Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie Sorry for my absence earlier this week but we have been dealing with some family matters.
The Blues completed their home stand in disappointing fashion, losing their last two games and three of their last four by losing 4-1 to the Kings last nights. The Kings got goals from players you would expect to score with Tyler Toffoli netting two and Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe getting the others. Patrick Berglund scored his first goal of the season and the lone Blues goal of the game.
I wasn’t able to watch the game and from what I have heard the statistics are very misleading. While the Blues outshot the Kings 40-28, dominated the adjusted corsi at 62.5%, and won the xGF game, most fans and media people didn’t seem to think the Blues played very well. One of the media pundits made a comment about Darcy Kuemper making 20 saves without breaking a sweat. Others seemed to think that while the shots were lopsided for the Blues, the quality chances were lopsided to the Kings.
In looking at the first Kings goal here, I think most fans will note the error made by Jay Bouwmeester. I think many fans may also think that Carter Hutton makes a relatively poor attempt on what appears to be a fairly simple move. I wonder if Vince Dunn’s line on the play contributes to that happening.
As Dunn is chasing the play, Dunn decides to take an angle to the back of Toffoli which is not the propoer chasing play. By doing so, he ends up falling in line behind Toffoli and allowing Toffoli to have all options open. Dunn should have taken a line straight to the net. This line would allow Dunn to make up distance as Toffoli cuts toward the net. Dunn may still not have made up enough distance to take aware Toffoli’s cut to the far post but it was his best chance to limit the forwards scoring options. I wonder if Hutton assumed Dunn was going to be able to take away the cut across as an option so he over played the backhand shot. Hutton needs to play the situation true but defensemen often help out goalies by taking away scoring options, so often that sometimes you assume they are going to do so and then they do something different. On the Kings second goal, Alex Pietrangelo fails to clear the rebound nor does he tie up Kopitar as he is crashing the net for the rebound. Your potential Norris winning defensemen is hopefully allowed a gaffe every once in a while.
Berglund cut the lead to 2-1 on a power play goal on what surely is a set play. With the puck on Parayko’s stick at the point, Berglund cuts through the high slot, looking for the deflection and the two Blues execute the play perfrectly. Watch it here.
Less than 4 minutes later and with just over a minute left in the 2nd period, the Kings moved the lead back to 2 when Kempe scored with a long wrist shot through Joel Edmundson’s legs. As a goalie, I hate these shots as they are just so difficult to pick up sometimes. By the way Hutton reacted after the goal, the partial screen likely had an impact on the play. What I don’t understand on the play is why Edmundson didn’t step up into Kempe as he crossed the Blue line. The Blues had Stastny and Parayko back with Sobotka quickly coming back. I’d much rather him be aggressive there given the Blues outnumbered the Kings. I mention this because earlier in the year, the defensemen were doing this. Lately, I’ve seen a lot more needless gap expansion, respecting the other forwards too much and I don’t like it.
Hutton was pulled between periods leaving Jake Allen to be hung out to dry on a miscommunication and misplay of the puck by both Dunn and Parayko midway through the 3rd period. Allen had no chance on Toffoli’s 2nd goal of the game. Watch it here.
The Blues will need to put this out of their minds quickly as they travel to Minnesota to take on the Wild tonight. This will be two weeks in a row that the Blues have faced the Wild on the 2nd night of back to back games. Unlike last week, this time the Wild will be well rested, not having played since their Thursday night victory over Vegas. The Blues will be looking to win their 13th in a row in the 2nd day of back to back games and their 20th out of 22.
The Wild have split their two games since the game against the Blues last week while the Blues of course went 0-2.
As a reminder, Charlie Coyle, Eric Staal, and Zack Mitchell scored in the 6-3 loss to the Blues last Saturday. For the Blues, Jaden Schwartz had two goals with Dmitrij Jakin, Samuel Blais, Kyle Brodziak, and Paul Stastny each adding one.
There likely won’t be a skate today so lines will be a bit of a guess but I think it is fair to assume that coach Yeo will continue to throw them in a blender, partially due to getting more players back and up to game speed and partially due to the lack of success the team has had lately. Of course, you can bank on Allen being your starter.
It’s a great day for hockey.
Fellow Hockeybuzz bloggers Nashville Predator's Paul McCann, Winnipeg Jet's Peter Tessier and Minnesota Wild's Dan Wallace have generously agreed to a friendly charity wager. We were hoping to do the whole division but don't have it fully represented yet. The blogger whose team finishes the highest the standings at the end of the year gets to pick a charity to whom the others will donate in their name.