Sunday, October 22, 2017

St. Louis Blues vs Vegas Golden Knights - Game 9 Recap

Vegas Scores Game Winner in Last Half-Minute of Overtime
Goals: Paajarvi (1), Pietrangelo (3)
Record 6-2-1

My Thoughts on Tonight's Game

  • Our team defense has shown flashes of brilliance! We only allowed 19 shots on goal in regulation after only allowing 8 shots from Chicago in first 2 periods. If we can extend that to a full 60 minutes it will be tough for anyone to beat us.
  • However, Jake Allen had no chance on two goals in 2nd period.  Again, we are allowing opponents to stand around in front of our goalie and screen him from seeing the puck.
  • Not scoring on the Man Advantage is costing us.  We were 0-4 on the power play and now have only scored once in our last 19 chances.  Last power play goal we scored was against Florida 5 games ago.
  • Vegas is a very aggressive team.  They don't give you any space and are always pursuing the puck.  They don't just stand around.  They made it tough on us to pass and get into an offensive rhythm.  Even though we had 49 shots on goal, you can't deny their aggressiveness.
  • We had a lot of sloppy passes in first 50 minutes or so.  Several times we lost the offensive zone and had to back out and start over just because we couldn't keep it in.
  • Sammy Blais was leading the team in hits at one point in this game, I think. He and Vince Dunn are promising prospects.  
  • I felt that the refs swallowed their whistles in the overtime.  Two times they didn't call penalties that seemed fairly obvious.
  • Brayden Schenn seems to have stepped up his intensity even more.  He was all over the place tonight.  I like Schenn.
  • Oskar Sundqvist has also picked up his play.  His wrap-around attempt led to Magnus Paajarvi goal. 
  • Scottie Upshall played hard tonight.  He scrapped and scraped for every loose puck and left it all on the ice.
  • Jaden Schwartz nearly won it in regulation on the pass from Vladimir Tarasenko with 5 seconds left.  I still don't know how he didn't get it in the net on that play.
  • Vladimir Tarasenko was the reason we scored the goal that tied the game.  He didn't get an assist because I guess they don't give 3 assists on a goal, but he went into the corner and dug the puck out on the forecheck.  That goal doesn't happen without his hustle.
  • Colton Parayko is a beast.  You just don't see anybody beating him very easily.  His size, reach and overall defensive skill is hard to overlook. 
  • Power play has been lackluster.  We gotta find somebody who will get in front and stay in front and until that happens, even 49 shots on goal isn't going to win games.
  • Bottom line, we got a point on the road.  
#AllTogetherNowStL #LGB

2 comments:

  1. you hit it on all points
    I like this new blog.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. Hope you check back in once in a while and feel free to comment.

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