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Observations From Blues' 4-1 Loss Vs. Lightning

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A chance to get back to .500 for the first time since the seventh game of the season, the St. Louis Blues put on a display once again that’s been an all-too-familiar theme this season.

Consistency is inconsistency for them, and it showed again against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday despite a recent stretch of better play.

The Lightning scored on the first shift of the game and were really never threatened despite putting up just 17 shots on goal in a rather easy 4-1 victory over the Blues at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Fla.

Justin Faulk scored the lone Blues goal and Jordan Binnington, although he didn’t see a ton of work, was the victim of three deflected goals in the game as the Blues, who beat the Florida Panthers 6-2 to open the two-game swing, now head into the Christmas break at 14-16-8 after wrapping up a stretch of 11 games in 19 days; the Lightning are 20-13-3.

Let’s get into game observations:

* Another bad first shift to open a game – I’m not even going to go back over the 38 games the Blues have played, because there have been multiple occasions where they’ve either allowed a goal in the first minute of a period or last minute.

It’s part of the reason why this team’s record is what it is, but it happened exactly a week ago Monday, and it was the top line on the ice again not locked in and not ready to start a game.

It was the Nashville Predators that scored 27 seconds into what would be a 5-2 loss, and on Monday, it was the Lightning scoring 21 seconds in to grab a 1-0 lead, a deflection by Pontus Holmberg, and once again, it’s the opposition getting a puck in, and the Blues not outworking them to move out of the zone.

With a puck behind the net, it gets worked back to the right point along the wall that Darren Raddysh does just enough to keep it alive in the zone, and Cam Fowler is following Holmberg to the slot area but instead of getting a body on him or tying up his stick, he lifts his stick enough that Holmberg is able to redirect the puck past Binnington, who’s going from his left to right, and in:

The Lightning came right out and supported one another on the opening shift and it was a precursor of what was to come for 60 minutes in this game.

* A missed zone exit essentially ended the game – Down a goal, the Blues had life. When it was 2-0, the sense was the next goal would be the one that would determine if it would be a game or a rout.

When Faulk scored, it made it a game. Now the details would really need to be honed in on.

But that was exactly what didn’t happen when Logan Mailloux’s transition of a puck went right through Pavel Buchnevich for a turnover, Raddysh turned it into a quick shot to the goal that was tipped down and in by Anthony Cirelli at 8:01 of the second, or 1:18 after Faulk scored, to wipe out the momentum built and restore Tampa’s lead back to two at 3-1:

It’s just an error that can’t happen there. And it was an outlet that wasn’t one that Buchnevich couldn’t handle. It was right there, and he didn’t handle it cleanly and seconds later, it’s 3-1.

But quite simply, good teams make that simple play. End of story. These simple blunders have happened far too often this season, and the way the Lightning were playing, it was going to be hard-pressed to try and overcome a second two-goal deficit.

* Faulk’s goal should have been the pivotal one to make it a game – The defenseman’s team-tying 10th goal came off a nice rush down the lefthand side by Tyler Tucker, who fed Otto Stenberg for a quick shot that Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped, but Tucker retrieved the loose puck and fed Faulk for the one-time rip from neat the Blue line at 6:43 of the second and made it a 2-1 game:

The Blues came out with more juice in the second period and it showed with the momentum they thought they had gained, until the defensive zone blunder that wiped out that momentum quickly.

* Too many penalties/penalty kill slipping – In falling behind 2-0, the Blues were on the kill three times in the opening period, and Mailloux’s slashing penalty led to Raddysh’s goal that caromed off the shin of Faulk at 9:12:

But the problem was the Blues’ penalty killers simply did not retrieve pucks. Tampa was able to retrieve shot attempts six(!) times and eventually, tired, weary legs will give way and when the puck for to Raddysh in the slot between the tops of the circles, his one-timer appeared to be going wide but caromed in off Faulk.

They would allow a second man-advantage goal in the third period from Oliver Bjorkstrand at 5:36 that made it 4-1 on a bad call on Mailloux for holding, but the PK has not allowed four goals the past three games and six in the past six.

And think of it, it could have been worse in the first had Binnington not robbed Declan Carlisle at 4:15 of an absolutely wide open net at the time:

That’s what I’m saying about Binnington, he didn’t see a lot of work, but the shots he saw were Grade A shots or deflections as a result of Tamps getting bodies to the net.

* When will the power play just shoot pucks? – The Blues came in 19th on the power play, which isn’t terrible but isn’t in the upper half of the league either.

They went 0-for-2 for the game and are now 2-for-19 the past seven games. And a large culprit, a lack of shooters on each unit. Seems the players on the ice want to pass pucks in instead of either funneling them to the net and simply being selfish and just unloading a shot.

The Blues came in averaging just over two shot attempts per power play and had just two shots on goal in two opportunities. Again, that simply won't cut it.

* The Blues not will be off for four days before playing again on Saturday, the start of four out of five home games against the Predators for the third time this month.

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