A
point is nice, but from a selfish standpoint, the St. Louis Blues needed another.
The
Blues turned up empty on their season-ending three-game road trip,
falling to the Seattle Kraken, 4-3 in a shootout, on Saturday at
Climate Pledge Arena.
So
that makes three straight losses (0-2-1) after a franchise-record
12-game winning streak by the Blues (43-30-8), who lost ground to the
Minnesota Wild, who rallied from a 2-0 third-period deficit to down
the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2 in overtime on Saturday.
So
as it stands going into Sunday, the Wild have 95 points, the Blues
have 94 and each have one game remaining; the Calgary Flames have 90
points and have three games remaining it stands as this for the
Blues:
*
They can clinch if the Flames lose in regulation against the San Jose
Sharks on Sunday.
*
They clinch with a regulation win in their season finale against Utah
Hockey Club on Tuesday.
The
Flames can technically catch the Blues in points. The two teams can
max out at 96 points, but if the Flames win all three of their
remaining games in regulation, and the Blues win against Utah in
overtime or a shootout, the Flames would own the first tiebreaker and
that’s regulation wins (32-31) and thus would eliminate the Blues.
Any
Flames loss in regulation would eliminate the Flames altogether,
because they could tie the Blues in regulation wins (RW, 31-31), but
the Blues own the next tiebreaker, which is regulation or overtime
wins (ROW) 39-34.
Sound
complicated enough? We will break it all down as each day passes.
As
for Saturday, it was the return of Colton Parayko for the Blues. The
defenseman missed the past 17 games (the Blues were 13-3-1) with a
left knee injury suffered March 5 against the Los Angeles Kings. He
would score in his return and play 23:21 and was a plus-1 with two
shots on goal, two hits and five blocks.
Nick
Leddy had a goal and an assist, and Radek Faksa scored for the Blues,
while Jordan Binnington made 14 saves.
The
Blues lost the shootout in seven rounds when Chandler Stephenson
scored, and Jimmy Snuggerud was denied to end it.
Let’s
go into Saturday’s Three Takeaways:
*
Five chances in a shootout to get extra point – The Blues need
points, and even a shootout point would have been massive.
They
had five chances – five – to end the game in a shootout after
Jake Neighbours and Robert Thomas opened with shootout goals off
Philipp Grubauer.
It
was 2-1 in the third round, but Binnington couldn’t make the save
on Kappo Kakko, but then Brayden Schenn had a chance to win it but
hit the post.
And
when Binnington made saves on Matt Beniers, Shane Wright and Jared
McCann, the Blues had the puck on their stick three times to win, and
Zack Bolduc, Pavel Buchnevich and Jordan Kyrou each failed to produce
the winner.
And
when Stephenson beat Binnington, who was 4-for-7 on his shootout
attempts, Snuggerud pulled the puck back to his backhand and not sure
if Grubauer got a stick on his attempt or not, but the puck sailed
over the net to end it on his first NHL shootout attempt.
It
ended the trip with one point, and at least a point was lost when the
Blues fell to the Edmonton Oilers, 4-3, on Wednesday giving up a late
third-period goal to lose that one.
*
Unable to hold lead in third period after fighting back – The Blues
entered the third period down a goal, thanks to old friend Jaden
Schwartz’s fortuitous bounce that gave Seattle a 1-0 lead at 3:44
of the second period and needed a comeback.
They
started it and it was Radek Faksa who tied it 1-1 at 1:06 on an
effort play and forecheck, keeping a puck alive at the blue line
before getting it to the net and finish by banking it in off a
flailing Grubauer.
But
Seattle would retake the lead 2-1 when Mikey Eyssimont scored at 6:44
after a Tyler Tucker turnover making a pass from his zone into the
neutral zone that was picked off.
But
the Blues would strike twice in 13 seconds when Parayko tied it 2-2
at 7:21 off a little 2-on-1 with Robert Thomas, who extended his
point streak to 11 games (four goals, 19 assists) when the Blues
caught Seattle with a couple forwards back behind the Blues’ goal
line.
Then
Leddy made it 3-2 at 7:34 after a pressure forecheck, winning a puck
back, Bolduc finding Leddy and his shot from the high slot into the
top shelf.
That
makes it 46 goals by Blues D-men, which is second behind the Colorado
Avalanche, who have 52.
That’s
when the Blues needed to buckle down and take away ice and again
allowed the tying goal, this time to Wright, after Jamie Oleksiak
walked past Ryan Suter before sliding the puck into the bottom of the
slot and the puck caromed in off Wright’s skate while being
contested by Alexey Toropchenko to tie the game 3-3 at 9:53.
The
Blues had been so good at shutting down things in the third period,
but in the past three games have allowed, that’s six goals allowed
on this trip (including one empty-netter) in three third periods.
*
Played slow, sluggish early – For the second time in three games on
this trip, the Blues started slow and looked uninspired.
Their
three first-period shots and minimal O-zone time marked three
straight games with fewer than 10 shots in the opening period and
just 14 total, including three at Winnipeg and three tonight.
We
keep going back to having to play without Dylan Holloway, who remains
out week to week with a lower-body injury, but his absence has
affected the play of all the lines.
It’s
hardly the kind of play you want to see while desperately trying to
lock down a wild card berth and forced them to play from behind twice
in this game before they got things going in the right direction in
the third.
*
Hear what coach Jim Montgomery, Parayko and Leddy had to say
postgame:
