ST LOUIS, Mo – Last season, the St. Louis Blues entered spring a Cup favorite. To address some questionable goaltending, St. Louis acquired Ryan Miller from Buffalo at the end of February. It was considered the final piece to legitimate Stanley Cup-caliber team. St. Louis challenged for the top spot through the end of March.
Brian Elliott – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Then trouble began. The Blues ended the regular season losing their last six games, dropping down from the division-lead to finish second and then exited the opening round of the post-season after losing to Chicago in six games. Few noticed the reaction of the Blues’ players when Chicago’s Jonathan Toews netted an overtime breakaway goal to give the Blackhawks a 3-2 series lead.
Not one St. Louis player came to their rental goalie’s side to console him after he allowed backbreaking game-winner, instead exiting to the dressing room as quickly as possible. Miller was allowed to walk and the Blues were left to ponder why another disappointing season, which held so much promise, came to pass.
The current season seems to be leaning the way of last season, and at about the same time.
Confident with a veteran and emerging rookie in net, St. Louis entered the 2014-15 with Brian Elliott and Jake Allen in goal. Elliott has long shown to be a confident, able goaltender during the regular season, but seemed to falter when filling in for Jaroslav Halak in the playoffs. Allen has no NHL playoff experience. Scary, but the way things will play out in the Gateway City this Spring.
There was a time earlier in the season when the Blues goaltending was among the best. Even when Elliott went out with injury and future HOFer Martin Brodeur donned the blue note, St. Louis ranked among the league’s best. Brodeur retired leaving the net to Elliott and Allen just after 2015 arrived.
The results were good at times, but have recently been less about what a Stanley Cup contender would deliver and more about how a promising season just might end the same way every other season has ended in the Blues 48-year history.
Consider the St. Louis resumed play after the All-Star break riding a 7-0-1 streak on a record through 46 games of 29-13-4 with 62 points and challenging for the top rank in the league.
In the 31 games since the break, though, St. Louis has gone 18-10-3 for 39 points in that stretch. While the record is respectable, it is certainly off the pace the club set through the All-Star break.
The Blues 5-on-5 goal ratio rank has dropped to seventh at 1.17, well off the pace set by the League-leading New York Rangers, who have delivered a 1.32 score. Nashville, Tampa Bay, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Montreal rank ahead of the Blues.
Once being the top power-play, St. Louis now ranks 4th with a 22.5% conversion rate, 3 points off league-leading Washington. While the man advantage rate remains strong despite the slight downturn, perhaps a more telling metric of the Blues new game is in puck control. The top face-off team in the league wins the draw 53.8% of the time, leading to a puck possession game which has been a change from previous seasons.
Defensively, what remains strong in the Blues favor is their top-rank on shots allowed per game, 27.1, and the hallmark of a plan to keep St. Louis a contender. As for goals against, the team ranks 7th overall, allowing 2.43 per game.
What is new to the team is a new-found ability to provide waves of sustained offense. Once embedded in the middle to lower part of the rankings, St. Louis now ranks 7th overall with 2.91 goals per game. In previous campaigns, defense was the priority.
Vladimir Tarasenko is out with an apparent knee injury, suffered during the 4-1 home loss to Vancouver. Alex
Alexander Steen file photo by Jack Lima
also suffered an injury and, along with Tarasenko, remains day-to-day. They represent 60 of the club’s 233 goals.
Along with better goaltending this post season, St. Louis needs to become a nastier team to play against defensively. The acquisition of 6’4”, 215 lb. defenseman Robert Bortuzzo and 6’2”, 210 lb. defenseman Zbynek Michalek are an immediate upgrade to a relatively timid backline. While the backline can move the puck out of the zone confidently and support the play on the points, the playoffs require a consistent, physical style not usually seen as frequently in the regular season.
The beefier and meatier defensive corps will be charged with striking fear in opponents, something the club has rarely provided in recent years. The shift will likely sit Carl Gunnarson and Chris Butler in the 7th and 8th slots and the press box.
Vladimir Tarasenko file photo by Lewis Bleiman
With a 4-1 victory over a desperate Calgary team last night, the Blues clinched a playoff berth, something which was expected for some time. But the landscape has changed a bit recently. Getting injured players like Tarasenko and Steen back into the line-up and the club getting back to a puck possession discipline will be critical the last few regular season games.
No longer is a first-round match-up considered a cakewalk for the better of the two teams. Any team making it to the playoffs deserves to be there and typically only 12-18 points separates the top eight teams in each conference. That is not a great deal of margin among the first and last qualifying teams.
Against teams qualified or still in contention for a Western Conference playoff berth, St. Louis is a disappointing 12-12-3. The last five regular season games will go a long way in determining the momentum St. Louis has going into what could be a very long and prosperous run.
St. Louis takes to the road for a game in Dallas, a non-playoff team, tonight before heading to Chicago for a Sunday afternoon tilt, the last road game of the regular season.
The final three games are at home against Winnipeg on Tuesday, Chicago on Thursday and Minnesota Saturday, April 11th, all potential first-round playoff opponents.
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