ST. LOUIS – For forty minutes, the Blues appeared to be on the verge of having the right response to an embarrassing result on home ice Saturday night.
It would take some work to get rid of the stench of an 8-1 loss — especially in the third period — against the Washington Capitals, but a power play that had been dormant, especially on home ice, found life. The Blues just needed some execution at 5-on-5 to end a five-game homestand on a winning note.
But that didn’t happen. In fact, it was another collapse in the third period. This one wasn’t based on effort, but more on execution, and a two-goal lead turned into a stinging 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday, dropping the Blues (7-9-0) to their third-place finish. outright loss.
Ouch.
This one probably hurts more than Saturday’s loss, because The Blues knew there was no turning back because of that lack of effort. This showed more of what is missing in the group as a whole: trust. None of that exists at the moment, and the way this one ended, with David Pastrnak completing the comeback by blasting a one-timer from the top of the left circle through Jordan Binnington, who deserved a better fate, was a bitter pill to swallow. swallow.
Here are seven lessons from the game:
* Play it safe — Instead of winning the game, the Blues played not to lose, or as in the words of Brayden Schenn, who shook the scoring monkey off his back with a power play goal, his first goal in 14 games, the Blues tried to to play. safe.
“We just played wrong in the third,” Schenn said. “We played it safe a little bit and in this league you can’t play it safe. There are too many good players who have that feeling, who feel like they can play. Guys are able to put the puck in the net and That’s what happened tonight.” .
“We knew we had a job to do. I don’t know about messaging and anything, but we just went out there and played too safe.”
Playing it safe and playing smart are two different things.
“I think we played way too safe instead of attacking them,” said Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist, who also scored a power-play goal. “I thought we backed away too much. When you play in this league, there are a lot of good teams. If you play it safe, they will stick with you.”
The numbers backed the Blues. Boston (8-7-2) was 0-7-0 when trailing after two; the Blues led 5-0-0 after two. The Bruins were outscored 16-5 in the third period this season.
But Boston went out and collected 60 percent of its season total in 20 minutes against the Blues before Tuesday.
“I thought we pulled away a little bit,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said. “We talked about going into the third that they only had five D and we wanted to get our forecheck going and put a lot of pressure on their D and play more on our toes. There were times when we put the puck deep and I thought : Sometimes we tried to make plays. The plays might have been there, but I think the better play was just taking it to the goal line, making their D-turn, going back and getting pucks and allowing us to do so. set to go back to the cross.
“If you play it safe, safe is dead. You still have to be able to play aggressively and you have to trust that when guys are aggressive, those guys are still going to be over the top and give your D a chance to score.” But if you play it safe, you sit back and let a team build up speed. If you’re aggressive, you push them on their heels a little bit and you can slow them down that way.”
* Blues continue to suffer 5-on-5 — By being outscored 3-0 at 5-on-5, the Blues are now minus-13 in 5-on-5 situations.
They generated just 16 shots at even strength for the match and apart from a few good looks, never really threatened in that area.
“Five-on-five we generally don’t generate enough to turn the ice,” Schenn said. “I’m not saying you have to score goals just to put them on their heels a little bit. We have to find a way. Special was good tonight, they gave us a chance to win the hockey game. Our goalkeeper was good.” We just sat back in the third and stopped making some plays. No plays, just passing on the band. They came at us and we were on our heels for the entire third.
Sundqvist said: “I think I’m trying to get more pucks to the net, maybe a little bit better on the lies. It starts with me too. I had a bad turnover in the third. I think we won the first two periods were playing pretty well. We actually stopped playing the third. I’m not sure why, but that’s hockey sometimes.”
*Third periods are tricky — To end this homestand, the Blues are outscored 10-1… on home ice… in the third period. A time when they should be drawing energy from the crowd, but instead they get away with little to nothing.
“We just stopped making plays, stopped putting pucks on the tape and letting them come to us, playing on our end the whole period,” Schenn said.
* Second, third fights missing – One thing that happened during the game, even when the Blues were winning, was the Bruins coming up with loose pucks and more recoveries. This was clearly reflected in the equalizer and the winning goal.
Charlie McAvoy’s equalizer at 9:15 leaves a loose puck on the skates of three Blues, and none of them could figure it out. The Bruins made an extra effort to execute and win for the direct shot to make it 2-2.
And on Pastrnak’s game-winner at 6:13, the puck is once again in the Blues zone. It’s loose after Pastrnak fans takes his first shot. All five Blues on the ice have a chance to stay afloat, win and get out of harm’s way, even after things get dangerous around the net.
But the Bruins again win the second and third tries, something Bruins coach Jim Montgomery noted after the game, and a scorer got a second chance and blew it through Binnington:
* Puck management is an issue — We addressed Jordan Kyrou’s puck blunder late in games that cost the Blues at least two points, if not four, in two separate games. And it’s the result of playing hero hockey instead of smart hockey, putting the puck deep in the zone and going to work.
This time it wasn’t Kyrou, but Colton Parayko.
It fueled the Bruins’ comeback when the defenseman, instead of putting a puck deep near the blue line, tried to skate past Pastrnak, who started the 2-on-1 that led to Morgan Geekie’s goal to 4:53 left giving Boston a lead. to live.
Parayko had not one, but two chances to put a puck deep into the goal.
* Powerplay breathes some life — On the plus side, the Blues started the game 0-for-20 on home ice with the man advantage. It grew to 0-for-21 before Schenn and Sundqvist each scored big goals at or near the net to give them a 2-0 lead in the second.
“We attacked more and talked more about shooting the puck,” Sundqvist said. “I think we missed too many opportunities. I think we’re trying to shoot more pucks and be able to recover them well.”
* Good recovery for Binnington — After being in goal for Saturday’s carnage and allowing all eight goals on 27 shots, Binnington bounced back with a strong, solid effort. He looked confident and made all the necessary saves to give his team a chance, until they didn’t.
“We played hard, played for each other, fought hard, we competed hard and then we were just… special teams were good and our goalie (especially) gave us a chance early in the second period when they came at us hard there, especially on some power plays and things like that,” Schenn said. “That’s frustrating, especially to lose a hockey game tonight.”
