San Jose Sharks
vs.
St. Louis Blues
Pregame
The Blues have not fared all that well in the second game of a back to back set. Their record to date is 2-5-2 in that second game. The Edmonton win last Thursday was the first win in the second game since the Blues swept Detroit in Sweden way back on October 3rd. The Sharks had their last five at home and their last nine were all in California. After playing Detroit Tuesday, the Sharks left for St. Louis and were in town yesterday. The Blues put everything they had in to the game in Chicago last night. Do they have reserve tanks to take on San Jose? Sounds like a recipe for disaster, considering the only other team in the West better than Chicago…is San Jose.
We know that San Jose won’t take the Blues lightly. Over the last two seasons there have been some amazing close and competitive games. To date this season the Blues are 1-1-1 against the Sharks while scoring only four goals, but only allowing seven against.
The power play will need to click at home to provide the offensive needed to take down the Sharks. The Blues will likely struggle at even strength due to weary legs and the Sharks +sized possession line up. The power play is a needed counter balance to keep the Blues in the game. The Boyes-Tkachuk-McDonald unit has not been good and wasn’t last night in Chicago. I have much more confidence in the Perron-Backes-Berglund unit who provided the lone PPG last night. The question is, does Davis Payne? No matter which group is out there there needs to be a much greater sense of urgency and effort to gain the zone.
The Blues did their fair share of backpedaling against Chicago. Where the Hawks were willing to take the puck and turn from pressure to send an outlet pass or clear, the Blues backed up. The Hawks certainly did too, but the Blues went back when there was a play to go north. The Blues cannot do that against San Jose. San Jose has the same quick strike ability off a turnover. Maybe more with their big bodies protecting the puck and crashing the net.
Who starts in net? Chris Mason got a big work out last night stopping 32 of 34 shots and he was ran in to multiple times. Will Payne come back with Ty Conklin? Payne flipped the goalies between the Vancouver and Edmonton games, which paid off with a victory.
Be sure to check in to Jeremy Rutherford’s Chat today on STLToday.com. You can catch up on updates through Lou Korac’s Blog as well.
I would guess that the lineup doesn’t change, unless BJ Crombeen is ready to play and takes the place of Cam Janssen. Its a safe bet that Rutherford will have the lineups on his Morning Skate Blog later today.
See you at the game folks, its another big one as the Blues are five points behind the 8th spot in the West.
Recap
The Blues gave an effort similar to what they gave in their last back to back against Edmonton. The only problem is that San Jose is about 100x better than Edmonton. The Blues were flat for the first ten minutes of the game, by that point, they were already in a 2-0 hole.
Teams that make the playoffs find ways to squeeze points from every possible angle. If this was last spring, the Blues would have come back to push this game to OT. This season, the scoring is not there to do such a deed. The Blues threw 37 shot son Thomas Greiss and he stopped 35. Not all were pretty, but he kept the Sharks ahead of the Blues. The Blues also gave up 31 shots, of which Ty Conklin only stopped 27. 37 to 31 in the shot department? Those kind of open games are not what you want against the Sharks.
The Sharks set the pace early by using the Blues dead legs to their advantage. Dany Heatley broke in around Barret Jackman early on and Marleau banged in a quick one to make it 1-0. The Sharks controlled the flow through Ryane Clowe’s 14th goal to make it 2-0. Around that time the Blues legs started working, they earned a power play, and Patrik Berglund made a very nice shot from out high to make it 2-1.
THe second period the Blues had the same pace and half energy, but still managed 10 shots on Greiss. The only tally was Devin Setoguchi’s 14th goal of the season, the Sharks lone power play conversion.
The third was the same. lots of effort at half speed. The Berglund line contributed with a nice shot by Steen and screen by Perron. The score is 3-2. The back breaker was Scott Nichol’s “wicked slap shot” that beat Conklin with about five minutes left. Those are the saves you need your fresh goalie to make. It didn’t happen and the Sharks win 4-2.
Quick Player thoughts before work:
- Erik Johnson still has a ways to go as far as reading a play and quickly deciding what to do. Chris Kerber pointed this out on KMOX after the game. I agree with him, he needs to be given the freedom to learn. I think the Blues can do that better by giving him someone capable to play with that can help now.
- The Backes line looked tired. Kariya didn’t have much explosiveness to his skating and Oshie couldn’t hold on to a puck for more than three seconds. The Sharks big line did a good job of creating contact against that line.
- For as good as Polak has been offensively, he is becoming prone to the slapper right in to the forwards legs. He too needs to recognize the play better once the zone is taken and the play is set up. Both he and Johnson are good in transition, but don’t seem to get it once the Blues have the zone.
Not much to be said, other than this team needs a goal scorer and a power play QB in the worst way. For now, the Blues are developing that internally. The only problem is that the playoffs are slipping away when they were close. Luckily for the Blues, last night’s game didn’t cost them points against Calgary in 8th and Detroit in 9th. Then again, they missed a chance to be only three back.
Next up is Chicago (again) on Saturday down at Scottrade.
