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Again, first things first, I want to wish all Blues fans well and safety of both their belongings and more importantly themselves as the region again has historic flooding. This is likely the quickest repeat of historically flooding in the area as the region is at levels very similar to that of New Year’s 2016. Stay safe.
Big surprise but the Blues controlled 5v5 play, outshooting the Predators in high danger shots 7 to 3 and in mid and high danger shots 16-14 and yet still lost. Overall, the shots were more slanted to the Blues, 11-4 in high danger chances and 25 to 18 in mid and high danger chances. The Blues had an expected goal differential of almost a goal (0.85) but still lost. The Blues outshot the Predators by about one third, 33-25, yet still lost. This continues a trend I have noticed over the last two playoff seasons as the team that often wins the “statistics” battle, more often than not seems to lose.
Another big surprise, the Blues had a number of quality chances early in the game and failed to bury any of them. As I mentioned in the prior blog, they have to start taking advantage of their strong starts otherwise the starts are meaningless and actually build the confidence of the opposition. Don’t believe me? Did you realize the Blues had the first seven shot attempts of the game?
The Blues best scoring chance of the 1st period comes with a little over two minutes left when Alex Pietrangelo puts a shot on net from point. Jay Bouwmeester gets the rebound and fires one into Rinne’s leg pad and then puts his second rebound to his right, into Pekka Rinne’s chest. It he shoots that straight or to the left, it’s a goal but a stick check from Mattias Ekholm seems to limit his ability to put the puck where he wants.
Like the 1st period, the Blues best chance in the 2nd period came near the end of the period. This time, on the power play with less than 45 seconds to go in the period, Alexander Steen lets a shot go from the top of the point which deflects right to Paul Statstny who lets a quick shot go. The rebound goes to Jaden Schwartz in the low slot. He can’t bury the rebound as he appears to partially fan on the shot. As the puck bounces around off bodies, Ryan Ellis goes down to the ice on the goal line and prevents the puck from going in. What people seemed to fail to mention is that Ellis is the one who almost propels the puck into the net before he makes the desperation save. Look closely around 1:27 in this
clip to see the play. Pietrangelo gets the rebound off Ellis and slides his backhand right back into Rinne.
Earlier in the 3rd period, the Predators almost score on a poor shift by the Reaves/Lehtera/Upshall line but a phenomenal skate save by Jake Allen keeps the game scoreless. See it at around 1:45 in the clip above.
About 4 minutes into the 3rd period, somehow (I have no idea how), Dan O’Rourke and Jean Hebert decide that the Blues should be shorthanded as a result of a scrum near the Predators bench. On the resulting power play, in what can easily be seen as a trend, the Predators score a power play goal about 5 minutes into the 3rd period with a shot from a defensemen with a lot of traffic in front of Allen, just far enough outside of the crease to avoid an interference call but close enough for him to be able to smell their stinky hockey gear.
With about seven minutes left in the 3rd period, the Blues allow a very bad goal due to lazy play all around. Colin Wilson chips the puck out of his own end. David Perron has a clear advantage in getting to the puck but stops skating and makes a lazy chop at the puck, trying to force it over to Carl Gunnarsson. Neal is able to get his stick on the pass because of the poor play by Perron. Compounding the problem, Gunnarsson gets caught reaching, flat footed as Neal moves to the right side. Both Perron and Gunnarsson pursue Neal but don’t actually make a play on him. Perron’s stick is on the wrong side, blocking a pass that can’t happen as there are only two Blues players over there and Gunnarsson basically just sets a screen on Allen. Regardless, Allen has to stop this shot but doesn’t allowing Neal to score on what essentially was a 1 on 2.
The Blues didn’t quit and got a goal back from Joel Edmundson with under 4 minutes left on a blast from the left circle. Some of the Blackhawks fans on here have said they wish they had a Parayko but I bet Chicago’s management wishes they had an Edmundson as well. His development really seems underappreciated in many respects.
Many Blues fans will bemoan the officiating as the reason the Blues lost. Don’t get me wrong, It was terrible and it contributed to the loss, but to say that the coach and team don’t own responsibility in the loss is incorrect in my humble opinion. I knew it was going to be a long officiating game when I saw te ignoring of penalty calls that start in this replay, starting at 26 seconds in this
clip illustrates things well. Note how Calle Jarnkrok trips/chops Bortuzzo down as he goes through the front of the crease. Bortuzzo then takes a stick to the face from Colin Wilson after Wilson slashes and break Alexander Steen’s stick. All of this results in a good chance and possession for Nashville and a painful shot block by Steen. The officials miss all three Nashville penalties on one play and it leads to nicking up Steen even more than he already is.
Last night was a great example of how officiating in the NHL is poor, subjective and completely inconsistent. Take a look at the Washington vs Pittsburgh game last night. With less than two minutes left in a one goal game, TJ Oshie’s stick hits Nick Bonino in the shoulder and Bonino snaps his head back and grabs his mouth like Oshie may have knocked out 4 teeth. The officials buy the act and penalize Oshie for high sticking, effectively ending the Capitals comeback chances.
Perhaps worse yet, look at the Oilers vs Ducks game last night. With the Oilers up 2-0, the Ducks score a goal as a result of Corey Perry interfering with Oilers’ goalie Cam Talbot. You can watch the goal
here. At the 32 second mark of the clip, note that the shot is already halfway to the net as Perry makes contact with Talbot’s chest and right leg. Somehow, after a lengthy review they determined it to be a good goal. A big turn of events in a game that the Ducks later won in overtime.
As I mentioned earlier this week, Game 4 was yet another game that either team could have won but the Blues just didn’t get it done. The Blues coaching staff and team continue to fail to adjust in this series. They haven’t adjusted to the officiating (holding and interference is ok, retaliation is not). They haven’t adjusted away from collapsing down low and leaving too much time and space for the Nashville defensemen. The forecheck strategy has been ineffective pretty much all series. The penalty kill has been struggling as well.
I hope to see some lineup changes tomorrow night. Zach Sanford may have the talent but he needs to add a lot of strength to be effective in a series like this. Don’t get me wrong, the loss was not on Sanford at all. He had more shots than David Perron, the same as Patrik Berglund and at least wasn’t minus like those two were. Perron and Berglund had a poor playoffs to date without a goal among them. It’s hard to win when the two guys on your “second line” aren’t producing anything.
It’s a great day for hockey.
Fellow Hockeybuzz blogger
Minnesota Wild's Dan Wallace agreed to a 1st round, friendly charity wager. Since the Blues won, Dan will be making a donation to Dream Factory St. Louis (http://dreamfactoryincstl.org/). Dream Factory grants dreams to critically and chronically ill children from the ages of three to eighteen. They have one of the highest program expenditure ratios I have ever seen, an amazing 97% is used for actual program services. Usually, more than 3% is used for administrative and fundraising efforts but not at Dream Factory.
Fellow Hockeybuzz blogger
Nashville Predator's Paul McCann has agreed to continue to pay it forward with me with a bet on this series with the Predators. Paul has chosen Best Buddies of Tennessee (https://bestbuddies.org/find-programs/tennessee/) as his charity. Best Buddies works to establish a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and development capabilities.
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