ST. LOUIS, MO – The start of the NHL season is always exciting, particularly with in most season there being four months between meaningful puck drops. This past season, the World Cup satisfied fans, the pre-season tournament which helped those who could not wait for the start of the regular season.
As exciting as the beginning of a new campaign is, the quality of play in the first month is not as good as it will be in the last month. That said, it is important to not get too high or too low on your favorite team this early. But it is all right to take a look and assess where a team is the first 15 games of the season.
St. Louis made few changes to their club, the most notable being the hiring of associate coach Mike Yeo to succeed head coach Ken Hitchcock after the 2016-17 season. For a team which by all accounts made more subtractions in physical players more so than adding skills, the Blues face some real challenges, all a part of the salary cap challenges and perhaps some poor planning along the way.
The club started the season with three straight convincing wins against Chicago (5-2), Minnesota (3-2) and the New York Rangers (3-2), two of the three ahead of them in the overall standings with the other one just two points behind. Then they lost on the road to Vancouver in overtime (2-1) after giving up a late lead. They were dropped in Edmonton (3-1) before leaving Alberta by defeating Calgary (6-4). They returned home to lose to Calgary (4-1) and Detroit (2-1 S/O) before rounding out October with a 1-0 shutout win against Los Angeles, closing out the month with a record of 5-2-2.
November started out rough with a trip to Manhattan and a 5-0, listless drubbing at the hands of one of the league’s top teams. The road trip continued in Dallas where the struggling stars hung a 6-2 loss on the Blues. A return home for a weekend against Columbus and Colorado resulted in 2-1 and 5-1 victories respectively, before a 2-1 overtime loss to Chicago on Wednesday night. Thursday night’s game in Nashville began with dominance by St. Louis until the last 25 minutes which saw the Predators the next three goals.
The Blues sit at 15 points through their first fifteen games with a record of 7-5-3 good for 2nd place in the Central Division, 4th in the Western Conference and 9th overall in the 30-team NHL. Their record at home is an impressive 5-1-2 while their effort on the road is less than stellar at 2-4-1. They are a mediocre 4-4-2 and in their last ten g
ames.
They rank 24th in goals with 33 and an average of 2.2 per game while their goals against is 13th with 39 allowed at a rate of 2.2 per game. They rank 22nd with a goal differential of minus 6. They are 20th overall in shots for at 29.1 per game while they are 3rd overall in shots against at 26.2 per game.
Special teams might shed some light on their struggles on the offensive side as they are 21st overall with a conversion rate of 15.1% (8 of 53). Their penalty kill leads the entire league, snuffing out opponents at a 91.9% rate (5 of 62).
Tops on the team in goals are Vladimir Tarasenko at 5, Paul Stastny and David Perron at 4 and Jaden Schwartz, Kevin Shattenkirk and Alex Pietrangelo at 3. In points, Tarasenko is at 13 while Kevin Shattenkirk and Alex Steen have registered 10.
P.A. Parenteau and Paul Stastny fight for a rebound in front of Matt Irwin and Alex Stalock
In plus/minus, only four players are in positive territory, Dmitrij Jaskin (+2), Jori Lehtera (+2), Robert Bortuzzo (+1) and Vladimir Tartasenko (+1), with only one considered a top player.
In goal, Jake Allen has been elevated to starter status, but has been less than impressive so far. With 11 starts, his record is 5-3-0-3 with a 0.907 save percentage and a 2.35 goals against average. In facing few shots overall, one would expect better results from the young netminder. Back-up Carter Hutton has not been much better In 4 starts he is 2-2-0-0 with a 0.918 save percentage and a 2.24 goals against average.
In a nutshell, St. Louis is not getting the offense they need. The lack of physical presence is s
howing in the early going, too. Speed and youthful vigor is not yet offsetting the success the team enjoyed last season when the now departed captain David Backes and Troy Brouwer moved people around in the attacking zone and the current Calgary Flames starting goaltender Brian Elliott was there in the crease when breakdowns took place up front.
Like any marathon, the journey is long, filled with twists and turns, highs and lows, all which make the process exciting. There is still plenty of time. But waiting much longer before getting improved results is not something the Blues can take a “wait and see” approach on. They need more scoring punch from the current roster and tighter goaltending if they want to transition to more of a winning team than one that just hangs around in hopes of being one of the eight who qualify for the playoffs.
Follow me on Twitter at DMMORRELL and you can contact me at dennis.morrell@prohockeynews.com
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