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3/8, Blues at Coyotes - Recap

March 8, 2013, 3:49 PM ET [11 Comments]
Chip McCleary
St Louis Blues Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
My 3 Stars of the Game - can't argue with the selections, but I think the order should be more like this:

1. David Perron, STL - very easily the best game he's had this year. That was the way he needs to play every game; he does that, and he'll open up space for himself to score goals.
2 (tie). Patrik Berglund, STL; Chris Stewart, STL - putting either guy as the #3 sort of underscores just how good they both were last night.

The good
-- The Blues offense made an appearance.
-- The line of Perron-Berglund-Stewart. Add that to (when it comes back) McDonald-Steen-Tarasenko, and that could make life hell for opposing teams.
-- Allen didn't give up bad goal after bad goal.
-- Sobotka just plays his usual game - which at some point is going to get fans to take him for granted or expect more out of him.
-- Jaden Schwartz showed why he was taken in the 1st round in 2010.
-- After going up 3 goals, the Blues didn't relax and let the Coyotes back into the game.

The bad
-- The ice in Phoenix. I'm not sure if they have the worst ice in the league, or St. Louis does - but it was arguably responsible for Pietrangelo's turnover that led to the Moss SHG.
-- Oshie/Backes. At times they look fine, at times they look like a square peg and a round hole; last night was more of the latter.

Miscellaneous Thoughts
-- Several posters in the GDT took offense of my criticism of Jake Allen, even going so far as to claim that I gave Halak and Elliott a free pass for their poor play. Elliott hasn't gotten a free pass; when he's made mistakes, I've said as much. Halak had a poor game vs. Los Angeles, and I said as much. However, fundamentally both guys are in position to make stops much of the time - it's then just a question of whether they do it.

Allen? Go back and look at last night's game (and really any of the 4 before that). Way too often, he's leaving a not-so-small gap at the posts, he's going way down on the butterfly and leaving the upper half of the net open, he tends to overcommit at times on the play (though it wasn't as frequent last night), ... folks, those are not "well, he's getting adjusted to the NHL" things. Those are the same things he's done throughout his AHL career - things he should have learned not to do by now. As I pointed out in one response, he's 4-1-0 and has had 18 goals scored for him in the 4 wins - but he's also given up 11 goals in those 4 W's. While winning has a way of masking mistakes he makes, can he really step up and limit his mistakes and keep the opposition off the board if the Blues offense goes back to 2 goals a game? I'd love for him to prove me wrong, but right now I see trouble down the road if this is a sign of what to (continue to) expect from him.

-- Is my position with Allen inconsistent with the ones I have about other young players on the roster? IMO, no - but again, I'm OK if others don't see it that way. Here's the difference between the two: if you're in the NHL and trying to get adjusted to the speed of the game and learning how to be in good position against much more skilled players than you've ever seen before, I expect some mistakes. If you don't know to stay against the post when the opposition has the puck to the side of the net to prevent a shot at that post, I don't know how being in the NHL vs. the AHL suddenly changes your ability to figure that out.

-- If we really do have a pair of scoring lines when everyone is healthy (as described above), it raises a question: what do you do with Backes and Oshie?

-- Did you realize that the Blues are averaging almost 3 goals a game (68 in 23, for 2.95 GPG) right now - and that averages out to 242 over a full season (or 36 more than they netted last year)? The team doesn't have a scoring problem - it has a "scoring consistently" problem.

-- Did you also realize that the Blues currently have six (6) healthy guys on pace to score more points over a full 82-game schedule than last season's team leader (Backes, who had 54)? Stewart is on pace for 71 points over 82 games, Perron is on pace for 68, Shattenkirk for 61, and the trio of Oshie, Pietrangelo, and Backes for 57. Steen was on pace for 73, and Tarasenko was on pace for 58. You're going to be hard pressed to find a team that has 8 guys threatening to hit 60 points and doesn't have enough guys scoring goals.

-- Finally: I'm not sounding an alarm, but in the first 12 games of the season Barret Jackman played 20 or more minutes just twice. In the last 10 games, he's been at 20+ minutes 8 times. That potentially says something about how much the coaches (don't) trust guys not named Pietrangelo or Shattenkirk.


Next up San Jose, tomorrow afternoon at 3pm (NHL Network, so no GameCenter). Allen will almost certainly be back in net, so we'll see how he handles the Sharks the 2nd time around - and vice versa. Sitting in 8th with the Sharks in 6th, and with Anaheim waiting on Sunday, the Blues need at least 2 points out of this weekend.
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