Last night, the Blues fell to the surging Carolina Hurricanes by a score of 5-2. The team and Jake Allen were not even close to good enough.
The Blues were terrible in the 2nd period, generating only three shots. The Blues struggled all night to generate offense, only getting 23 shots with a low percentage of those being quality shots. Jaden Schwartz has been pretty poor as a replacement for Brayden Schenn on the 1st line. I would have tried Robert Thomas or Pat Maroon in the last two games and left Schwartz with Alexander Steen and Tyler Bozak who had been effective.
What will frustrate Blues fans is that even though the Blues were getting smothered and playing horrible (give credit to the Canes), they were still in the game 2-2 midway through the 2nd period. What should have been a fortuitous turn of events with less than 10 minutes left in the 2nd period turned into disaster when a Blues power play resulted in a short-handed goal. Alex Pietrangelo made a terrible decision, shooting the puck wide of the net and effectively given possession away early. Pietrangelo then complicates things, along with Ryan O’Reilly by completely loafing back into the Blues zone. Jake Allen that seals the deal on this poor play with a terrible read, and terrible play, going out to get the puck rather than waiting to get it behind the net, missing the puck, deciding not to take the trapezoid penalty, and then inexplicably diving early to try and prevent Sebastian Aho’s wraparound.
This game illustrates exactly why the Blues need to move Allen. On the 1st two goals against, Blues players stayed in shooting lanes but didn’t use form to block the shots. On those shots, Allen would prefer they step aside and let them see the shots far out. On the one goal, it would have been an easy save. Instead, the screened shot goes in the net. They don’t appear to trust him and therefore alter their play as a result, not playing the game the right way and contributing to more goals going in. Allen makes a big gaffe at a crucial time, contributing to their lack of confidence in him.
At this point, I think both parties would be better with Allen moving on. The team needs to not worry about what gaffe will come next and Allen needs to not worry about the team playing poorly in front of him.
Good news for Blues fans is that Jordan Binnington will be back in net tonight when they host the Dallas Stars. Bad news is that it sounds like Brayden Schenn will not be as most of us had hoped. David Perron will also still be out. Once Schenn and Perron are back, I think the lineup will improve a tangible amount.
The Blues recalled Sammy Blais who will be in the lineup tonight, replacing Robby Fabbri. I’m completely baffled how Zach Sanford continues to get a free pass and stay in the lineup. Sanford has been poor in my opinion. He has 1 point in his last 14 games with a meager 19 shots while averaging over 13 minutes of ice time.
The lineup is still in flux as it is not known if Brayden Schenn will be able to go but the projected lineup is this:
Schwartz - O'Reilly - Tarasenko
Steen- Bozak - Blais
Maroon - Sundqvist - Thomas
MacEachern - Barbashev - Sanford
Edmundson - Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester - Parayko
Dunn - Bortuzzo
Binnington
The Stars beat the Kings on Thursday and are 4-4-1 in their last 9 road games. The Blues will be looking to avenge their road loss to the Stars a little over a week ago.
NHL Champions for Charity
We’ve gotten some traction on the charity wager among the Central Division bloggers. One charity I’ll highlight is Best Buddies Tennessee
https://www.bestbuddies.org/tennessee/from your Predators’s Blogger
Paul McCann. 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.
St Louis Blues Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»