No matter what, the Blues were going to host a hugely important game Friday night on their home ice. Either they’d try to clinch a playoff series win, or hope to stave off elimination.
Well, it’s now win or call it a season for the Blues.
Thus far, playing at home has made an immense difference in this series. So why not see that trend continue? It’d sure be great to see the Blues play most of the game not backed up in their own end.
With the Winnipeg Jets aiming to stamp out what remains of the Blues season, it’d behoove the Blues to, perhaps, possess the puck. They’d certainly stand to benefit from putting the spotlight back on Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck.
In other words, don’t repeat that dreadful, no good, very bad Game 5. While the Blues’ comments to reporters following the game in Winnipeg seemed to focus on moving on from that game, what’s more important is to avoid duplicating it.
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The Blues turned Hellebuyck into a suspect in a whodunit movie or TV drama, sweating it out under intense prodding and grilling. Hellebuyck didn’t hold up very well under that type of grilling in Game 3 and Game 4. He unraveled, and so did the Jets.
But after the Blues trounced Hellebuyck and his henchmen by a combined score of 12-3 in Enterprise Center, they let the Jets dictate the flow of Game 5. They certainly let Hellebuyck up off the mat.
Not until the third period did the Blues put together something resembling synchronized transitions from offense to defense, crisp offensive zone entries and sustained offensive possessions that featured multiple scoring chances.
Mustering just nine shots on goal through two periods spoke volumes of the Blues’ lack of offensive pressure. Their forecheck wasn’t what it had been. When the Blues did possess the puck, the Jets effectively shrunk the ice, boxed in the puck and limited Blues scoring chances, particularly in the first two periods.
The Blues registered 10 shots in the third, which qualified as a flurry compared with the rest of night.
The net-front battle was as balanced as a seesaw with an anvil on one end and a feather on the other. That imbalance along with an ill-timed lapse or two gave dangerous offensive players like Kyle Connor just enough time and space in the middle of the ice and left Blues goalie Jordan Binnington handcuffed.
A week ago, Blues coach Jim Montgomery put a fine point on his team’s Game 3 victory and Binnington’s impact in it.
“We have a great playoff goalie, a proven playoff goalie who makes great timely saves,” Montgomery said late last Thursday night.
Montgomery finished that comment by praising the way his team protected the net-front.
Wednesday night in Winnipeg, the Blues didn’t give Binnington much opportunity to be great, and they didn’t protect the net front the way they had in Enterprise Center.
If frustration and disappointment seem to leap off the page or the screen as you read, well that’s on purpose.
If you felt those same things following Wednesday night’s game, then know that you’re justified.
That’s not a commentary on the Blues’ will or ability to win Friday night. In fact, it’s the opposite.
They’ve given us reason to believe they can knock off the Jets. That’s what made Wednesday maddening.
That Blues run to end the regular season — a stretch that included a franchise-record 12-game winning streak (the longest streak in the NHL this season) and a 21-5-4 record from Feb. 2 through the end of the regular season — didn’t just get the Blues into the playoffs. It changed the prism through which we’re viewing this postseason.
The Blues didn’t head into the playoffs as a plucky underdog story, just hoping to show well against the Presidents’ Trophy winners. They aren’t some fluke entrant into the postseason, completely overmatched by a superior hockey club.
No. They came into the playoffs having already shown they can compete with any team in the NHL.
The league-high 46 points they accumulated after Groundhog’s Day wasn’t just a fun ride. It proved that the style of play and identity they’d established under Montgomery, particularly after the 4 Nations Face-Off ournament, made them a formidable hockey team.
The reemergence of Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich as upper-level players in the NHL as well as a tandem to be reckoned with, the steady all-around play of Brayden Schenn, the continued growth of Jake Neighbours and the activation of the D corps as vital offensive contributors, weren’t just neat storylines.
Even without injured forward Dylan Holloway this series, the Blues played like a team capable of sending the Jets home with a lot of explaining to do.
Any suggestion that it was inevitable that the Blues fall to the Jets should go over like a patronizing pat on the head. Swat that mess away.
If the Blues lose while playing the same connected, relentless, hard-nosed team game they made their trademark the past three months, that’s one thing.
But that’s not what happened Wednesday night.
So while Friday night is obviously about extending the series and getting to Game 7, it’s also about the Blues getting back to playing their brand of hockey, not spending two-thirds of the night on their heels and making sure the final impression of this pivotal season isn’t woefully uncharacteristic of who they’ve become.
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