Good, bad and unsatisfied: Takeaways from Blues' brief postseason
ST. LOUIS -- In any playoff series, you're likely to get some good, some bad and even some ugly. This year's postseason run for the Blues was no exception; they battled the Wild through six first-round games and found themselves eliminated in Minnesota after a 4-1 loss Sunday.
Here's what went right, and what went wrong, for the Blues this postseason:
• Vladimir Tarasenko scored a lot of goals. From October through April, Tarasenko was like dynamite on ice: You never knew when he could explode, and when he did, he obliterated anything in his path. Six goals in what became a six-game series this postseason solidified Tarasenko's status as an offensive force to be reckoned with. That three of those goals came in one game shouldn't diminish the accomplishment; scoring a hat trick in the regular season alone is impressive, but doing it in the postseason, where it's even more difficult to score thanks to more defensive-minded play, is noteworthy. He also added an assist during the series, which brought his playoff point total to seven. Consider this: In the same span of games this playoffs, Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin has two goals and four points total, while Islanders captain John Tavares comes in at two goals and four assists. Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews scored three goals, though he has eight points total. Meanwhile, Tarasenko's six goals stand atop the NHL among players who've scored a goal so far this postseason.
• But nobody else really did. Sans Tarasenko, none of the top goal scorers for the Blues during the regular season found the net with any consistency once the postseason started. Alexander Steen, T.J. Oshie, David Backes, Jaden Schwartz and Paul Stastny contributed only five goals total. It was a sharp decline in particular for Steen, Backes and Schwartz, who had each been 20-plus-goal scorers during the 2014-15 regular season.
• They finally won on the road. Game 4, with its six goals for and only one against, was the Blues' greatest triumph this postseason, especially since it erased an albatross clinging to their necks: They hadn't won on the road in the postseason since April 19, 2012, against the San Jose Sharks. The victory was even more remarkable considering they'd been shut out 3-0 in Minnesota two days earlier, a loss that Blues coach Ken Hitchcock admitted later "felt like six-nothin'."
• But squandered home-ice advantage twice. The Blues battled 82 games to give themselves the competitive advantage of home ice in the playoffs, then blew it in the first 60 minutes of the postseason when they dropped Game 1. They won the advantage back when they beat Minnesota on the road and tied the series at 2-2, only to essentially lose it for the second time by dropping Game 5 at home and having to play an elimination contest on the road. It was hard enough to gain an edge on a solid opponent like the Wild during the series; squandering it twice was disturbing. And the Blues' core certainly knew the danger of not capitalizing on it, as they'd been eliminated on the road in Game 6 for the past two postseasons.
• Goaltending was great ... until it wasn't. Blues goaltender Jake Allen turned in four solid performances, giving up two or fewer goals per game through Game 4. Overall, he put together far more 60-minute efforts than most of the players on the roster this postseason. Remember, he's a rookie goaltender who wasn't even the Blues' starter for most of the year. And getting pulled in the playoffs, like he was in Game 6, certainly isn't a referendum on a goaltender's potential -- just ask Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk, pulled as recently as Game 4 of this series, who is currently a Vezina Trophy finalist.
All that said, Allen's struggles in Games 5 and 6 were painful; he let in six pucks on 32 shots. The Blues' goaltending tandem of Allen and Brian Elliott was a key factor in their strong regular-season performance, yet, along with the rest of the team, simply wasn't up to par with elimination on the line.
You can follow Elisabeth Meinecke on Twitter at @lismeinecke or email her at ecmeinecke@gmail.com.
