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31 Takes: Blues discipline becoming a big problem
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- 31 Takes: Blues discipline becoming a big problem
The most important penalty of the Blues' Game 3 blowout loss came as a bench minor.
Craig Berube inexplicably thought the Bruins might have been offside on Sean Kuraly 's goal to make it 3-0 — he said after the game he thought it was 50/50, but I can't imagine what replays he watched to make him think so — and was assessed a two-minute minor for being very wrong about that. Obviously, obviously, obviously Joel Edmundson carried the puck into the zone himself, so that was a pretty easy call, even if Joakim Nordstrom would have been offside if Kuraly had moved the puck into the zone instead.
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Not only did that call allow a Bruins goal to stand, but also resulted in a Boston power play that scored early in the second period to broaden the lead to 4-0 and officially turn Game 3 into a blowout.
Which, hey, that's on the coach and his staff, but the Blues nonetheless continued the parade to the penalty box throughout the game and for the third time in this series. Which, if you couldn't tell, is asking for trouble against any opponent, let alone one that came into the series with a positively molten power play (famously running 7 of 15 in the Conference Final sweep of Carolina).
The Blues were, in some ways, lucky to have escaped having only conceded twice on 10 penalty kills, as both times they gave the Bruins wide-open looks to give up those goals. And problematically, most of those penalties — like the one resulting from Berube's failed challenge — were avoidable.
The two separate goaltender interference penalties in Game 2, well, that's just the cost of doing business when you're going hard to the net. But Oscar Sundqvist boarding Matt Grzelcyk was just a stupid hit where they were fortunate to avoid a five-minute major. Stick fouls a million miles from their own net. Crosschecks on line changes. And so on.
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The trend continued in Game 3. David Perron 's interference on Brandon Carlo was a dumbass penalty. Colton Parayko just straight-up hugged Brad Marchand away from the puck like a minute after the Blues cut the Boston lead to three, and it was a four-goal deficit again less than 30 seconds later. The Pietrangelo temper-tantrum slash on Noel Acciari 's empty-netter that resulted in an eff-you goal existed merely to illustrate the point.
And frankly, the Blues got the benefit of some no-calls — Ivan Barbashev 's borderline-high hit on David Backes , Perron trying to start problems with Tuukka Rask could have resulted in more penalty minutes — to only escape having given Boston four power plays. The scoreline probably helped there.
You have to understand that refs don't want to call this series particularly close. After how badly their colleagues screwed up at various stages of this postseason, it's in their best interests to only call the obvious stuff. They've let a lot go, but the Blues keep making too-dumb-to-ignore infractions.
It worked for two games, though it was mainly because Boston's best players were, well, not its best players. But if you keep giving Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron , and David Pastrnak looks on the power play, eventually the pucks are going to start going in. Maybe not 100 percent of the time, as they did Saturday night, but still. Problem is, that success is likely to translate to 5-on-5, because when you're scoring on the power play, it's not often you're (still) struggling at full strength.
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You'll recall the Blues were the least-penalized team in this postseason on a per-game basis coming into this series. Just 41 penalty kills in 19 games, and only giving up nine goals on those. Now they're on 14 in three, with six goals against, and suddenly, everything is going very, very wrong. Tough to say what's going on there. Perhaps it's the idea that they feel like they need to compete with Boston physically to compete with them on the ice, or buying all the hype around "they both got here by playing heavy hockey" that was so common in the week off.
And look, it's only 2-1 in the series right now. The Bruins were lucky to go 4-for-4 on four shots just because no one can reasonably keep up that pace. And who knows what Game 4 holds. Things could very easily go back to Boston again for Game 5 tied at two apiece.
But the penalties that result from an over-reliance on physicality also don't seem to be going away. To keep courting disaster like this is, we can see, a losing formula.
The Blues' discipline has been an enormous issue in the Stanley Cup Finals. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
31 Takes: Playoff Edition
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Boston Bruins: Notable in the whole "too many penalties" thing for the Blues is how many of them are being drawn by Boston's depth . Indeed, it's not just the goals that are going in for Kuraly's line, but also the fact that Connor Clifton, Tuukka Rask, and Noel Acciari are all responsible for drawing as many St. Louis penalties each as the entire top line combined.
You can live with penalties drawn by elite players because elite players should be the ones drawing penalties, but if Danton Heinen and Jake DeBrusk are putting you on the kill regularly, it's a real problem. Not for the Bruins, obviously. They've gotten goals from 11 different players in just three games, and only two were into an empty net. Seems to me that's how you win a Cup, because it's certainly how St. Louis beat San Jose in the Western Conference Finals.
St. Louis Blues: I mentioned it's only 2-1 Bruins, but that also means the Blues have to win three of the next four to close this one out. The way things have gone, with even their win being realllllllllly tight, isn't that kinda tough to see? I know they've controlled good chunks of all three so far — the entire first period in Game 1, basically the entirety of Game 2, and the first half-period of Game 3 — but they really don't have much to show for it. At 5-on-5, the Bruins have a slight edge, but because of all the St. Louis penalties, they've looked a lot more dominant overall. Tough to see that changing as long as the Blues keep taking penalties.
Gold Star Award
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Honestly, I'm starting to feel like Torey Krug, who had a goal and three assists in Game 3, is arguably the Bruins' No. 2 Conn Smythe guy behind Tuukka Rask at this point. He's tied for third on the Bruins in playoff scoring and has the best relative xG percentage on the team. Really incredible run.
Minus of the Weekend
When the best thing you can say about your weekend is, "Hey this movie star knows who Robert Bortuzzo is," you had a hell of a bad time.
Play of the Weekend
Don't usually like to put power play goals in here but this finish by David Pastrnak was very chill.
Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Week
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User "MarAlain Mongeault" is doing fine .
"Zucker, Spurgeon, and a 3rd to Philly for #11 and Travis Konecny"
Signoff
Perhaps I can help. My papa is foreman of the Dusseldorf gumworks.
Ryan Lambert is a Yahoo! Sports hockey columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here .
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