Follow @stlgoalie
The Blues are fumbling points away more frequently than former Rams quarterback Tony Banks who had 21 fumbles in 14 games in 1996. Last night they blew 3-1 and 4-3 third period leads before losing in overtime, causing a 3 point swing. This meme sums up the Blues season to date:
The Blues have held 3rd period leads in 6 of their 8 games and were tied with under a minute in 1 of the two remaining games yet they only have a record of 2-3-3. I think Jake Allen nailed some things last night in his comments after the game. Allen said “We’re scared to lose games right now….……Playing the third period like were scared to lose the game and you know, if you lose you lose, but we got to go down swinging..…..This loss is on us.… He added “we were (on our heels) the whole third period. They pushed hard. We knew they were going to come with a push. There a really good hockey team. We set back and they took advantage. It was in our own fate and we ended up losing the game. It was up to us. They didn’t beat us. We beat ourselves.…
When Allen asked about the team being tired, he said we “shouldn’t be tired tonight; divisional game against a great hockey team in a fun building; 3-1 lead when you should be chomping at the bit; couldn’t ask for a better position to be in and we let it slip.…
Coach Mike Yeo said “it’s disappointing… and talked about how they “gave away 2 or 3 points… between the Montreal game and last night. Sorry coach but in my humble opinion you own some of that disappointment. I’ll get into that more later but for now we’ll look at the good, the bad and the ugly of last night.
The Good - The combination of David Perron and Ryan O’Reilly appears to be working well and Zach Sanford doesn’t look out of place with them. See for yourselves on this goal and on this play (sorry all but imgur embedding isn’t working) that was started by Dunn. - Speaking of O’Reilly, I continue to be more impressed with his game as the days go by. He added 1 goal and 2 assists last night. - Speaking of Dunn, he made the most of his 15 minutes with a goal and an assist and 5 shots. Watch his goal here - Colton Parayko scored another goal on a bomb of a shot from the point though he got zero power play time (more on that later). Watch the goal here. The Bad - Jay Bouwmeester was on the ice for all 4 regulation goals against and it was ugly. Banking the puck into his own net due to terrible positioning here, screening Allen on this goal, getting lost and losing his man on this goal and icing the puck which led to the game tying goal. - The kid (Blais, Kyrou and Barbashev) played less than 23 minutes combined, partially because of the amount of special teams and partly because of coaching’s poor management of minutes in my opinion. - Jaden Schwartz was poor last night, going -2 with only 3 shots and a giveaway even though he played over 19 minutes with over minutes of power play time. People aren’t talking about it but hasn’t been effective or good this year with only 2 assists in 6 games and only 12 shots on goal. His play on the game winning goal was terrible as he lost his defensive zone coverage which led to the easy goal.
The Ugly - The Blues are now 2-4 in games in which they led in the 3rd period. - The Blues lead the league in goals against per game in the 3rd period with 15 in 8 games (22 in the other 2 periods combined). - The Blues lead the league in goals against in overtime as well. - The coaching staff’s management of minutes. Schwartz had been poor all night and all year but gets 2 shifts in OT? Perron only got 1 and Maroon got none. - As much as I want to see Kyrou in overtime, he wasn’t a real option as he never really got into the flow of the game as he only got about 7 minutes of ice time. - Speaking of minute management, how does the coaching staff explain giving Bouwmeester almost 21 minutes of ice time? Some will say they gave the minutes to him instead of Schmaltz and Dunn but I see a better way to manage it. Give Pietrangelo’s 3:31 of power play time to Parayko who had none, putting him at about 23 minutes of ice time. Then reallocate Dunn, Schamltz and Bouwmeester’s even strength ice time so that Dunn and Schmaltz’s totals stay the same while about 3 minutes of Bouwmeester’s even strength time shifts to Pietrangelo. Pietrangelo plays the same, Parayko plays more (all on the power play) and Bouwmeester plays less. - Jake Allen is facing the 5th most high danger chances per minute. His ratio of high danger shots to all shots is 4th highest in the league (only Bishop, Elliott, and Ward are facing a tougher shot mix). - The play on the 6 on 5 goal was atrocious and Yeo agrees, saying “we didn’t play the 6 on 5 the way we ae supposed to play it, way too passive.…
The start to the Blues season has been frustrating to say the least. If the ship continues to muddle through the Western Conference seas, you can bet there will be a new coach at the helm come 2019.
NHL Champions for Charity We’ve gotten some traction on the charity wager among the Central Division bloggers. More on that to come.
It’s a great day for hockey.