For a team that cannot rattle off three wins in a row, having a three-game losing streak is a death sentence. What is going on with the St. Louis Blues?
With losses to Vegas, Dallas, and Vancouver, their record now stands at 23-24-4 for 50 points. The Blues still sit five points out of the last wildcard spot (Calgary, 55 points).
Let’s try and dissect what happened this week.
Losing to really good teams
Let’s face it, the Blues played three teams that deserve to be in the playoffs. Vegas is amongst the front-runners for winning the Stanley Cup, Dallas could be their opponent in the Western Conference Finals, and Vancouver could overtake Calgary easily.
That said, it is no excuse for this team. The Blues have proven to be a solid team when they want to be. This week just showed how inconsistent and unstable they are, which could have an impact on the upcoming trade deadline in March.
Special teams failures
If there is one thing that stood out above all else over the last three games, it is the failure on both sides of the special teams. The Powerplay was an abysmal 1/8 and the penalty-killing unit allowed four goals on seven opportunities. Much less, Vancouver was able to get a shorthanded goal as well.
You cannot win hockey games if you don’t take advantage of the man-advantage. The Blues are ranked 24th in all of the NHL in power play percentage at 18.8 percent. They also only have 22 powerplay goals on the year, which is ranked 28th in the NHL.
This has to be addressed sooner rather than later.
Poor Goaltending
There has been poor goaltending by both Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer over the past three games.
Both saw just about the same amount of time over the past three games, with Binnington starting against Dallas and then getting pulled halfway through against Vancouver. Hofer saw action in the losing effort of the home-and-home against Vegas and saw 30 minutes of action against Vancouver in relief of Binnington.
Similarly, Binnington allowed five goals on 37 shots and Hofer allowed four on 41 shots. Both gave up early goals and put the Blues in an uncomfortable situation in the opening minutes. They both could not hold it down for their team to succeed.
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