STREET. LOUIS – For 40 minutes, the Blues seemed on the verge of making the right response to an embarrassing result at home Saturday night.
Getting rid of the stench of an 8-1 loss (particularly in the third period) against the Washington Capitals was going to take some work, but a power play that had been dormant, especially at home, found life. The Blues just needed some execution at 5-on-5 to end a five-game homestand on a winning note.
But that didn’t happen. In fact, it was another third-period collapse. This one wasn’t based on effort, but rather execution, and a two-goal lead turned into a tough 3-2 loss against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday, sending the Blues (7-9-0) to his third direct loss.
Oh.
This probably hurts more than Saturday’s loss, because the Blues knew there was no turning back from that lack of effort. This showed more of what the group as a whole lacks: confidence. Right now, none of that exists, and the way this one ended, with David Pastrnak completing the comeback by launching a one-timer from inside the top of the left circle through Jordan Binnington, who deserved a better fate, was a bitter drink swallow.
Here are seven takeaways from the game:
* Play it safe – Instead of winning the game, the Blues played not to lose, or as Brayden Schenn, who got the scoring monkey off his back with a power-play goal, his first goal in 14 games, said, the Blues tried to play. sure.
“We just played the wrong way in the third quarter,” Schenn said. “We played a little safe and you can’t play safe in this league. There are too many good players who feel that, who feel like they can make plays. Guys are capable of putting the puck in the net and that’s what happened tonight. .
“We knew we had a job to do. I don’t know about messaging and stuff, but we just went out and played too safe.”
Playing safe and playing smart are two different things.
“I think we played it too safe instead of coming out and attacking them,” said Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist, who also scored a power-play goal. “I thought we had gone too far back. When you play in this league, there are a lot of good teams. If you play it safe, they’re going to force it on you.”
The numbers backed up the Blues. Boston (8-7-2) was 0-7-0 when trailing after two; The Blues led 5-0-0 after two minutes. The Bruins had been outscored 16-5 in the third period this season.
But Boston came out and collected 60 percent of its season total heading into Tuesday in 20 minutes against the Blues.
“I thought we regressed a little bit,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said. “We talked about it in the third, they had five D’s and we wanted to get our front control going and put a lot of pressure on their D and play more with their toes. There were times when we were putting pucks deep and I thought. Sometimes we tried make plays. The plays could have been there, but I think the best play was just putting her at the goal line, doing her D-turn, coming back and getting pucks and allowing us to get back in front.
“Whenever you play safe, safe is dead. You still have to be able to play aggressive and you’re going to have to trust that when guys are aggressive, those guys will still be on top and allow your defense to get pucks. But when you play safe sure, you’re sitting back and you’re allowing a team to gain speed. When you’re aggressive, you’re pushing them back and you can slow them down that way.”
* The blues continue to suffer 5 against 5. Being outscored 3-0 in 5-on-5 situations, the Blues are now minus-13 in 5-on-5 situations.
They generated just 16 hard shots for the game and, aside from a few good looks, were once truly threatening in that department.
“Five on five, overall, we’re not generating enough to tip the ice,” Schenn said. “I’m not saying score goals, just put them on their heels a little bit. We have to find a way. The special was good tonight, they gave us a chance to win the hockey game. Our goalie was good. We just sat in the third and we stopped making some plays. Not plays, just passes on the tape. They attacked us and were on our heels the entire third.”
Sundqvist said: “I think trying to get more pucks to the net, maybe a little better on lies. It all starts with me too. I had a bad turnover in the third. I think we played pretty well the first two periods. In We kind of stopped playing the third, I’m not sure why, but sometimes that’s hockey.”
* Third periods are problematic. To end this streak at home, the Blues were outscored 10-1…at home…in the third period. A time when they should be drawing energy from their crowd, but instead, they are left with little to nothing.
“We just stopped making plays, we stopped putting pucks on tape and let them come to us, we played on our end the whole period,” Schenn said.
* The second and third battles are missing. Something that was happening throughout the game, even when the Blues were winning, was that the Bruins were losing loose pucks and getting more pucks back. It was noticeable in the tying goal and the winning goal.
On Charlie McAvoy’s tying goal at 9:15, there is a loose puck on the skates of three Blues, and none of them were able to recover it. The Bruins made an extra effort to execute and win with the direct kick that made it 2-2.
And with Pastrnak’s winning goal (18:13), the puck is back in the Blues’ zone. He is loose after Pastrnak’s fans in his initial shot. All five Blues on the ice have a chance to attack, win and get it out of danger, even after there is danger around the net.
But the Bruins once again win on second and third downs, something Bruins coach Jim Montgomery noted after the game, and a scorer got a second chance and squandered Binnington:
* Disk management is a problem. We’ve addressed Jordan Kyrou’s puck errors late in games that have cost the Blues at least two points, perhaps as many as four, in two separate games. And it’s been a result of playing hero hockey instead of smart hockey, putting pucks deep in the zone and getting to work.
This time it wasn’t Kyrou, but Colton Parayko.
It sparked the Bruins’ comeback when the defenseman, instead of putting a puck deep near the blue line, attempted to pass to Pastrnak, who started the 2-on-1 that led to Morgan Geekie’s goal at 4:53 to give Boston life .
Parayko had not one, but two opportunities to put the puck deep.
* The power play gives some life. On a positive note, the Blues started the game 0 for 20 at home with the man advantage. It grew to 0 for 21 before Schenn and Sundqvist each scored greasy goals at or near the net that gave them a 2-0 lead in the second.
“We were attacking more, talking more about shooting the puck,” Sundqvist said. “I think we’ve passed up too many opportunities. I think it’s about trying to shoot more pucks and be good at recovering them.”
* Good rebound for Binnington — After being in goal during Saturday’s carnage, allowing all eight goals on 27 shots, Binnington bounced back with a strong, solid effort. He seemed confident, making all the stops necessary to give his team a chance until he didn’t.
“We played hard, we played for each other, we fought hard, we competed hard and then just… the special teams were good and our goalie gave us a chance (especially) early in the second half when they came at us. there, especially on some power plays and things like that,” Schenn said. “‘Binner’ was great. “It’s definitely frustrating to lose a hockey game tonight.”
