November 1, 2022
Final Score: St. Louis Blues: two – Nashville Predators: six
Pain. On Thursday, the Blues flew to the Music City to take on the Nashville Predators, and it did not go well. The Predators entered the contest having lost five games in a row, while the Blues entered this game having lost their last two. The stars had aligned for the Blues to stop their losing streak and get back on track. Matched up against a struggling divisional opponent who they historically play well against seemed like a perfect opportunity for the Blues to bounce back after a tough game against Edmonton on Wednesday. Things didn’t quite go as planned. This game was bad for numerous reasons, so let’s dive right in.
Keys Takeaways:
The defense:
Remember how the Blues’ defense was playing relatively well to start the year? Yeah that’s over now. The entire defensive core seemed hell-bent on bullying Blues goaltender, Thomas Greiss, this game by giving up breakaways and odd-man rushes as frequently as possible. Nobody looked good, but the already struggling second defensive pairing of Torey Krug and Justin Faulk looked particularly poor. There doesn’t appear to be an obvious solution to this problem other than praying it gets better. This defense has shown before that it can play well, but now they just need to remember the basic keys of defense before the season is over.
Buchnevich and Saad:
The injuries to forwards Brandon Saad and Pavel Buchnevich this past week were obviously going to negatively affect the team’s overall play, but what this game made apparent is just how much the Blues need them in order to succeed. Without the duo, the Blues don’t just struggle, they simply cannot function. The power-play misses them dearly while the defensive skill from the forward group drops tenfold with them out of the lineup. Neither the injury to Buchnevich or Saad appear to be extremely long term, so Blues fans can only hope for their speedy return to the lineup because without them, this team is dust.
Unlucky offense:
The Blues offense has been somewhat snake-bitten the past few games, specifically guys like Ryan O’Reilly and Jordan Kyrou. Kyrou registered five shots in the game while O’Reilly nabbed three of his own. They are getting chances, the pucks just aren’t going in. That type of drought isn’t sustainable and eventually, the Blues offense will have to start scoring, or they will end up trapped in a long gruesome desert with no escape. As of right now, fans can only hope that this offensive coldspell doesn’t last much longer.
Blues Bits Three-Stars of the Game:
Third Star: Noel Acciari
Noel Acciari wasn’t outright painful to watch, so I guess that’s where the bar is? The recently-acquired forward was able to get four shots on net as well as play a solid defensive game. With the lack of production and stability on the Blues bottom-six at the moment, it is encouraging to see a guy like Acciari play some solid hockey.
Second Star: Niko Mikkola – 2 hits
The Blues burly, 6-foot-4, Finnish defenseman played a solid game. As a defensive-defenseman, his entire job is to prevent the other team from scoring goals, and the Predators didn’t score while he was on the ice. So mission accomplished for Mikkola. The defenseman only played a tad over 13 minutes this game, but they were the least painful 13 minutes of the whole night.
First Star: Brayden Schenn – 1G
One of the few bright spots for the Blues in this game was the performance of Brayden Schenn. The forward netted himself a sweet power-play goal midway through the second period as well as racking up possible scoring opportunities for the Blues. Schenn is known to be both a streaky goal-scorer as well as fairly injury prone due to his style of play, so it would be advantageous for the Blues to strike while the iron is hot and pick up wins while Schenn is healthy and scoring.
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