Goal:Schenn (17)
Record 22-12-2
- There's not a lot to talk about with this game. Much of the same-old same-old with the lack of offense and the struggles on the power play.
- I felt that not only did we not possess the puck well and have much sustained offensive pressure, but we also are getting very careless with the puck in our own zone and sloppy play gave Calgary some scoring chances. Hutton made some nice saves to keep the score at 1-0 in the first.
- Calgary scored at 7:58 in the first on what at first appeared to be an outstanding save by rookie forward, Tage Thompson who cleared the puck from behind Carter Hutton. More on Thompson later. It was kind of a freakish play. After a scrum behind the net, the puck comes out to the slot and finds Mikael Backlund all alone, Hutton stops his shot but the rebound bounces straight up. Hutton doesn't see it but Michael Frolik gets a stick on it kind of behind Hutton's back. Thompson was in the crease and seemed to have swept the puck away just before it could cross the goal line. It was ruled "no goal" on the ice. Play continued for about 40 seconds and then the horn sounded. After review it was evident that the puck did cross the line to give the Flames a 1-0 lead.
- For those who may not be aware, the league is always looking at scoring chances on replay. If they see evidence that could overturn a call on the ice, they will send word and play is stopped in order for the on-ice officials to review the evidence. I think the NHL does a good job with video replay. The camera in the net is a great tool. The TV broadcast doesn't always have access to that footage and all the replays that were shown during the game still were kind of blurry to me. However, after seeing a screen shot of the angle from inside the net, it was undoubtedly a goal.
- It's getting old to be talking about the power play struggles after nearly every game, but tonight there was something more to talk about. The Blues had 4 power play chances during this game. On 2 or maybe even 3 of them, they looked as if THEY were the team shorthanded. Calgary, while short-handed put more pressure on and looked to be more of a scoring threat than the Blues did. It truly was frustrating to see us having to scramble and defend our end and to see Hutton having to hold the puck and give up a face-off in our own end just to alleviate the pressure on more than one occasion.
- We did manage to score one power play goal. Brayden Schenn scored his 17th of the season at 1:26 of the second period. It wasn't your typical power play goal. He just took the puck into the offensive zone, made a nifty move to get around the defense and flicked a wrist shot right past goalie Mike Smith. New ballgame. 1-1.
- Dougie Hamilton changed the outcome with a goal at the 7:57 mark of the third, when he took a whack at the puck and managed to knock it off the stick of Blues' Ivan Barbashev and past Carter Hutton, who thought the puck was going to be cleared away. It was a lucky bounce and caught Hutton off guard as he had kind of stood up and relaxed after making the initial save. Barbashev looked to be in control but Hamilton just swung his stick at it and it went straight in.
- Both Calgary goals were almost flukes, but they were goals none the less. St. Louis had a few chances but not a lot. Steen had a good scoring chance in the third, Edmundson hit the post or the side of the net on a long shot from the point, but the offense really has almost disappeared.
- We just have to keep clawing and scratching and hang on until we can get everyone healthy again. And then we gotta hope that when everyone is healthy again we can get back to playing the way we did during the first third of the season.
- The youngster, Tage Thompson was called up after Sammy Blais went on the IR. Thompson had been up for 4 games early in the season but seemed hesitant with his game, which is understandable. But tonight he was anything but hesitant. He looked like the best offensive threat on the ice most of the game. He's long and lanky at 6' 5" and 185 lbs. He's a right-handed shot, which the Blues are a little short on anyway, and he's got some moves. He played much more aggressive tonight on the line with Steen and Stastny. Good things are to come from this young man.
- Blues were outshot in this one 33-22. We did block 20 shots, but we are giving up too much offensive time for the opposing teams. We gave the puck away 8 times and Calgary took it away from us 11 more times. That's just not the way we are going to win games.
- Tonight it's on to Edmonton where I hope we can get things going in the right direction. Let's go Blues!
#AllTogetherNowStL #LGB
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