Blues Drop 4th Straight, Lose 3-2 to San Jose Sharks

San Jose Sharks vs St. Louis Blues - Game 61 Recap
Goals: Barbashev (4) and Tarasenko (24)
Record 34-23-4

My thoughts on the game

• Although it's the last week of February, this was the first matchup with the San Jose Sharks on the season. The Blues come into the game having lost their last 3 games and posting a record of 3-4-1 in the month of February and find themselves teetering on the edge of making or missing the playoffs.
• The Sharks, on the other hand, are 6-3 in February and sit in 2nd place in the Pacific Division only trailing the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
• Some lineup changes for the Blues included Sammy Blais being inserted on the Schenn, Schwartz line and Chris Butler paired on defense with Vince Dunn. Scratches include Sobotka who was sick, Thorburn and Bortuzzo who was shaken up a little in the Dallas game last Friday.
• Hutton got the start in goal and is still among the league leaders with a 1.81 GAA and .940 save percentage. His record is 15-5-2.
• Early in this one, Parayko gave up the puck in the defensive zone after he was trapped with little support. 
• The Sharks had a nice scoring chance but Hutton made a nice save to start the game. He got some nice help from Kyle Brodziak who got back and managed to get his stick on the stick of the Sharks player to keep him from getting much on the shot. 
• Brodziak is a player who doesn't get enough credit! Playing on the 3rd and 4th lines most of the year he may not stand out all of the time, but he's getting more ice time late in the games. He's gritty and makes a lot of good plays and he's good in the face-off circle. He's an underrated player on this team.  I certainly hope he is with the Blues again next year.
• Both teams had power-play opportunities in the first, but neither could capitalize.  
• Sammy Blais left the game with 1:30 left on the clock in the first period and never returned. They said later that he had concussion symptoms. It was a tough break as he was brought up to play on the 2nd line to add some offensive punch. He seemed to have found it down in the AHL with the San Antonio Rampage with nearly a point per game average. Hopefully, he'll be back soon and can add some offense to this team.
• The Sharks drew first blood on a power-play goal in the 2nd. Hutton gave up a rebound that laid in front of his left pad. Logan Couture pulled it away from him and lifted it over the sprawling Hutton.
• Less than two minutes later, the Blues found the equalizer goal when Brodziak found the puck at center ice and passed to a streaking Barbashev open on the right side. Ivan took the puck, skated a couple of strides into the offensive zone and placed a perfect wrist shot over the glove of Martin Jones.
• As has been the case a lot of times this season, the Blues seemed to let their guard down after scoring. They were sloppy with the puck and gave it away several times which led to some odd-man rushes by San Jose.
• The first one was a 3 on 2. The Sharks passed the puck well and Donskoi got behind Hutton to give them a 2-1 lead. They added another by Boedker in a similar fashion just 4 minutes later.
• The Blues got some new life when Schwartz drew a tripping penalty inside the final :34 seconds of the period. On the power play, Vince Dunn made a really nice offensive move to create some space and his shot caused a rebound that fell in front of our favorite sniper on the right wing. Vladimir Tarasenko let one rip that nobody was going to stop drawing the Blues back to within one just 10 seconds into the power play.
• St. Louis was 1 for 3 with the man advantage. They held San Jose scoreless on the other side of special teams. The Sharks special teams have been strong this season.  They are the only team in the league in the top five in both power play and penalty kill.  In this game, the Blues won the special teams game.
• The Blues also outshot the Sharks 33-23. We outhit them 26-13. We had 12 takeaways to their 7.  But, a little stat that was a big factor was giveaways. San Jose only had 2 while we chalked up 6, two of which led directly to goals.
• The final period saw the Blues have some chances. They just couldn't get it past Jones. A bouncing puck in the final minutes got past him and hit the post, but it never got farther than the goal line as defenseman Brent Burns found it and cleared it before it could cross the line and tie the game.
• More divisional games are on the horizon with Winnipeg in town on Friday, back to Nashville on Sunday and up to Minnesota on Tuesday. The playoff race is tight. The trade deadline is approaching. It will be interesting to see how this next week plays out and then what happens in the final month. It's crunch time. Let's go Blues!

#AllTogetherNowStL #LGB