The Blues jumped out to a two goal lead, directly as a result of strong plays by Vladimir Tarasenko. He scored the 1st goal, a power play goal, by banking his shot in off Joonas Korpisalo. On the second goal, his forecheck pressure leads to the turnover and Jaden Schwartz’s goal.
With less than 4 minutes left in the period, the Blue Jackets cut the lead in half. The Blues appear to be in good position as the Blue Jackets have a 3 on 4 but then communication and coverage breakdowns result in a goal. Alex Pietrangelo leaves the onrushing forward for Alex Steen as Pietrangelo slides to the Blues Jackets player at the blue line. Steen stops moving his feet, perhaps because he is expecting to peel off and cover the player Pietrangelo just took. Steen then tries to reaccelerate to defend on the play but he is already beat. Meanwhile Joel Edmundson and Tyler Bozak don’t clarify assignments and both are late to their coverage, allowing Boone Jenner to score on a screened shot through Bozak.
The Blue Jackets tie the game just two minutes into the period. When you watch the Blue Jackets 2nd goal, note how there are five Blues in the screen yet the coverage is still poor. Jake Allen makes a poor read, making a strong push across as Oliver Bjorkstrand’s throws the puck from the wall. There isn’t any danger to Allen’s right, the only danger is in front of him. He reacts as if trying to play an Alex Ovechkin one-timer. He needs to take a peak and know there isn’t any danger on the back side and then he could easily stay home on the play, allowing him to be in position to make the save. Of course, Jay Bouwmeester makes an even worse read, leaving around the net for a puck that never makes it, allowing Duclair to go completely free and score. Jordan Schmaltz gets turned around, almost spinning in place and covering nobody.
Less than a minute and a half later, the Blue Jackets take the lead. On the goal, note how the play starts with two Blue Jackets pressing three Blues players for puck retrieval. Jaden Schwartz thinks he is helping Vince Dunn but he completely misses his assignment, failing to notice the third man into the zone, Jenner. Of course, the puck gets moved to Jenner in the low slot and he beats Allen for his 2nd goal.
David Savard extended the lead to 2 about five minutes later, beating Allen with Vince Dunn screening his only goalie though Alexander Steen cuts the lead to 1 less than 3 minutes later.
The Blues entered the third period only trailing by one gave up a goal less than 40 seconds in to the period and then another goal about two minutes later.
Artemi Panarin sprung Josh Anderson for a partial breakaway on their 1st shift of the period, scoring less than 40 seconds into the 3rd period. Alex Pietrangelo is slow coming on from the line change and Pat Maroon gets beat by Anderson cutting to the net.
Duclair’s 2nd goal of the game is a simple five-hole, power play goal, extending the Blue Jackets lead to three.
Seth Jones would get his 1st goal of the season before Zach Sanford gets his second goal of the season before the game ended in a 7-4 loss and the few remaining fans raining some boos down on the Blues as they left the ice.
After the game, the Blues held a closed door meeting that lasted 23 minutes. What most fans likely don’t realize is that meeting likely cost Yeo some money as well as the team. Unless things have changed recently, there are time limits/ requirements on how fast the team is available to the media. Based on what I was told a couple of years ago, this would have been late and likely have drawn a fine.
Yeo called it an “emotional loss”. He said it “sucks to have a game like that in front of our fans and, you know, kind of where we’re at, looking at the start to our season….I think everyone’s frustrated and disappointed.” He took some responsibility saying, “as a coach you have to lead the way”.
When told and asked about the players sticking up for him, Yeo added that “this is a group that I really care about and I really believe in so that means a lot to me.” He honestly stated “my job should be in question right now” but added “I’m not going to coach to try and save my job. I’m going to coach to try and win a Stanley Cup”.
Lou Korac asked Pietrangelo if the coaches are implementing a plan that suits them and works and he responded "it's our job to go execute them." I wish I could have heard to tone when he replied as you can take that response a few different ways.
Tarasenko added “it feels like sh*t to be doing this in front of our fans. And just to clear this up, I don’t have any doubt about anybody in this locker room. We will do this. I believe this. And trust me, we will put 100 percent out there on Saturday night against Chicago and we will prove we don’t that we don’t have a sh*t team like it was tonight. It’s not acceptable to lose like this at home.” I’d change that to say it’s not acceptable to lose like this anywhere.
Other notes from the game:
- Pietrangelo was on the ice for five goals against
- Jordan Kyrou, Ivan Barbashev, and Oskar Sundqvist combined for less than 25 minutes of ice time.
- Bouwmeester only played 14:29, less than 12 minutes at even strength.
- Yeo is now 12-16-6 in his last 34 games (41.5% of a season).
It won’t get any easier tonight when the Blues host the Chicago Blackhawks who have Corey Crawford back in net. The Hawks have won two in a row and have yet to lose in regulation on the road.
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.
St Louis Blues Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»