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2/11, Blues vs. Kings - Recap: Sauget smells better than the Blues do |
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My 3 stars of the game
1. Jeff Carter, LA. No question about this one, his 2 goals gave the Kings all kinds of cushion to play with.
2. Jordan Nolan, LA. The hit on Tarasenko and the subsequent near-pummeling of Redden were a sign of things to come. The fact that the Blues spent so much time trying to go back after him tells you just how effective he was at his job tonight.
3. Slava Voynov, LA. 2 assists, both of which were nice set-ups. Dangerous on offense a couple other times, and solid defensively.
Honorable mention: Dustin Brown, LA (1 assist, but played his usual game - which was enough to drive the Blues and Blues fans nuts); Alex Steen, STL (the lone Blues tally on the PP, I thought he was the best Blues player on the ice - though there was a low bar to clear).
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The Good
-- The Blues PP. It’s a real shame we can’t play with a man-advantage for about 20 minutes a night – because we might score more than once a game that way.
-- Sobotka. All he does is just go out and play hard every night, and he looks like one of the best Blues forwards night in and night out as a result.
-- Steen is warming up offensively. Now if he can get help from the rest of his teammates …
The Bad
-- The defensemen generally forgot the “defense” part of their position tonight at some critical point that resulted in a goal for the Kings. Every one of them. Way too much trying to play high in the defensive zone, or low in the offensive zone, or not hustling to pucks, or getting beaten to pucks, or not playing physical when needed, … just a lousy game all-around from the entire group.
-- Halak’s groin. It has to get healed up soon, or the Blues may have to go goalie shopping. Alternatively, we may all have to pitch in for duck tape and Super Glue to keep it together.
-- Backes had a terrible night. 2 penalties for boarding, lots of shots at the net but nothing really dangerous, struggled to generate offense most of the time, … it was kind of symbolic of the Blues struggles all night long.
-- Reaves should have been the one handling Nolan, and he should have done it much earlier in the game; not only did he not do that, he was pretty damn ineffective all night long.
-- Did anyone see Patrik Berglund tonight? The roster report says he played, but I didn’t notice him.
-- The ice at Scottrade. It was OK in the season opener, but has progressively gotten worse as the season has gone on. Saying it was terrible tonight would be overstating how good it was, and with the season going into April if Stillman or the NHL doesn’t do something about it, they might as well pour slush.
-- This home stand: 3 games, 0-3-1, outscored 20-8. That means more pressure to pick up points later in the season when everyone else is battling for playoff position.
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Miscellaneous thoughts
-- In the season preview, I asked if the Blues could build off of last season’s success or if they would do what they’ve historically done after a great regular season and noticeably regress. Sadly, they’re on pace to do the latter (yet again).
-- That said, this is not some cellar-dwelling team that lacks talent and needs a major infusion of it in the 2013 draft … so anyone expecting (hoping?) the team will tank and end up with a top-5 pick is being way too pessimistic. If things get that bad, there will be a roster shakeup long before the end of the season – because these guys know they have the talent to hang with the league’s elite. It is NOT time to panic - but it is time for guys in the locker room to look at each other and realize they're pissing talent away.
-- Some people will hate to say this, but Elliott looked much better tonight as the game went on. That’s not to say he was blameless on the 4 goals, but at most 2 of them were his (the Carter goals). The other 2 were squarely on the guys in front of him for failing to do their job.
-- Even on the other 2 goals: the 1st goal - Redden decided to try and step up on Voynov and missed, and then Pietrangelo wasn’t able to cut down the pass across; the 2nd goal – while Cole got beat by Carter, with Carter charging up the ice he should have been marked by either Tarasenko (who went to the right side of the ice to try and clog things up) or Steen (who was over on Carter’s side and just let him go by). That does not mean that those goals weren't Elliott's fault, because he absolutely needed to make those saves - but he didn't get help from the rest of his team at times tonight.
-- As much as Blues fans have ragged on the goaltending, and as much as Elliott hasn’t made critical saves, one big thing stands on if you look at the shots the Blues are generally allowing: they’re high-quality shots. Sure, they’re not allowing many shots in total, but way too many of them are coming from the area bounded by the goal posts and the faceoff dots. I don’t care how many shots the other team does or doesn’t have, but when you let them tee off from that area all night long, you shouldn’t be surprised to see them score 4-6 goals if they get to tee off from that area 12-15 or more times a night.
-- I also wanted to put Stewart in the "bad" column, and maybe he earned it tonight, but when he's having to stickhandle with the puck around the offensive zone, it's a sign the Blues offensive game isn't working. His job should be to bang around the net and shovel home garbage; if he's going to have the puck away from the net, he should be grinding away - but because the Blues are struggling with puck control, he's having to skate to the puck and then skate around to set something up.
-- Seeing Redden come to the defense of Tarasenko? It was a perfectly clean hit – and there was no reason for Redden to come “stand up for his teammate” as a result. Again, when people bitch about the instigator penalty, … folks, that’s exactly what Redden did to Jordan Nolan – and the officials didn’t call it. That said, seeing Redden attempt to fight, … it would be a great idea if he didn’t do that again – whether the opponent was Nolan, Jordin Tootoo, Jamal Mayers, or 5’7” Cory Conacher.
-- Cole’s “trip” on Brown in the 1st period: a great dive by the Kings captain. Did Cole make contact? Sure he did – but did he make so much contact that it took both of Brown’s feet out from under him? Hardly.
-- One thing that Backes is missing when shooting on net: confidence. He’s clearly just throwing it at the net hoping to get lucky.
-- Tarasenko needs to consistently go on a line where there’s another real threat to score. Teams know he’s dangerous and are keying on him, and the Blues haven’t been capitalizing on that. Late, he was on with Steen and Sobotka – but that’s essentially a scorer playing in the set-up role, and a high-end 4th liner. If anything happens there, it's going to be someone trying to get the puck to Vladi so he can shoot - and when the defense knows that, it's kind of hard to generate something offensively.
-- How much life did Carter’s 2nd goal suck out of the fans? Just about everything. You could hear guys yelling at each other on the ice after that – no noise from the crowd, not even jeers or attempts to get up and make any kind of noise. That tells you just how much goodwill got burned in this homestand.
-- Do the Blues need a #1 center? Sure they do – and I’d stick #21 in that spot and tell him he’s going to be that guy going forward, for better or for worse. He's the only guy capable of filling that spot on the current roster, I say put him there and challenge him to be the player he's capable of being.
-- Would I scratch someone out of tonight’s lineup for the next game? Short of scratching 3 guys on defense, no – but I suspect either Redden or Cole (probably Cole) will go to the press box while Russell comes back in.
-- I’d say that I’ll watch the Red Wings feed on Wednesday night instead of the Blues, but the game will be on the NBC Sports Network … so it will be blacked out on GameCenter.
-- Speaking of Wednesday’s game, … if Halak can’t go, it means Allen will be recalled. Do you really throw him in net against the Red Wings – and if you do, are you waiving the white flag before the puck is dropped for the opening faceoff?
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Next up: Wednesday night at Detroit. If the Blues want to avoid falling to .500, they need a ‘W’ in the worst way – and with the Red Wings having strung together a few wins and building confidence (including a pair of wins over the 'Note), it’s a hell of a way to start a 3-game road trip that leads to Calgary and Vancouver.
St Louis Blues Blogger • 
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