Blues Postgame Show | 11/5/25

Blues Postgame Show | 11/5/25

get it in. Ovetkin now on the near side. Faulk’s going to take him to the inboards and Tucker unable to clear it out. It comes back into the middle and a play on the forehand tower. That was filthy and sick by Boilier. 3 nothing Washington. 1527 to go. Second period. Blues go to check it loose in the offensive zone. The pass sent rink wide out by the Capitals. They get through the neutral zone. Walking it in. Ryan Leonard with a shot wide of the net. They walk it down the middle. Turn, wait, hold, shoot, score. Carlson left side on Bennington. Blues trail 4 nothing here in Washington. 10:32 to go. They get it in. They shoot. They score. How did he score that? Bilier over the shoulder of over and in. Not a good night. Uh there really are no other words for it. Not a good night for the Blues. I I mean, we talked after that Vancouver loss to where it felt like the Blues were making strides and then that Blue Jackets game, albeit I was a little bit more harsh than what the team felt. They felt they played a better game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, but still felt like that was a bunny hop game to where you make progress, you take a step backwards, you make real progress against Edmonton. like that felt like it was the game that was going to crack open the Blues optimistic talk that they have had and then you lay this egg and I mean this is I agree with what Joey said on their breakdown disappointing is probably the best way to frame this game but more importantly it’s it’s confusion as to what’s what’s happening with this Blues team right now because I I expected a little bit more after that game against the Edmonton Oilers, but they just came out flat. And uh you know, the one thing that I didn’t realize until we just played that highlight, they you heard them mentioning Braden Shen’s fight. Man, your captain went out there and defended Colton Pereco after Pareo laid a nice clean hit on Duane. Duh was going after him. Shen goes in immediately, drops the gloves, and fights him. 22 seconds after that, the Blues uh let Washington walk down and score. So, a lot of stuff going wrong with this team right now. Welcome into our fourth period. It’s presented by First Community Credit Union along with Grant Francis. I’m Alex Ferrario. We hope to hear from Jim Montgomery at some point in our postgame breakdown, but we’ll also have our final look. We’ll have our sound bite of the night. All of this is live up on our YouTube channel at 101 ESPN STL. But first things first, let’s jump into our takeaways. It’s time for tonight’s three takeaways presented by Ted Drews Frozen Custard, a St. Louis tradition for over 95 years on Match Quality, unforgettable taste. First takeaway is the goalending. Um, look, it it wasn’t good. You didn’t make the big saves that you needed to, but with that being said, Bennington was the reason that it was only a one-goal deficit after the first period. You know, the first period ends, the Blues were outshot 12 to five. They were out chanced 7 to4 in terms of high danger chances. Uh 14-10. Corsy rating was 61 to 39%. At one point, the Blues were stuck in their own zone for 3 minutes and 1 second. I’m sorry, it was it was uh 3 minutes and 15 seconds. Stuck in their own end. Gave up four total shots on goal. Took the penalty. Gave up the power play goal. and then were never able to pull themselves back into it. But Bennington was the reason it was a one-goal deficit, but then the floodgates open. Now look, that Ovetchkin goal um Bennington’s far on the post, he tries to get back. It bounces off of Walker’s skate regardless. Break down in your own end that started with Bennington um delivering the pass to his defenseman and then the Blues were unable to clear the zone. But then from there, the first Boilier goal just skates right in. Tucker tries to make the clear along the boards. It doesn’t get to Sunquist. Picked off. Goes to the front of the net. Carlson just skates into the middle of the ice and is able to turn around and wrist a shot past Pennington. Bollier again just skates in and is able to dance straight to the goalender on a puck that I think the Blues thought it was dead because of the hand pass, but because Mayu touched it with his glove, it was a it was a free play still for Washington and they took advantage of it. But one, you can’t give up seven times five or more goals and expect things to go your direction. You know, tonight they gave up 12 high danger scoring chances, which was an area that they improved on against Columbus and against Edmonton. And then on top of all of that, your goalie wasn’t able to make the save. And it’s not so much that it’s all on the goalies. It’s it’s the goalending not ma not cleaning up the mistakes in front of them. And that goes back to what Doug Armstrong had said a couple of weeks ago when he was asked by Bruce Budro of you know what’s gone wrong with this team. I think Bruce talked about the tight schedule and Armstrong’s like it’s not the schedule. He said our team doesn’t have anything to fall back on. You know, last year in the midst of them struggling early on, they always fell back on their goalending because their goalending would just keep them in hockey games. Now, your goal is not able to make that. And so, what happens, the mistakes you make are are um are glorified essentially, like they’re they’re bigger than what they supposed to be, but still it it you need to make the save. And on top of all of this, uh, pulling Jordan Bennington in this game just sets you up for even more problems moving forward because now you’ve got the decision either go back to Bennington or play Hoffer after he played one and a half periods of hockey. Um I I think you have to play Hoffer tomorrow because if you don’t play Hoer, we’re talking about Jordan Bennington playing in what is it 12 of the 14 games that that we’ve seen so far this season in terms of three times a goalender has been pulled in. Two of those has been Jordan Bennington. And with a backto back and then a game on Saturday and then you got another backtoback next week, you can’t afford to be doing this with your goalenders. So, this was a game that you really need your goalies to to come up with a big save at the right time to just kind of um just kind of pull your team into the fight. And my goodness, they did not have that. And that’s the second takeaway. I I’m really surprised at how flat this offense looked tonight. Uh they ended the game with a total of 24 shots on goal. But, you know, you go through this. Braden Shen didn’t have a shot attempt, which I mean Braden Shen was doing a lot more than worrying about shots, trying to pull his team into the fight, but Pavle Buchavich played 16 minutes and 44 seconds and had one shot on goal. Uh, you had no shot attempts from Colton Pereo, which is just something that hurts this team when you don’t have your defenseman involved. Uh, you had one shot, two shots, I’m sorry, for Jordan Kyu. You had one shot for Robert Thomas. You had one shot for Cam Fowler. You had two shots for Justin Faulk. Like the DNA of this team in terms of puck possession and offensive zone is their defenseman getting involved. And not only were they not getting involved in the offensive side, but they weren’t even helping keep plays alive on the offensive side. So, um, to to get stuck in your own end for 3 minutes and 15 seconds and not be able to get the puck out, to have a total of four high danger scoring chances in the second and third period, uh, to possess the puck 39% of the time, and to give up 35 total scoring chances with a group that just shut down two of the best players in the game on top of out chancing that Edmonton Oilers team, I it’s just a jackal and hide group. It’s a jackal and hide group. And then the third takeaway is special teams. Um your power play, I agree with Curbs, is is has been good. Hasn’t been great. It’s been good. I mean, when you’re top 10 in the National Hockey League, that’s a good unit. Here’s the problem, though. The timeliness, in my opinion, is what’s really hurting them. They’re three for eight with chances to take the lead on the power play, which overall isn’t that bad of a number, but also tells me you’re not drawing a whole lot of power play opportunities. You’re three for seven, I’m sorry, two for seven with power play chances to tie the hockey game. And we saw the impact what Daore D’vorski’s goal did against the Edmonton Oilers and they weren’t able to accomplish that in this one. So, um, that on top of your penalty kill being bottom five in the N, I’m sorry, bottom three in the National Hockey League now cuz you were 28th coming into the game and you gave up another power play goal. I looked at this. So, from the moment Jim Montgomery was hired last season up until the Four Nations break, the Blues had the 32nd penalty kill in the National Hockey League. They were the worst penalty kill in the National Hockey League. From when Jim Montgomery took over until the four Nations break, then from the Four Nations break until the end of the season, they were the seventh best in the National Hockey League. Right now, you’re probably sitting bottom three in the National Hockey League. I don’t know what’s happening with this penalty kill because it’s not that they’re getting stuck in their own end. It’s they’re losing a faceoff and they don’t know how to get set up and the first shot is beating them. Whether it’s the Oilers skill along the goal line, whether it’s John Carlson taking the shot and Tom Wilson standing right in front of the crease to just deflect the puck down and into the back of the net, it it’s just not the same team you saw against the Oilers. It’s not the same team you saw against the Vancouver Conucks. This one looked a lot more like the team you saw against the Detroit Red Wings or the team you saw against the Utah Mammoth um a couple of weeks ago. So, uh, on top of all of that, man, the Blues just never they were never pulled into this hockey game. I I mean, it’s like when that Ovetkin goal went in, the Blues looked at it as I don’t know if we’re coming back into this one. And then from there, you gave up a goal two minutes later, and then from there, goal five minutes later, and then next thing you know, that snowball just poured on top of them. But man, the Shen fight trying to pull them back into it. You had um Bennington making the saves he did in the first period trying to pull them back into it. It just feels like right now it’s a shoulder shrug emoji with the Blues. I don’t know if it’s disconnection of the players on the ice. I don’t know if it’s just not digging in deep into what Jim Montgomery is trying to get them to accomplish on the ice, but it’s areas of the game that they’ve told us they feel like they’re making strides with, but they take this step backwards. And my good buddy BK uh went back and looked through this because it’s the seventh time that the Blues have given up five or more goals this season. That’s they’re the 11th team in the last 25 years to give up se five or more goals in seven of their first 14 games in the past 25 years. I’m not going to list off all of these teams, but those 11 teams, five of those 11 teams picked in the top five of the draft. Four of those top 11 teams picked in the top three. Uh, and the only ones that didn’t was or the only one that didn’t was the Colorado Avalanche as they made the playoffs and that was this past season with 102 points. Um, and they have Nathan McKinnon on their team. So, that’s how you pull yourself out of if your goalies or your defense aren’t performing well. But overall, just a game right now for the Blues that I would imagine Jim Montgomery is questioning just as much as we are questioning um, what has gone wrong with this team. So, those are my TED Drews three takeaways. If you’ve got takeaways, you can send them over to us, 314399646. You can also uh send them over on our YouTube channel at 101 ESPN STL. We’ll get to some of your comments and your thoughts in our next segment. We’ll hopefully hear a little from Jim Montgomery. But now, let’s get to our sound bite of the night. The sound bite of the night is presented by Rocket Convenience Stores. Fuel your car and your daily cravings at Rocket Convenience Stores. Pennington plays it down to the corner. We have seen some wacky exchanges here. Caps shoot it wide to the goal. Ovetkin on the back hand. He scores. A no backhanded shot for career goal number 900. The Capitals bench skates all the way over to the near wing. And an unthinkable number has been seen tonight in Washington. It’s a It’s a real crappy game to be a part of if you’re the Blues, but man, that is really cool. It is really cool to get to see Alex Ovuchetkin do what he is doing and put up 900 goals this season. Uh so that one was easily our sound bite of the night. We’ll take a break. We’ll come back. We’ll see if we can hear a little from Jim Montgomery, have our sound bite of the night or no, we just had our sound bite of the night. We’ll have our final look and we’ll get to some of your uh thoughts and questions um over on our YouTube channel at 101 ESPN STL. The Blues fall to the Capitals tonight 6 to1. Alex Ferrario with you on your home for the Blues 101 ESPN. Alex Ferrario back with you to tell you about my friends out at Classic Hair Care who has been helping people stay comfortable since 1926. And whether you’ve got an older HVAC system that you’re just trying to keep alive for a few more years or maybe you got a newer unit, but you want to make sure that it lasts you as long as it possibly can. And that’s where the maintenance agreement comes into play. It’s uh twice a year Classic Care Care comes out, they check the unit, clean the unit, fine-tune it, make sure everything’s good to go for the upcoming seasons that you’re about to go through. Whether it’s the hot summer or the freezing cold winter, right now the fall maintenance, it’s a perfect time to get your furnace checked out before you go into the winter seasons. And the perks of that maintenance agreement when you sign up is if any issues pop up in between those two visits throughout the year, you get priority scheduling because you’re a part of that maintenance agreement family with Classic Air Care. I’ve been using them since 2016. My dad has been using them for his home since as long as I can remember. They’ve been helping people comfortable since 1926. So call them today. schedule online. Do me a favor and tell them Alex Ferrario sent you. Classic aircare and classicaircare.com Welcome back into tonight’s Fourth Period. It’s brought to you by First Community Credit Union presented by Power Scotley Heating Company and Urban Chestnut Brewing Company. We’re live up on our YouTube channel at 101 ESPN STL along with our producer Grant Francis. I’m Alex Ferrario. Was the Blues fall to the Capitals tonight, 6 to1. So, let me uh let me run through some of these things that I’ve written down uh because there’s I hate to be negative, Nancy, but I just it’s where the Blues are at right now. But, we’ve already mentioned it’s the seventh time um this season that the Blues have allowed five or more goals. Grant looked at this one during the game. The Blues did that 10 times last year. 10 times last season. They gave up five or more goals. They’ve done it already seven times in 14 games. On top of that, in 14 games, the Blues have had players, 12 different players be on hat-tick watch at some point in a game. There have been 10 games, so 10 of the 14 games, there have been at least one player that’s been on hat-tick watch, which means two games, two players were on hat-tick watch in the games. Now, the Blues only gave up two hatticks so far, but still not a good number to have on that one. They’re the 10th. It’s the 10th time they gave up a goal in the first three minutes of a period. That one that they gave up 3 minutes into the period was Alex Ovuchkin at even strength. And it’s the ninth time this season that they have given up two goals in a twominute span. All of these details are are are showcasing the snowball effect that’s really hurting this Blues. And look, you can blame the goalending, you could blame the defense, you could blame the forwards, whatever you want. It’s a team mentality. Sure, your goalie needs to make the save, but your defense needs to make the play to get the puck out of the end. And sure, your defense needed to get that puck out. But you know what? Forward bobbled it. it it’s like the Blues have the yips because the structure is in place. And I know people will push back and say, “No, it’s not Ferrari.” I mean, look, we saw it against the Dallas Stars. You saw it against the Edmonton Oilers. You saw it against the Vancouver Conucks. It’s just three breakdowns led to Vancouver scoring. And in all reality, you saw it against Columbus. It’s just you couldn’t generate any offense. So, the structures in place. That to me is the bigger concern. You know, the structure works. You saw it last year and you’ve seen it in games this season, but the Blues can’t execute it consistently. And it goes back to the question Joey asked after that Blue Jackets loss. Why can’t this team put a consistent 60 minutes together? Some of it feels like the Yips. This team doesn’t have a whole lot of confidence right now. I’ve seen a lot of people saying like, well, your best players aren’t your best players. To an extent that’s true, but tonight Pavle Buchavich, Robert Thomas, and Jimmy Snuger was the best line on the ice in both teams. They had a 78% Corsy rating. They outchanced their opponents 9 to4 and had three high danger scoring chances and allowed two high danger scoring chances. I mean, that’s that’s the that’s your top line. The problem was everything else in between. 23% Corsy rating for Walker, Buchad, and Torupchenko, which scoring chance they were out chanced seven to two. You don’t have an identity line. That’s a big factor into all of this. Uh Shen, Pew, Sudter, and Jordan Kyu, that was a 40% Corsy rating. They were out chanced two to three. And then Holloway D’vorski and Sunquist, they were out chanced six to one. And then for a small sample there, they had Holloway, Sudter, and Shen going. They took Kyu off of that line combination and that one had one scoring chance, didn’t allow one, but they were only out there for about a minute and 16 seconds. So, yes, I understand people saying, “Well, your top players aren’t your top players.” They’re generating the offense. They’re not scoring. And then the other side of this is they’re also not stopping the opposition from rushing up the ice and and beating them. But tonight, I I I don’t believe Yeah. Papabuch, David, Robert Thomas, and Jimmy Stugarude were not a minus in this game tonight. Everybody else was. So again, we could sit here and point fingers and say it’s the goalie, say it’s the defenseman. It’s the team. The team’s not playing in a connective tissue like you saw them play last year. So, a couple of these, see if we get a little from Jim Montgomery. Um, otherwise, we’ll get to a piece of audio from Jim Montgomery. But uh Steve Zizoo over on our uh on on our Twitter account said, “Alex, there’s just no energy tonight. I normally don’t get down on this team early. Having players for 20 or having played for 20 years, um I can’t pinpoint what the problem is. The journey to a top pick is real at this point. We need to make a sacrifice.” I That’s I think the biggest issue right now. They just don’t come out of the gate hot. And I don’t know if I don’t know if Washington came out of the gate hot tonight. Like it felt like both sides were a little passive. But the difference is when one team has a chance to execute, they finish and the other team misses their chances and when one goes in, it just feels like the game gets away from them from there. Um a over on our YouTube channel uh asked the question, Alex, honest question. Do you consider getting rid of any coaches? Not Jim Montgomery, but one of the assistants. Uh, no. I I I don’t think that does anything because it’s not that the coaches are telling them to play a certain way. Again, we’ve seen the structure against Dallas against Edmonton. That’s two of the best teams in the National Hockey League. Their records don’t show up, but they will be at the end of the season. So, they just they were telling them the wrong way to play and then that game they just decided to play the right way and then the next game they didn’t. The penalty kill was a problem and I’m not taking that away. But it’s not like one coach just takes on the penalty kill and nobody else focuses on it. It’s a group of coaches. They work together. One’s in charge, but they all focus on it. They all work on it in practice. To me, this isn’t a coach. I’m I’m so sick of the coach narrative of, well, you probably need to fire a coach. Man, at some point, you got to look at the players. At some point you got to look at the roster and say they need to follow through with what’s being put in front of them because again they played this way last year. They played hard last year. Not that they’re not playing hard now. It’s just inconsistent and the inconsistency is what is burning this Blues team. And I don’t know what’s going to happen the rest of the way. I mean history doesn’t work in their favor. I gave you the November 1st number that Elliot Freriedman brought up that only 10 of 72 teams on November 1st that are four or more points out of a playoff spot make the playoffs. And on top of those 72 teams, 69% of those teams are drafting in the top five, I’m sorry, top 10, 50% of those teams that were four points out on November 1st were drafting in the top five. So, I I don’t know what it’s going to look like at the end of the season, but you can’t expect to just be a second half team and go on a 13game win streak. You got to start performing well early. And right now, the Blues just aren’t aren’t in a spot to do that, at least consistency-wise. I know they felt like they were making progress, but tonight felt like it was a step backwards uh for the Blues. So, appreciate everybody joining in on the chat over on the YouTube channel and of course on our text line um 314399646. Now, let’s go back to a cut from Jim Montgomery that he had prior to the game with our uh Jim Montgomery audio. It’s time to hear from the head coach Jim Montgomery presented by Fiser Window and Door Store offering quality Americanmade Marvin windows and doors. Visit their showrooms in Brentwood or East Alton, Illinois. the team game is built in the right way. We we’ve gotten significantly better defensively, which you know, the beginning of the year, our first nine games was uh not good enough. Left our goalies out to dry. Uh we’ve really shored that area up and you’re starting to see more puck possession. You see us making more plays cuz we’re creating turnovers, which is helping our offense. Yeah. So, that was Jim Montgomery prior to the game tonight and it felt like all of that took a step backwards. We didn’t get any audio from uh the Blues out in Washington. So, we’ll have to wait until um we get that later on and then we’ll have the audio for you tomorrow on 101 ESPN, but they just didn’t play that way. What he said there is not what we saw on the ice tonight. It just it never felt like there was a spurt for the Blues to where they started to build back momentum. And that it might be the biggest issue. Um actually, you know what? Before I do that, let’s hit our final look. It’s time to take a look back at tonight’s game with a final look driven by Pure Performance. Only stop for all your aftermarket vehicle needs. You know that that might be their biggest issue right now. Their biggest issue just is look, they don’t when when the team’s flat, they don’t have somebody that can just go out there and and and and pull the ignition and get the team going. uh you know like when you look at some of the teams right now around the National Hockey League that that have it you know if Colorado doesn’t have their game guess what they still have Nathan McKinnon if Edmonton doesn’t have their game guess what Conor McDavid or Dallas Mo Rantin like Toronto Toronto is a perfect example what felt like they were falling off the face of the earth over the last few games the last two they’ve had comeback victories in both of them why Austin Matthews has steamrolled it like you just don’t have that player but they’ve never been built that way. They’ve always been built the team mentality. And man, that pack mentality is just not coming through right now for the Blues. And you know, I don’t know if it’s the yips. I don’t know if it’s just the confidence is shot right now, but it’s a tough spot to be in if you’re St. Louis because what feels like you’re making progress and then you get kind of slapped across the face um the way that they’ve done, it’s it’s just not good for the Blues. And you know, one player specifically that I’ve seen some people talking about um after this game tonight is Logan Mayu. This one felt like a step backwards for him, too. Um you know, he has that he has that diving try on that puck going up the ice that he put his hand on that could have been stopped because it was a hand pass, but instead Bollier scores. Um he was a minus three tonight. Played 1352. Um the other team had 10 shots on goal while the Blues had two at five on five when Mayu was on the ice. He felt like he was making progress and then tonight felt like it was a step backwards, but in all reality it was a step backwards for everybody on the roster, I would imagine, is what Jim Montgomery is going to have to say. So, um look, let’s just wrap it up. Nothing good can happen past 10:00 talking about this team um after a loss like this. So hopefully they can turn it around tomorrow. Like like Curbs and Joey mentioned, the good news for the Blues is they go right back to play another game. Um, you know, sometimes after these it’s nice to just play rather than sit around and think about it until you play on Saturday. But another tough opponent because you take on the Buffalo Sabres and I know you might chuckle at that when you hear it, but Buffalo who started off poorly has been playing a little bit better hockey as of late. They have only lost one loss in regulation in their last 10 games and they’ve been really good on home ice at 52 and two. So it’ll be a tough task for the Blues tomorrow. They’ll be back at it in Buffalo to wrap up the backtoback set. It’ll be a 6:00 puck drop with a 5:00 pregame show right here on your home for the Blues 101 ESPN. Once again, a huge shout out to Grant Francis who has done a great job as always. I’m Alex Ferrario. Hope everyone has a great rest of their evening. I’ll talk to you tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. for BKN Ferrario. We’ll talk to you at 5 for Blues and Sabers right here on your home for the Blues 101 SBM.

The Capitals shut down the Blues 6-1.