St. Louis Blues Better Fix Whatever Ails Them On The Road
The St. Louis Blues dropped another game on the road. This time they fell to the New York Islanders, a team currently near the bottom of their conference.
The St. Louis Blues have a major problem on their hands. The problem is, when you look at their hands, it is completely empty – metaphorically speaking of course.
The Blues continue to drop games on the road and there appears to be no end in sight. The issue becomes there is no core issue. By this time, it has to be more of a mental thing than anything else.
St. Louis didn’t play a terrible game against the New York Islanders. They did enough in some key areas to win on other nights.
They had shot totals in the mid-20’s, which isn’t great but not bad. They put the puck toward the net over 60 times, so it was not as though the offense was not trying, at least.
Defensively, there were issues. They failed to knock John Tavares off the puck and then just stood around as he fired his goal over Jake Allen‘s shoulder.
Those things happen during home games as well though. The Blues are notorious at backing off at the wrong times and screening their own goaltender as they did on New York’s game winning goal.
So, why does it affect them more on the road? What exactly is going on that makes that big a difference if the overall effort appears the same.
Again, it’s easy to focus on the Islander game since it is freshest in our minds. The Blues just don’t seem to be able to give a full effort for 60 minutes.
The frustrating part about that thought is we have said/heard that for years. Even before Ken Hitchcock was the coach, that was the case just as often as not.
Any of us that play sports know it is impossible to have the exact same effort night in and out. Some days, your body just won’t react the way you want it to or the mind can’t summon the right reaction at the correct time.
The Blues problem of not performing a full game is a habit by now though. Even in games when they win, it can be the case. St. Louis just beat Montreal when not playing well for half the game.
The game in Brooklyn was just a reverse showing. The Blues started off fine. They even took the lead. Things went downhill from there.
Of course, you have to take into account the opponent’s effort. The Islanders played hard all night and were rewarded for it.
Nevertheless, they came into that game tied on points for the worst record in the Eastern Conference. Sure, you’re going to have off nights but the Blues seem to have a problem playing to their competition instead of dominating it like other top teams, which is what they are or aspire to be.
So, what is there to do? Firing the coach doesn’t seem like it would help with the road issues. The Blues were one of the best road teams in the league last year under Hitch, so why the change?
Benching players probably won’t help. It isn’t like there are players playing better on the road vs. at home, so you can’t rotate in a soccer lineup fashion.
It’s not necessarily a goaltending problem either. Carter Hutton has played well both at home and on the road and not rewarded in either spot. Allen has his great games and not so great and the building seems to have very little to do with it. There wasn’t anything the Snake could have done about any of the three Islander goals.
So, it boils down to just being a mental hurdle. The Blues needed to use this game to get over that hurdle before playing some tougher teams, but now they will have to do it somewhere else.
They have three more tries on this current road trip and the rest of the season, since it is technically still early. You just hope it won’t take that long.
The Blues went into the 2015-16 playoffs wondering if they could be successful without being dominant at home. This year is flipping that script and it would be much better if their current road woes don’t last that long.
We are now over a quarter through the season. Three road wins is not cutting it. As said, there is not one thing to focus on, but the Blues had better figure it out.
Random Thought
What is going on with Jori Lehtera? He gets scratched and seems to have learned nothing. He gets inserted almost directly into a line with Vladimir Tarasenko and still can’t generate much offense.
Also, whether in the offensive zone or defensive, he seems to be adversely affected by the blue line. He can’t defend it or turns it over. Maybe it’s an unnatural fear.
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