Watching the Blues game last night, I was hopeful when they got the first goal. Brodziak got a feed from our captain, and then dished it to Tarasenko who buries his shot, top shelf, to take a 1-0 lead. Things looked promising.
Then came the second period. What a painful period it was. The Blues defense struggled giving up three goals in 7 and a half minutes. But the Blues weren’t done yet. They got a goal from Berglund with 8 and a half minutes to go in the 2nd period to make the score 3-2. The Blues were right back in it.
Onto the 3rd period, the Blues had some prime opportunities to score. Back to back Capitals tripping penalties provided a 4 minute stretch of a power play for the Blues, but they could not “capitalize” (no pun intended). Then with a little over two minutes remaining in the game, the Blues had a penalty called against them, and as soon as we got the puck in the Caps zone, they pulled Allen to make it 5 on 5. The Caps gained control almost immediately, and Ovechkin sealed the victory with an empty netter to make it 4-2 Capitals.
I wouldn’t say it was a “bad” game. The Blues had one bad 7 minute stretch. Unfortunately, that was the difference maker. First and third period play was solid for the Blues. Even the second half of the second period looked solid. Our special teams has been a weak point for our team all season. We have not scored enough on power plays and we have given up way too many shorthanded goals this season. Granted, we didn’t allow a short handed goal, but we didn’t score on our power plays either. Seeing as we sit at the bottom of the league, ranked 30th in power play percentage at 15%, I’d say that was definitely our biggest struggle. People like to blame our defense and our goalies a lot, but we are 7th in goals against and 17th in penalty kill. That’s not terrible. We rank 24th in goals per game. Scoring has been the biggest issue this year.
The Blues have 3 games left. Two against the Hawks and one against Colorado. Luckily Colorado lost last night as well. We sit one point behind them for the final wildcard spot. We have a great chance to win the next two games. It may come down to the last game against Colorado. What a game that would be. I have faith in our team. Let’s get it done.
Let’s Go Blues.
