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Blues lose the weekend as their play and goaltending regresses

March 3, 2019, 4:23 PM ET [11 Comments]
Jason Millen
St Louis Blues Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT


The Blues had a losing weekend thanks to a regression in goaltending and overall play. The team failed to generate many quality scoring chances, only scoring three goals in the two games while both goalies made poor plays that were big momentum changers. Of course, Jake Allen’s mistake was a bigger gaffe.

On Saturday, the Dallas Stars got on the board 1st with just over three minutes left in the 1st period on a brilliant deflection by Jamie Benn. Tyler Bozak loses the defensive zone draw cleanly, leading to the screened shot deflection. Binnington had little chance to make the save.


Less than two minutes later Oskar Sundqvist made a poor pass behind Robert Thomas in the neutral zone. Thomas complicated things by making a lazy play on the poor pass, allowing the Stars to come back the other way. Jordan Binnington has good position as Blake Comeau has possession along the wall but he loses his crease as the pass goes to John Klingberg. Notice how Binnington is at the top of the crease as Comeau has the puck and compare that to how deep in the crease he is when Klingberg gets the puck. He moved over to square up to Klingberg but didn’t keep his net depth.

While I agree with most in that the Blues put Binnington in a good spot and Klingberg made a decent shot, I firmly believe that Binnington makes the save on this shot, off his shoulder, if he had maintained proper net depth. Watch the replay closely and see how the puck goes just above and outside his left shoulder.


With less than five minutes left in the 2nd period, the Blues finally started to make a game of it when Alex Pietrangelo cut the lead in half. Unfortunately, Mackenzie MacEachern would take a penalty on a bit of an inconsistent call less than a minute later.

Jamie Benn scored his 2nd goal of the game on the power play on a goal that Binnington surely wants back getting beat with a somewhat weak shot.

The goal completely kills any momentum the Blues had. Later, Benn would add an empty net goal for the hat trick.

Jaden Schwartz continues to struggle mightily, on the ice for three of the Stars goals.

Blues fans better hope that Brayden Schenn and David Perron are able to suit up soon. The offense is on fumes, scoring two goals or less in regulation for seven straight games, going 3-3-1 in those seven games.

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.
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