The St. Louis Blues have 27 points and a record of 13-10-1 on the season through 24 games. The up-and-down nature of their play has continued.
In this edition of Blues’ 3 Up, 3 Down, I will discuss a Blues’ streak, a big performance from a goaltender, a struggling goal scorer, and more.
Plus One: Blues Are 12-0-0 When Scoring First This Season
After their win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday, Dec. 4, the Blues extended their streak of winning when scoring first to 12 games. Even with a 13-10-1 record, they are 12-0-0 when scoring first. Of course, this means that they are 1-10-1 when they don’t score first, which isn’t ideal. They are the only team in the league to not lose any games this season when scoring first, and the only team close is the Washington Capitals, who have only lost one game when scoring first.
The Blues have held onto leads better this season, but they still lack consistency overall. Only winning when scoring first is not a sustainable way to play for an entire 82-game season.
Minus One: Blues Now Rank 25th in Goals Scored
The struggle to score goals has been apparent all season for the Blues. They are scoring fewer than three goals per game and now rank 25th in goals scored total. They have zero players with double-digit goals and just four players with more than five goals. Outside of a six-goal effort in a win over the Buffalo Sabres, the Blues have two games with one goal in their last four, as well as just two goals in their win over Vegas. When players like Jordan Kyrou, Kasperi Kapanen, Jakub Vrána, and Sammy Blais are hardly producing gaols, it puts a lot of weight on other players to produce.
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They need those three to start finding the back of the net or the pressure will be all on Pavel Buchnevich, Robert Thomas, and Jake Neighbours, who have been excellent.
Plus Two: Binnington Steals One in Vegas
On the road in Vegas, the Blues got a big-time performance from goaltender Jordan Binnington. They won the game 2-1 in overtime with Binnington making 33 saves on 34 shots. Going into this game, Binnington had given up seven goals on 83 shots in the previous two games, which is good for a save percentage (SV%) of .915.
Binnington has been good this season overall, despite a few tough performances in November. He was brilliant in this game against a dangerous Golden Knights team. Without his performance, the Blues would not have come close to winning this game. Vegas had numerous odd-man rushes without scoring due to big saves from Binnington. He is now 8-6-1 on the season with a .914 SV% and 2.86 goals against average (GAA).
Minus Two: Kyrou Struggling to Score Goals
Kyrou was the Blues’ top goal scorer last season with 37 goals in 79 games and came into this season with back-to-back 25-plus goal seasons. It’s been a completely different story for him this season, which is both positive and negative.
In 24 games, Kyrou has just four goals and 15 points overall, including a plus/minus of minus-6. However, he’s made several strides in his two-way game and that has been apparent with the eye test. After registering a shooting percentage above 10 percent for the past four seasons, he’s down to 4.9 percent this season, so it’s safe to say that he’s unlucky to only have four goals. I still think he’ll turn it around and still score above 20 goals, but I’m not sure how long it’ll take for the turnaround to take place.
Plus Three: Neighbours Continues to Impress
The Blues breakout story of the season has been Jake Neighbours. He’s up to nine goals in 24 games and has been a mainstay of the first line alongside Thomas and Buchnevich. He has four goals in the last five games and his ice time has significantly increased over the past week or so. At just 21 years old, he figures to be a major part of the Blues franchise for the next several seasons.
He just looks like a different player this season in comparison to the limited time he played over the previous two seasons. It’s been great to watch his development under head coach Craig Berube and it shows how well he fits the system.
Minus Three: Vrána Hasn’t Scored in Five Games
Even after drawing back into the lineup upon a couple of healthy scratch stints, Vrána is still struggling to produce. He’s a minus-4 over the past five games with zero points and fewer than 15 minutes of ice time in each game. He hasn’t played since Nov. 28 in their 3-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild.
Things seem to still be trending in the direction of the Blues eventually trading him. It just hasn’t worked out this season and I assume there’s blame on both sides. He’s been a healthy scratch for seven games this season. I don’t expect things to suddenly turn around.
The Blues are back in action tonight against the Golden Knights, but it’s in St. Louis this time. They have a road back-to-back later this week against the Columbus Blue Jackets and Chicago Blackhawks. The Blues could use a serious winning streak to stay in the Western Conference mix.
