After a tough 4-3 shootout loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday (Oct. 30), the St. Louis Blues are now on a six-game losing streak. It’s sad, as the team worked hard to get from mediocre to a sneaky playoff contender last season. Several factors play into this, and the Blues must take hold of them quickly as the Central Division has six teams already in playoff contention to start the season. Let’s look at some failed parts of their lineup that have caused them a setback from being a playoff-bound team.
New Roster Pieces Are Failing Expectations
During the free-agent period, the Blues boldly added three new players to their lineup. First, they traded Zachary Bolduc to the Montreal Canadiens for defenseman Logan Mailloux. Then, they signed forward Nick Bjugstad to a two-year, $3.5 million contract and inked Pius Suter to a two-year, $8.25 million contract. Only one of those players, Bjugstad, worked out, as they hoped to fill in the shoes of a key faceoff role formerly held by Radek Faksa last season.
Related: Today in Hockey History: Oct. 30
Bjugstad has played well with Nathan Walker and Oskar Sundqvist in the bottom-six, being one of the top grit guys on the team with 25 hits. However, things don’t look so good for his fellow Blues additions, Suter and Mailloux. Beginning with Mailloux, he has no points in eight games played and doesn’t hit or block shots often. He’s been lackluster with the puck, giving away the puck six times through his eight games. Three of those giveaways were in the defensive zone.
Suter has been moved around the lineup a lot, and it’s starting to be questioned where exactly he fits on this roster. He has accumulated seven points, but has only contributed one of those to the power play while playing on the second unit. Regardless, it hasn’t been impactful enough, and Suter is currently wasting second and third-line minutes that should be helping the Blues.
Blues’ Defense Are Late to Attack
From a purely defensive standpoint, the Blues are not so good right now. In goal differential, they are second last in the league (minus-10). They don’t even have any defensemen in the top 10 for blocks or hits. This shows one crucial problem in the Blues’ structure, which could be causing them to be on a losing streak.
The NHL is changing, and goal percentages are through the roof. The top ten scoring teams have a goal percentage of 53 percent or higher. If the Blues cannot contain the scoring from opposing teams, they will be preyed upon and draw more penalties, too. That has a lot to do with preventing goals, and this habit can also play into parts of their game, like the penalty kill.
In fact, the Blues have been one of the worst penalty-killing teams in the league, ranking 26th in penalty-killing percentage (70 percent). It looks even worse that the Blues don’t go shorthanded often; they rank in the top 10 in the lowest times shorthanded per game (2.73). A primary factor in the Blues’ penalty issues is that they are giving away the puck defensively, and two of their top defensemen, Colton Parayko and Philip Broberg, rank in the top five in giveaways on the Blues. Their top guys have to be better.
Especially in the defensive zone, according to MoneyPuck, the Blues have the second-highest number of giveaways in the league (176). Of those, 76 have been in the defensive zone, ranking them within the top 15. However, it could pose worries of getting worse if the team continues to play loosely defensively.
As we are close to the beginning of a new month, the Blues can change the script and improve their roster to start over. They can still use those new pieces in Bjugstad and Suter as role players for the bottom-six. Unless a first or second line strikes gold with Suter or Bjugstad on it, head coach Jim Montgomery needs to start over from the bottom up by making new lines. Defensively, the Blues need to stop pushing and forcing plays that are high risk and keep things simple, and they have a great passing team to put the puck up the ice slowly. They need to be more cautious when carrying the puck.
