Then St. Louis took the lead less than two minutes later. Jordan Kyrou got sprung through the neutral zone, used his top-notch speed to truck around the net and finished off a wrap around to make it 3-2.
Unfortunately, the Blues couldn't hold the lead. The Kings tied it about two minutes later when the pass went from the near post off the end wall to the other post and lifted it over Hofer for a 3-3 score.
St. Louis played a decent third period, creating some chances including a great backhander from Philip Broberg that was barely stopped by a glove save. However, the Kings came right down after that play and took a 4-3 lead on a rebound goal after Hofer made the stop through traffic, but couldn't get the pad down to stop the second chance.
St. Louis challenged for offside, but lost. They did kill the penalty to at least give them a chance down the stretch in the final five minutes.
It seemed like things weren't going to go their way. They weren't generating much and then pulled the goalie prior to a faceoff. We'd seen countless times where they lost the faceoff and immediately allowed the goal.
Instead, St. Louis won the draw and actually got set up. An initial scramble was stopped, but the Blues cycled it back out. Justin Faulk hammered a slap shot off the right pad and it went to Kyrou on the circle to slot it into the empty net for a 4-4 score with 2:10 to go.
The game went to overtime and seemed like it would be a snooze fest where the Kings just kept reloading. However, a good poke check sprang a breakaway for Dvorsky, but he couldn't lift it over the goalie.
Then, both teams created chances back and forth as the overtime looked more like what the league intended when it switched to three-on-three. Good saves on both sides forced the game into a shootout.
The Kings scored on their first shot as they just shot right under Hofer's pad. Jake Neighbours deked himself out of room and did nothing.
Hofer made the next save and then Kyrou did the same thing as he stickhandled until he had no room. It looked like the Kings won it, but it hit the post and somehow missed Hofer's skate.
Dvorsky continued his great night as he scored on a backhander to keep St. Louis in it. The Kings scored from the hashmarks on their next shot and Snuggerud got stopped as the Blues lost in the shootout.
Pro: Dvorsky
When the Blues began the season, the general consensus was that Dvorsky wasn't quite ready. He didn't show enough in preseason, seemed a bit overwhelmed and it was decided that going down to the AHL was best.
Once he had the opportunity to come up to the Blues due to some injuries, he's made the most of it. He now has nine goals on the season and also scored the team's only goal in the shootout as well.
What I like about his game is the overall fact he has given the Blues no reason to send him down. Injuries have not even put the Blues in that spot to decide, but there's no reason to put Dvorsky back in the AHL at this point. He's earned his spot.
Con: Sluggish and sloppy
I understand the Blues were playing back-to-back with travel included and played a heavy game in Dallas. This was also one of the few games in recent weeks where they weren't ready early on.
However, it's just too reminiscent of the entire season. A slow start where the skates aren't under you, the other team scores a goal and then you're playing catchup.
Even in the second period, where it was likely the Blues best period, you grab a lead and can't hold it. Things happen in every game, but when the same things consistently pop up, it's annoying.
Pro: Kyrou
Other than the nonsense he pulled on the shootout attempt, Kyrou had a great game. He had two goals, including the game-tying goal.
His overall game was sharp too. He made the small plays you ask of a forward, including a good backcheck where he stopped a Kings scoring chance.
Nobody is asking Kyrou to be a physical juggernaut. We're not even asking him to be one of the best defensive forwards like Ryan O'Reilly.
He needs to score and if he's not scoring, you need to be able to see the effort in other facets of the game. We saw that in this game.
Con: A loss
It goes without saying that losing is a bad thing. For the second night in a row, however, the Blues did enough to win and just didn't.
I could go on my customary rant about overtimes and shootouts, but the bottom line is that they battled, scored some goals - even got one on the power play - and it still wasn't enough.
Overview:
The issue the Blues are going to have with performances like this is it's far too late. You have to games like we just saw against Dallas and now LA back in early December and maybe you make the case the Blues are turning a corner.
Ken Hitchcock, as well as some other coaches, used to say sometimes you have that really heartbreaking loss where you deserved to win but didn't just prior to a big win streak. It would be nice if that happened, but as I said after the Dallas loss, it's just not going to happen.
This current version of the Blues has to have almost every thing go right for them to win. Things didn't always go right for them against Dallas or the Kings and both games ended in losses.
If we want to look at the glass half full, we can say the Blues aren't at their best and hanging in there with teams battling for playoff spots, but the cold, hard truth is they lost. They need points, and did get one point, but if they wanted to charge up the standings, they have to get wins.
The team is capable of it. We saw it last year. Maybe that was a fluke or maybe they're just so beaten down from the loss to Winnipeg that they never fully recovered mentally.
Whatever the case may be, they just don't seem like they can get that bit of magic to end games. Frankly, it was a shock to the system when Kyrou got the goal to tie it.
St. Louis got great goaltending from Hofer again, but I also didn't like some of the goals he gave up. We need to get to a point where we can say we didn't like a goal and not automatically have others assume we're blaming the goalie, but it's the truth. He kept the Blues in it when they could have been down a few, but also didn't come up with a big save in the shootout.
I'll openly admit this game feels better than the Dallas loss because the Blues got a point and threatened in overtime as well. It's still a loss, so that's sour grapes.