Blues Struggle Mightily Against Wild, Lose 6-2

Minnesota Wild vs St. Louis Blues - Game 55 Recap
Goals: Schwartz (16) and Jaskin (5)
Record 32-20-3

My Thoughts On The Game

• What looked like it would be a good night for the Blues after Jaden Schwartz scored just 45 seconds after the puck drop, quickly turned into a nightmare as Minnesota was just too much for the Blues.
• Schwartz scored his 2nd goal in his 5th game back since returning from a lower body injury. It was his 16th of the season and 37th point in just 35 games played. Parayko's big slapper from the point was stopped but wasn't covered by the Minnesota goalie, Devan Dubnyk. Schwartz found the rebound laying in front and was able to poke it through the legs of Dubnyk giving the Blues a 1-0 lead.
• That lead would evaporate quickly as Minnesota scored at the 2:02 mark. The early lead became a distant memory when the Wild went wild and scored again at 16:53 and 18:07 of the first period to take a 3-1 lead into the first intermission.
• Carter Hutton allowed more goals in the first period on 8 shots than he had allowed in his last 4 starts combined. Jake Allen started the second period and finished the game. He allowed 3 goals on 12 shots. Not the kind of stats that either goalie wants to see on the stat sheet, for sure.
• The Blues outshot the Wild in the game 37-20, but that stat is deceiving since the Blues were desperate in the end and managed 19 shots on goal in the final minutes to just 3 by Minnesota, who were playing defensive hockey and doing what they needed to do to preserve a win.
• The Blues were 0 for 3 on the power play while Minnesota capitalized on 2 of their 3 power play chances. 
• St. Louis won 62% of the faceoffs and outhit the Wild 25-12. So, what went wrong? If I knew the answer to that I might be working in the NHL in some capacity now instead of sitting in my basement, writing a blog about the team I love and want to see win more than any other team in sports. But, I digress.
• St. Louis other goal came on a nice wrist shot from Dimitri Jaskin at the 12:36 mark of the third on a 2nd chance off a Parayko shot and rebound, a Jaskin backhand attempt that was stopped and then a pass from Steen back to Jaskin who didn't miss on his 2nd attempt.
• Jaskin has been playing hard and it was good to see him get a goal, although it was too little too late for the Blues as Minnesota had added 2 more goals in the 2nd period and another earlier in the third.
• There wasn't much positive to take out of this game. The only thing I can think to say positive about this game is that it's over. Move on. But there are things that need to get fixed. 
• Lots of chatter out there about trades, but nobody knows what will happen. Maybe help will come in the way of a trade, maybe it won't.  
• The schedule doesn't get any easier. Thursday, the Avalanche come to town and Friday the Blues travel to Winnipeg. 

#AllTogetherNowStL #LGB