BLUES GO DOWN SWINGING, LOSE IN OT, SEASON OVER

Posted on 21 Apr 2009 by cprice12

The St. Louis Blues put up a good fight in game four of their opening round matchup against the Vancouver Canucks, but were the victims of a quick whistle that took a goal away, a powerless power play, and a bad goal against in OT that sealed the deal and sent the Blues packing in four games.

The Blues really have nobody to blame but themselves for getting swept.  Their power play looked awful.  Vancouver didn't have to do much on the PK, as the Blues were making bad passes and were reluctant to shoot from the point and get the puck to the net.  A four minute power play in overtime was wasted by the inability of St. Louis to get the puck deep when Vancouver was standing them up at the blue line.  Time after time the puck carrier tried to skate through the defense on the power play, only to turn the puck over.  Vancouver has average penalty killing and the Blues HAD an excellent power play coming into the playoffs.  The Blues failed to take advantage of their biggest advantage in this series.  It's a shame too.  Because if their power play was clicking, they could have won a couple of the first four games.

You could also blame poor officiating in game #4.  Not only did the referee not see the Blues push the puck go across the goal line against Luongo, but he blew the whistle too quick, which made it impossible for the War Room in Toronto to award the goal to the Blues, which would have put them up 3-2 late in the 2nd period.

Vancouver should be thanking Roberto Luongo.  Without him, this series could be tied 2-2.  The last time a goalie played this well against the Blues in the playoffs, was in 2001 when Patrick Roy stood on his head and stole the series for the Avalanche.

The series clinching goal was a softie.  A shot from the near boards on the rush that found it's way through Chris Mason's pads with only seconds left in the first overtime.  Not the goal to end the season on.

Overall this was a successful season for the Blues as they played stellar hockey for the final three months of the season to climb out of the conference basement and up the standings and finish in 6th place.  That was truly a great accomplishment, and the inability to carry that momentum into the playoffs shouldn't diminish their acheivement.  This is a very young team that hopefully gained some valuable playoff experience.

Next year, the Blues will be back, they should easily make the playoffs, they will have Erik Johnson in the lineup, they will have Paul Kariya in the lineup and the kid line will have another year experience.  There will also probably be a couple new faces on the roster as well.  Everyone kows the future looks bright for St. Louis.  But nobody knows how for they can go.  Hopefully this entire season was a learning experience.

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ROUND 1 BREAKDOWN: BLUES VS. CANUCKS

Posted on 14 Apr 2009 by cprice12

ESPN.com asked six of their "experts" to predict the outcomes of the first round matchups.

In the St. Louis / Vancouver series, two of the six "experts" said it would be over in five games.  Three said six games and one had it going the distance.  And all six of them had Vancouver winning the series.

I can understand some of them picking Vancouver, or even most of them (it is ESPN afterall).  Vancouver had a very good season and finished 3rd overall in the west and had an outstanding record since January 1st.  So kudos to them on their season.  But all six picking Vancouver?  Come on.  This isn't a #1 seed vs. a #8 seed scenerio here.

And speaking of records since January 1st...you know who had an even better record than the Canucks since the first of the year?  Hmmm...who was it...let me think...I think it was...THE ST. LOUIS BLUES.  As a matter of fact, the Blues had the BEST RECORD in the NHL since January 1st.

Vancouver.  All six of them, eh?

Hmmm...
If you look around the different sports sites and blogs, almost nobody is picking St. Louis to win their first round series.  Does that make sense to you?  So let me get this straight... the best, number one, numero uno, king of the hill team in the NHL over the entire 2nd half of the season (and to tell you the truth, going into the playoffs I'd rather have the best record in the NHL over the 2nd half instead of the 1st half) is all of a sudden going to get beaten soundly and decisively?

I don't see it.

Maybe it's because the experts intently watched the regular season matchups between Vancouver and St. Louis and that's how they formed their opinions.  So let's look at the regular season matchups.

Jan. 9th @ Vancouver
Blues - 6 ... Canucks - 4
The Blues outshot Vancouver, 36-22
The Blues won the faceoff battle, 34-23
St. Louis was 1 for 5 on the PP
Vancouver was 1 for 2 on the PP

Feb. 10th @ St. Louis
Canucks - 6 ... Blues - 4
Vancouver outshot St. Louis 30-28
Vancouver won the faceoff battle, 42-32
St. Louis was 2 for 3 on the PP
Vancouver was 2 for 5 on the PP

Mar. 19th @ Vancouver
St. Louis - 0 ... Vancouver - 3
St. Louis outshot Vancouver, 30-21
Vancouver won the faceoff battle, 30-28
St. Louis was 0 for 5 on the PP
Vancouver was 0 for 3 on the PP

Mar. 26th @ St. Louis
Vancouver - 2 ... St. Louis - 4
St. Louis outshot Vancouver, 32-23
Vancouver won the faceoff battle, 29-22
St. Louis was 2 for 6 on the PP.
Vancouver was 0 for 5 on the PP.

Head to head for the season:
They split the season series, 2-2.
St. Louis outshot Vancouver - 126-105
Vancouver outscored St. Louis 15-14
St. Louis was 5 for 19 on the PP  (26%)
Vancouver was 3 for 15 on the PP (20%)
Vancouver Save %:  .889
St. Louis Save %:  .857

More often than not, whoever wins a playoff series will boil down to who has the better goaltending and special teams play.  Vancouver has a world class goaltender in Roberto Luongo, but St. Louis has the hottest goalie in the league since he took over for Manny Legace in mid-January.  So who does that give an edge to?  Most people are saying Vancouver has the edge in net, but not if you look at the stats.  Luongo and Mason's stats are almost identical for the season.  So Vancouver gets the edge in net because of Luongo's "superman" reputation?

Hogwash.

I could understand it if Luongo had a Stanley Cup or two under his belt already and had tons of playoff experience.  But he doesn't...and he doesn't.  He has one playoff series win to his name...one.  So let's not designate him as Patrick Roy just yet.

So yeah, I'm going to say it...goaltending is a PUSH.  Wanna fight about it?

So that leaves special teams as the other main area that can easily win a series.

Power Play:
St. Louis:  20.5% (4th overall in the conference)
Vancouver:  18.8% (8th overall in the conference)

Penalty Kill:
St. Louis:  83.8% (2nd overall in the conference)
Vancouver:  81.4% (8th overall in the conference)

Again, even though the Blues finished much higher than Vancouver on the PP an PK, the actual percentages are pretty close.  But, the Blues have to like their special teams in this series considering their power play stats against Vancouver (26%) are better than their #4 in the conference season average (20.4%).

St. Louis has been playing in high-pressure, playoff-like games for over two months which has seen them charge out of the basement of the Western conference.  And when the smoke had cleared and the regular season was over, the Blues were sitting in 6th place.  The fact that this young team was able to play so well for so long in stressfull, "must win" type of situations, says a lot about the makeup of this team.  They should be prepared for the playoffs.

Contrary to what most of the "experts" are implying in their predictions, this Blues team is not a bad team that got hot over the last couple weeks and snuck into the playoffs.  St. Louis has been on fire for 40 games...which is half of the season.  The formula was simple.  A goaltending change was made, they got a few key guys back from injuries, and the young players started to develop.  A lot of Blues fans felt the Blues would challenge for a playoff spot this season, but a ridiculous amount of injuries and some inconsistent goaltending from Manny Legace (sorry Manny, but you were playing poorly) was at the root of the Blues' troubles and caused them to sink to last place in the conference in January.

This Blues team is a completely different team than the one you saw in December.

Prediction:
St. Louis is the harder working team and their forecheck can be relentless.  If the Blues continue their red hot play and continue to get good goaltending from Mason, I think the edge in special teams will see the Blues taking this series in six games.  That's not a knock on Vancouver.  They are a very good team, but they are going up against the best team in the NHL since January 1st and the Canucks will have their hands full.  Luongo is certainly capable of winning this series on his own...but then again...based on how Mason has played this year, he could very well steal the series for St. Louis.

May the best team win.

Go Blues.

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ST. LOUIS CATAPULTS TO SIXTH PLACE, BRING ON VANCOUVER

Posted on 13 Apr 2009 by cprice12

The miraculous finish to the 2008-2009 regular season for the St. Louis Blues is one Blues fans will not soon forget.

On Friday night, St. Lous clinched a playoff spot with a win vs. Columbus and a Nashville loss to Minnesota.  And on Sunday, the last game of the season, the Blues jumped all the way up to sixth place with a 1-0 win in Colorado.  (Better luck next year Blue Jackets...good luck with Detroit)

Sixth place?  Are you kidding me?  Not only did the Blues clinch a playoff spot, but they avoided a first round matchup with the President's Trophy winning San Jose Sharks, AND the "thorn in our side" Detroit Red Wings, who finished 2nd in the conference.  Finishing 6th means a matchup vs. the third place Vancouver Canucks...whom the Blues have never beaten in a playoff series, but this is certainly a more favorable foe than either San Jose or Detroit would have been in the first round.

In early January, the Blues were in 15th place in the conference, only a couple points from being last overall in the entire NHL.  Soon thereafter, struggling Blues goaltender Manny Legace was waived.  He went unclaimed and joined Peoria.  Chris Mason was handed the starting job.  Mason put this team on his back and mightily moved up the standings as Mason was giving the Blues a chance to win games...and the Blues started winning games.  They started winning a lot of games.  Andy McDonald, T.J. Oshie and Roman Polack returned from injuries as the Blues got healthier and the won even more games, seemingly beating everyone, every night.  Pretty soon the Blues were the talk of the league as they slowly moved up the standings in a long shot attempt to get back into the playoff race.

Even die hard Blues fans were not optimistic about the Blues chances of pulling it off.  But the Blues just kept on winning and they kept getting closer and closer and they changed the opinions of quite a few people in no time.

Then came the dreaded home stretch of the season where the Blues had six of their last seven games on the road, and four of those games were against teams ahead of them in the standings, one of which being Red Wings...in Detroit.  Many thought this tough finish would do the Blues in.  No way could they continue their dominance during this long road stretch against supposedly better teams.  But the Blues needed to win these games to get in the playoffs.  And they did...going 5-1-1, and winning in Detroit in thrilling fashion.  They also beat Columbus three times in the final eight games of the season and edged them out for sixth place on the final day of the season.

In the home and at home series on March 28th and 29th vs. Columbus,  the rookie T.J. Oshie became a legend in St. Louis after destroying Columbus captain, and all star, and Blues killer, Rick Nash, in back to back games, and scoring a nice goal to boot.  The Blues won both games and began their assault on catching Columbus for the sixth spot...and 10,000 T.J. Oshie jerseys were sold the next day.

The Blues are the hottest team in the NHL right now.  Since January 15th, St. Louis is 25-8-7, which is the best record in the NHL over that span.  That's 40 games...about half a season the Blues have been doing this.  This isn't some late season, 10 game hot streak that got the Blues into the palyoffs.  The Blues have been doing this for a long time now.  This is no fluke.  This is not luck.  This is a very good Blues team that  made a goaltending change, finally got healthy, and started playing to their potential...and they had enough time left in the season to charge back into the race and grab sixth place.

Nobody wants to play the Blues right now.  Nobody.  If St. Louis can continue to play the way they have been playing for the last 40 games, then there is no doubt in my mind that the Blues can beat anyone.  They've already proven that.  The only real question mark is how this young team will handle the pressures of playoff hockey.  But then again, they have been playing high pressure hockey games for the past couple months to get into the playoffs, where every night was almost a "must win" game, and they passed that test with flying colors.

Welcome back Stanley Cup Playoffs.  We've missed you.
The second season starts Wednesday in Vancouver...and the future of the St. Louis Blues is about to get their first taste of playoff hockey.

Bring on the Canucks.
Bring on anyone.
Let's Go Blues!

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UN - BE - LIEV - A - BLE

Posted on 11 Apr 2009 by cprice12

They did it.

The Blues are in the playoffs for the first time since 2004.  St. Louis went on an unbelievable run over the 2nd half of the season, passed seven teams in the standings, and clinched a playoff spot with one game to go in the season.

Wow.

St. Louis had a shot to clinch on Friday after Nashville lost in Minnesota, 8-4.  That meant that if the Blues got just one point, they were in...and they went on to beat Columbus (again) 3-1 and clinch a playoff spot.

The Blues have had the best record in the NHL since January 1st, and currently have 90 pts. with one game remaining on Easter Sunday @ Colorado.  St. Louis is currently in 8th place, tied in points with Anaheim and two points behind Columbus, but they can move up as high as 6th place with a Columbus loss and an Anaheim regulation or overtime loss.

After last weekend's home and at home losses the Blues hung on the Blue Jackets, and the beatdown T.J. Oshie put on Rick Nash, many expected Columbus to come out tough.  But that wasn't the case.  The Blues controlled the entire game and it never really felt like Columbus had a chance, especially after the Blues jumped ahead 2-0 on two early power play goals.

The current playoff matchup has St. Louis (8) playing San Jose (1) in round one, but that could change based on the remaining games that need to be played.  St. Louis is 2-1-1 vs. San Jose this year.  If the Blues finish 7th, they will play the Red Wings.  If the Blues finish 6th, they will play either the Canucks or the Flames (whoever wins the Northwest).

It's about damn time the Blues got back into the playoffs.  Hopefully this is the first of many consecutive playoff appearances and maybe a Stanley Cup or two or ten along the way.

This playoff experience should be a great asset to the younger players on the team.  The earlier they experience the playoffs, the better.

I'm looking forward to the first playoff game, and seeing a few fans in the crowd wearing those aluminum foil Stanley Cups on their heads.  Oddly enough, I miss those.

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BLUES TAKE OVER 8TH PLACE, TIED FOR 7TH

Posted on 08 Apr 2009 by cprice12

The Blues are on the verge of pulling off what many said was impossible.  They have bulldozed their way out of the depths of the conference standings, passing six teams in the standings, and putting together one of the best records in the NHL since mid-January to move into sole possession of 8th place in the Western conference with only two games remaining in the season.

And they're not done yet.

Your St. Louis Blues are also tied for 7th place with Anaheim and only two points behind 6th place Columbus, however, Columbus has played one fewer game than St. Louis.  They play their game-in-hand on Wednesday vs. Chicago and then the Blue Jackets come to St. Louis for a huge matchup on Friday night.  Should the Blackhawks knock off the Blue Jackets on Wednesday in regulation, the Blues could move ahead of Columbus with a regulation win on Friday.

Blues fans swallowed their pride and were rooting for the hated Blackhawks on Tuesday night when they took on the Predators in Nashville.  Chicago beat the Predators 4-2.  That Predators loss combined with the Blues drubbing of an outmatched Coyotes club, 5-1, allowed St. Louis to move two points ahead of the Predators and grab onto the 8th and final playoff spot.  Maybe Chicago can help us out one more time by beating Columbus on Wednesday night.

Rooting for the Blackhawks is wrong.  Very wrong.  But if you look at it from their point of view, they are helping the Blues make the playoffs, so I'm sure they don't like that none too much either.

Hawks suck...so does Detroit...but not as bad as Phoenix.  They sure looked bad on Tuesday night.  Bryzgalov didn't seem to really care what he stopped and what he saved.  He looked disinterested.  NOt to take anything away from the Blues victory, because St. Louis played well and deserved to win.  But maybe Bryzgalov's suckitude was partially due to the fact he hadn't played in the last four games...or maybe it had to do with the fact the Coyotes have long been eliminated from the playoff race.  Whatever the reason, he looked bad.

The Predators play in Detroit on Thursday.  If Nashville loses in regulation and the Blues manage at least one point vs. Columbus on Friday, they will clinch their first playoff spot since the 2003-2004 season.

So, to recap...

Wednesday:  Chicago @ Columbus
Thursday:  Nashville @ Detroit
Friday:  Columbus @ St. Louis

Go Chicago?  Go Detroit?  Ugh...Whatever It Takes, right?  LET'S GO BLUES!

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