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Blues lose a winnable game, face a tough test tonight

April 18, 2019, 3:09 PM ET [15 Comments]
Jason Millen
St Louis Blues Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT


The Blues and Jets series followed a familiar pattern on Tuesday night. As has been the case in every game so far this series, the team that won the special team’s game and the hits game lost the actual game. None of the winners of the face-off circle have won a game either (they tied one game). The team that has scored first has lost three of four. The loser of the giveaways has only lost once (one tie). The loser of blocks has only lost once (one tie).

On Tuesday, the Blues scored 1st, won special teams, had more hits and dominated in the face-off circle and had more blocked shots, so of course they lost.

The Blues dominated the 1st 10 minutes or more but were unable to score with Robert Thomas coming the closest, redirecting a pass off the far post and out. The second period saw each team control play for stretches without scoring a goal with Jordan Binnington getting the edge of his trapper on a Brandon Tanev breakaway chance, sending the puck just high enough to catch the crossbar and stay out of the net.

The second period ended with the Blues outshooting the Jets 24-19 and with the Blues on the power play. Vladimir Tarasenko would give the Blues the lead just 35 seconds into the third period.

The Blues kept up the play for another three or so minutes before starting to retreat into a defensive posture with the Jets upping their play and intensity. With less than 13 minutes to go in the game, Alex Pietrangelo goes to press a neutral zone hit rather positioning himself to create gap containment on Blake Wheeler. If he leaves a gap in the neutral zone, he can decide when and how to close it as the play advances to the Blues zone.

Unfortunately, he completely misses the hit so Wheeler goes by freely, moving the puck to Mark Scheifele. The Blues should be able to recover from this as David Perron and Oskar Sundqvist are both in appropriate position to backcheck but neither hustle on the play, allowing Scheifele to break free to the net and redirect Kyle Connor’s pass into the upper corner. One bad decision and two lazy plays allow the game to get tied. Players have to know the score and situation and act appropriately if you want to have success in games and series that are this close.

With about five minutes left in the period, I turned to a friend suggested that Berube strongly consider moving Brayden Schenn off the number one line for the rest of the period. In addition to killing offensive zone chances, Schenn was killing the breakouts in their own end. This was easily the worst game I have ever seen Schenn play. At times, it looked like he was trying to use a stick with the wrong flex, wrong length and one that was wrong-handed. At that point in time, I would have moved Perron up in to Schenn’s spot and moved Schenn down with Jaden Schwartz and Oskar Sundqvist for at least two shifts.

Berube kept rolling the lines as they were and Schenn would be the primary culprit on the game losing goal. First, Schenn makes a poor play on the puck battle with Dustin Byfuglien, not only losing the battle but going well past the puck and out of the play.

To his credit, Schenn hustles to get back in the play but while he skates all the way back, he doesn’t actually engage in the play, never engaging Kyle Conor, allowing the game losing goal to be scored.

I realize Colton Parayko got turned around on the play and Jay Bouwmeester left to cover his side but the real key to the goal is the fact the forwards did not pick up their deep in the zone coverage yet again, just like Sundqvist on the 1st goal.

Overall, both teams struck iron, the Blues hit a lot of the side of the net as either team could have won this game. When you consider Pat Maroon could have easily tied up game 3 at 3, either team could have won any of these games. The series seems about as even as you can get in a way.

For the Blues, the line of Pat Maroon, Robert Thomas and Tyler Bozak really controlled play, generating 11 shots and creating a number of good chances but were unable to net any real results. Robby Fabbri was a bright spot in his return, throwing a few good body checks and playing well in his 9+ minutes.

Now the teams are in a best of three series. These two teams have a big trend of the away team winning each game (goes back to the regular season too). Blues fans hope this will continue for one more game.

The Blues are expected have Robert Bortuzzo in the lineup but he was absent this morning, replaced by Carl Gunnarsson. Apparently, Bortuzzo was having a maintenance day.

I mentioned in an earlier blog how Craig Berube’s comment about physicality concerned me. He made another comment that concerns me as well. He said that he does “trust them [the lines]” that he has trusted them “for some time now” with an implication that he has no intention of considering any changes to them. David Perron added that “there’s no point to change anything”. Hopefully they won’t need to change them as the lines will be clicking tonight but if they aren’t, he can’t be afraid to try something new if need be.

NHL Champions for Charity
Given that the Predators pulled out the division title, I made my contribution to Best Buddies Tennessee https://www.bestbuddies.org/tennessee/ is the beneficiary. Best Buddies Tennessee is dedicated to establishing a volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development and inclusive living opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. As a side note, I recently got to experience a Best Buddies even in the St. Louis area that was led by the Eureka high school football team. It was a lot of fun and brought a lot of joy to those involved.

It’s a great day for hockey.
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