ST LOUISAN UPDATE
Chris Wideman signed a
2 year extension with the Ottawa Senators. Congratulations Chris!
Shark Bit
The Blues are definitely Shark bit losing their second straight game of the season against the Sharks last night 6-3.
In looking over the
lowlights, 4 of the 5 non-empty net goals were the direct result of Blues player mistakes in reading the play, some more subtle than others.
On the first goal, Patrik Berglund makes a terrible read, getting caught puck watching, leaving his man to go after the man Jay Bouwmeester has already tied up. Berglund never gets to the puck and it is moved through him to Hertl, the man he released, who moves out untouched for the goal. Magnus Paajarvi tried to hustle back down low to cover but couldn’t get there in time.
On the second goal, the Sharks get 3 deep on the power play against the Blues with only Carl Gunnarsson left to defend against them. Colton Parayko rotates up to the point. As he does this, Paul Stastny is slow to react and rotate down low to assist Gunnarsson with net front coverage. This is fairly subtle and a very difficult play for Stastny but he doesn’t get back, down low to support in time.
On the fourth goal, Stastny is the victim of a poor decision. Notice how he comes off the wall hustling to get back in position with his man. Instead of continuing to move his feet, he takes the lazy approach and delivers a stick slash, stopping his skating in the process. This decision allows his man to beat him to the far post for the goal. Sure this was a bad luck play with Allen losing the puck but Stastny wasn’t in position to be able to even try to tie up his man.
While the fifth goal is the result of a Joel Edmundson giveaway as a result of what appears to be some Joe Thornton stick work to Edmundson’s hands and perhaps a weak five hold goal, the real problem starts with a bad decision by Robert Bortuzzo. Bortuzzo has the puck near the blue line and is being pressured by an oncoming forechecker. Rather than go up the wall and out of the zone, Bortuzzo decides to pass to Edmundson who already has Thornton as an oncoming forechecker. Bortuzzo’s pass puts Edmundson in a bad spot almost like a quarterback leading a receiver into a cornerback.
Elliott Injured
Adding injury to insult, the Blues lost All-World-2016 goalie, Brian Elliott, to a lower-body injury. According to mangameslost.com, the Blues sit 7th in man games lost at 220 and counting though they are third in Injury Impact to Team for skaters. Only Edmonton and Detroit have a higher injury impact. This really has been MASH 63103 this year.
The Blues have already placed Elliott on LTIR, meaning he will be out at least 28 days. Allen now has his chance to take the net reins like Elliott did through the first 7 weeks of 2016. Some of the Blues faithful here mentioned the possibility of trading Brian Elliott at this deadline. I can’t see a scenario where this happens unless they are ridiculously blow away by a trade offer, something that is even lower in probability given Elliott’s injury.
The Blues will not allow themselves to be an injury away from having Phoenix Copley or Jordan Binnington take the playoff reins this season. No way. As a result, the Blues would have to trade a NHL backup while trading Elliott away. How many truly acceptable backups exist in the league that have a cap hit of under $2.5 million? Given the few goalies that meet that criteria, how much can you really upgrade when trading away Elliott and trading for one of them? The answer is, in my humble opinion, not much, if at all.
While I don’t expect the Blues to make a goalie move, I think it is safe to bet the Blues will make some moves before the trade deadline. They have already used LTIR a few times and have a potential LTIR move still available with Steen so cap room should be manageable when working on trades. I hope Army looks to add scoring this year at the deadline. Last year the Blues added defense. The year before that they tried adding a goalie. The season before that one they added defense. It’s been a long, long time since they added an impact forward at the trade deadline.
Of course the injuries are complicating matters this year. According to mangameslost.com, the Blues sit 7th in man games lost at 220 and counting though they are third in Injury Impact to Team for skaters. Only Edmonton and Detroit have a higher injury impact. This really has been MASH 63103 this year.
NHL notes
Officiating in the NHL continues to get more confusing and perhaps poor by the day. Another example occurred in overtime between the Detroit Red Wings and the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight. With 3 minutes left in OT, Goalie Petr Mrazek made a brilliant save on Murray and springs Pavel Datsyuk for an OT breakaway but the referee makes a really unexpected quick whistle in OT. See it
here.
Speaking of the Blue Jackets, while they were the benefactor of a questionable quick whistle tonight, they sure seemed to draw the short end of the stick last night in losing this
coaches challenge. Coach Tortorella was understandably upset after the game and gave a great quote on his feelings. "You know what? Just get rid of the coach's challenge," he said. "Just get rid of it. The whole being of the coach's challenge is to get it right. If we can't get it right on that call, then get rid of the coach's challenge because all I did was waste a timeout. It's discouraging. That is a no-brainer call. If they vote again for it, no coach's challenge, as far as this organization is concerned."
I know some of you saw this last night but I had to link it again.
Craig Smith with the worst open goal miss ever? - Rejecting yourself . You have to give Smith credit for getting the shutout winner later though.
St Louis Blues Blogger • 
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