The St. Louis Blues had no time to wallow in their less-than-stellar performance against the New Jersey Devils. 24 hours later, they had to face a Minnesota Wild squad that is still trying to pry the second divisional playoff seed away from the Dallas Stars.
It didn't look good for the Blues early. The fourth line immediately allowed a grade-A chance from the high slot that was denied by Joel Hofer. The next time out for the Wild's top line saw a partial breakaway for Karill Kaprisov that was also stopped.
The Blues' offense started to get going somewhat after that. Similar to the Devils game, they were mostly shots on goal that had zero chance of actually going in.
The Blues' best early look was an odd-man rush where Jordan Kyrou flung it in front for Philip Broberg. The Swedish defender fielded the pass, but didn't have enough room to really get a shot off.
St. Louis was actually winning the shot battle later into the period, but it still felt like Minnesota was the more dangerous of the two teams. Overall, the Blues kept things relatively even.
However, the worry was that they shot themselves in the foot. They took a late, first-period penalty, which carried over into the second. Like the Devils' game, the thought was that even though they killed it, the team would be put on their heels.
St. Louis was getting outshot 8-5 midway through, but the Blues were at least not quite so much in defensive mode as they were the previous night. Still, they were relying on Hofer far too much.
Another trend that continued was St. Louis' best chances not ending up as shots. Later in the second period, Dalibor Dvorsky got a between-the-legs pass across the goal to Dylan Holloway. Unfortunately, the puck went just under the toe of Holloway's stick, so it didn't end on goal.
Eventually, the Blues cracked after an erroneous high stick penalty on Jack Finley, where the Minnesota stick actually came up. St. Louis had a three-on-two shorthanded that, of course, became a three-on-one the other way.
Initially, St. Louis disrupted the first pass, but it still found Matt Boldy. He held on just long enough to connect with Kaprisov on the back door, and it was 1-0.
The Blues managed to answer less than two minutes later. The returning Robert Thomas entered the zone, left it for Logan Mailloux, and the much-maligned defender snapped one blocker side for the tying goal.
The third period was quite odd. Similar to the rest of the game, it didn't feel like the Blues were really that much in control, but they were at least winning some of those small battles, including the shot totals.
Their power play continued to do absolutely nothing, but they were taking time off the clock and not giving up breakout chances. Defensively, they were reasonably good, holding the Wild to four shots in the third.
The Blues finally got on the board again with under four minutes left. St. Louis won a board battle on a clearance up the wall by the Minnesota goalie, and then Pavel Buchnevich fired one in from just inside the top of the right circle to make it 2-1.
It felt like things would go the other way when the Blues could not clear it out with any confidence, and then the refs called icing on a Hofer clearance that went off a Wild forward. Hofer bailed the team out late with a lunging save on a wide-open Vladimir Tarasenko, and then Robert Thomas finally got the empty net goal for a 3-1 win.
Pro: Bearing down
This wasn't a pretty win. St. Louis continued to have a slightly mediocre second period, although it was nowhere near as poor as the Devils' game.
What was good to see was this team just buckling down and tightening the grip on this game. Even when they were down 1-0, they didn't let it get away from them.
The Blues tied it up soon after. Also, other than the first couple of shifts, the Blues did a good job of defending the Wild's top line. Considering the Blues didn't have Colton Parayko, it was impressive for them to do a good job of putting the handcuffs on that trio.
Yes, they needed big saves from Hofer, especially late, but as a team, they did a good job of keeping this game in check.
Con: Zone entires
It is most evident on the power play, but the Blues continue to struggle to get pucks in the zone while under control. I'm all for chip and chase if you're actually going to get in with speed and throw the body, but that's not this current team's style.
So, the fact that they get stood up at the blue line so often gets very frustrating. Even skilled guys are not immune.
I specifically remember a rush into the zone where the Blues got about two or three yards in the zone and dropped it to Dylan Holloway. Holloway proceeded to fumble the puck, which led to an easy clearance for Minnesota.
We know the book is out on the Blues' power play, but it seems evident that teams know they can just stand the Blues up at the blue line, even at even strength.
Pro: Hofer
Nobody is more tired of this disgusting goalie argument that goes on on social media, but I have to call it like I see it. The Blues won this game in large part due to Joel Hofer.
From a pure stats point of view, nobody is going to write home about 22 saves. Hofer made the big saves when the game was on the line.
He stopped that grade-A chance on the first shift of the game. Hofer stopped the Kaprisov breakaway shortly after.
While it was justice for the botched icing, the save Hofer made on Tarasenko was not one you'd expect, which makes it a huge one.
Overview:
In the three games the Blues have played since the Olympic break ended, we've seen the good, bad, and ugly. While many people will disagree with me, what I've liked is that these games are at least much more fun to watch.
So many games in the first two-thirds of the season were hard to watch and made you wish you had spent your time elsewhere. Even as bad as the Blues were in the second against New Jersey, it was still an overall game that didn't make you sad to be a Blues fan.
This game was kind of blah in the overall sense, but the Blues were doing those little things. They won board battles and won faceoffs. That's not sexy, but it sets you up for the possibility of success.
Mistakes were still made, but as Jim Montgomery said, the team was calm. They weren't panicking and allowing Minnesota to just overwhelm them.
Both Blues goals from the run of play were well done, and the Minnesota goal should never have happened since they shouldn't have been on the power play. Over the course of 60 minutes, this was an earned victory.