No mercy: Blues too familiar with cost of letting teams hang around
ST. LOUIS -- Letting teams hang around too much may finally be catching up to the Blues.
They've excelled all season in close contests, posting a 22-6-5 mark in games decided by one goal. But after Minnesota rallied to defeat St. Louis 3-1 Saturday night, defenseman Alex Pietrangelo repeated what's becoming a familiar refrain.
"We had over 40 shots and, again, we've got to keep the foot on the gas there," Pietrangelo said. "A couple missed coverages, but we've got to find ways to win games when you're putting up 40 shots."
That certainly hasn't guaranteed anything this season for the Blues, who have lost four games when getting at least 40 shots on goal. They've been unable to score a second goal in three of those losses, including a 1-0 shootout loss to Los Angeles in October.
But it's not always about just doing a better job of finding the net on those opportunities. Occasionally, the Blues will find themselves with extended offensive zone time and few top-quality chances, an issue perhaps best exemplified by the second period against Minnesota.
St. Louis essentially camped out in the O-zone and fired 21 shots on goal to just five for the Wild. David Backes scored with more than 15 minutes to play, and St. Louis even caught a break less than a minute later when referees disallowed Zach Parise's goal.
"They get one called back on a kick and you get a second life there," Backes said. "They score, I think, on the very next shift, and that's pretty disappointing when that should be a wakeup call that, 'Hey, they're not letting up, they're not giving us anything.'"
Minnesota took advantage of a brief letdown for the Blues in the third period, just as Philadelphia had done nine days earlier. The Flyers added an empty-netter for a 3-1 victory, and both times St. Louis left the arena feeling like two valuable points had slipped away.
The Blues managed to eke out a 1-0 shootout win when Philadelphia made the return trip, but Pietrangelo and others still felt it should have been much easier. Missed opportunities have made for plenty of close games since the All-Star break, including two 2-1 wins with at least 33 shots on goal.
Putting games away becomes even more important late in the season, when teams are desperately fighting to make the playoffs, or perhaps improve their seeding. That's why Hitchcock said he's concerned about the team's recent habit of letting games slip away in the third period, and Backes mostly refused to look at the positives from a strong overall effort against Minnesota.
"If we don't learn our lesson from tonight, when you've got a team that you feel like you've got a heck of a second period going and really step on the throat and really put them down, then we're going to repeat (history)," Backes said. "A little glimpse into a problem we had last year, and we're going to need to rectify it and get on it and no excuses."
In last year's playoffs, St. Louis needed one more goal at Chicago to seal a win and extend its series lead to 3-1. Instead, the Blackhawks scored in the final five minutes to tie and would never trail again as they eliminated the Blues in six games.
The Blues may have rediscovered their killer instinct Sunday with Alexander Steen's late power-play goal and T.J. Oshie's empty-netter to bury Dallas 3-0. St. Louis finished with only 21 shots on goal but executed its strategy of focusing on defense to perfection to become just the second team to shut out the Stars all season.
That's a foolproof plan for success, even when scoring opportunities are wasted.
You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter at @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.
