preserved the lead on route to a 6-2 final<\/a>.<\/p>\nPro: \u00a0Special teams<\/p>\n
The Blues’ special teams remain somewhat of an enigma. \u00a0They seem to go back and forth like the pendulum of an old-time clock.<\/p>\n
They swung in the right direction for this game, and it was a big reason the team won. \u00a0While special teams wasn’t the only reason, it played a large part in the story.<\/p>\n
The power play had some hiccups, but the reality is they got two goals on four chances. \u00a0The only truly frustrating thing about that is that all they needed to do was score 25-50% of the time in the early going, and this season might have gone differently. \u00a0At least they’re clicking more regularly now.<\/p>\n
On the flip side, the penalty kill was absolutely embarrassing early in the season. \u00a0Now it’s bordering on a strength. \u00a0They kept the Ducks off the board three times, including several in key spots.<\/p>\n
Con: \u00a0Track meet<\/p>\n
While the Blues won, and that’s the important thing, they still let some bad habits creep back in. \u00a0Namely, the defense was a bit lax, and the game got too open.<\/p>\n
The odd thing was the stats won’t show it. \u00a0The Ducks only had eight shots in the first period and nine in the second.<\/p>\n
But the Ducks missed the net several times on grade-A looks. \u00a0The shots on net don’t indicate how much Anaheim actually created.<\/p>\n
This was quite evident with their second goal. \u00a0I don’t want to blame Stenberg alone, but there was a lack of focus and puck watching, rather than keeping skates moving and maintaining rink awareness. \u00a0If not for Hofer and some bad misses for the Ducks, the score could have been much closer.<\/p>\n
Pro: \u00a0Multi-point nights<\/p>\n
While the top line has been red-hot for the Blues, multiple guys stepped up and contributed to the offense against the Ducks. \u00a0Six players in total had multi-point nights.<\/p>\n
The biggest factor was Thomas and Holloway. \u00a0Thomas had a goal and two assists, getting three points and two helpers on both of Holloway’s goals.<\/p>\n
Holloway was a power play machine. \u00a0Both of his goals came with the man advantage.<\/p>\n
Broberg picked up two points. \u00a0Parayko had a goal and two points, as did Suter.<\/p>\n
Neighbours had two assists, with the biggest being that bull rush up the left wing. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Con: \u00a0Fourth line<\/p>\n
This is a nitpick more than a true criticism. \u00a0The fourth line was on the ice for both of the Anaheim goals, so it wasn’t the best of nights for them as all three were minus-2.<\/p>\n
However, Nathan Walker still mixed it up with six hits in the game, so they were still doing their job. \u00a0If Stenberg backchecks a little harder, that one goal likely doesn’t happen, so it was just an off couple of shifts, really.<\/p>\n
Overview:<\/p>\n
The Blues are pretty much ticking everyone off right now, and the chaotic part of my personality is here for it. \u00a0With every win down the stretch, the team is making all the tank-for-whomever crowd unhappy, and that makes me happy. \u00a0It would be great to have a high pick, but I never want any franchise I cheer for to make that a goal.<\/p>\n
On the flip side, the way this team plays in their wins is aggravating because we know they’re capable of playing like this all the time. \u00a0They should be a playoff team with the vague hope of catching Minnesota for the third divisional spot instead of needing to win almost every game left just to have a chance for a wild card spot.<\/p>\n
That being said, this was a reasonably solid performance for 60 minutes. \u00a0As mentioned, things got loose defensively, and the Ducks could easily have buried several of those, and the game would have been closer.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, the reality is the Blues buried their best chances, and the Ducks didn’t. \u00a0St. Louis took down a team challenging for the top spot in the Pacific Division, and that’s nothing to sneeze at.<\/p>\n
Now, the Blues have to improve their own divisional record as the season winds down. \u00a0The Blues have a solid-to-great record against everyone else, but they’ve stunk against the Central.<\/p>\n
Five of their final six games are against divisional opponents, so St. Louis has to change their record there if it wants to make the postseason. \u00a0All they can do is try to win their own games and see how the rest shakes out. \u00a0They ended their road trip on a good note, which sets things up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The St. Louis Blues came into their game against the Anaheim Ducks knowing that another loss on this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[2210,233,5292,1739,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-540158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim-ducks","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-ducks","10":"tag-anaheimducks","11":"tag-ducks","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116346405873706084","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}