After Blues’ Game 1 loss, better game management and controlled emotions are a must

Sports

add

WINNIPEG — If the St. Louis Blues were to upset the Winnipeg Jets in the Western Conference playoffs, the wild-card Blues would have to create some doubt within the top-seeded Jets in Game 1 Saturday.

Get a lead, get some momentum, and most importantly, get to goalie Connor Hellebuyck.

They did that. They led 1-0 and 3-2. They had 24 hits after the first period and 46 hits after two periods, and while a lot of hits means that you’re not playing with the puck, as former coach Ken Hitchcock used to remind everyone, the Blues were more than ready to meet the challenge physically against the Jets.

The doubt was being created, the stories about Hellebuyck’s postseason resume were being crafted, and even Winnipeg’s whiteout crowd of 15,226 at Canada Life Centre didn’t seem all that loud.

But then, in the one area the Blues have been so proficient in over the past couple of months, which is how they made the playoffs and were in Winnipeg, let them down in a 5-3 loss to the Jets.

“I didn’t think we managed the game very well in the third period,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said.

How so?

“Penalties. Puck management. A little bit of our emotions,” Montgomery said.

St. Louis proved that it can play with Winnipeg, but the Jets rightly lead the best-of-seven series 1-0 because the Blues melted in the third period and stars Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele made the high-end play that mattered the most — a goal by Connor for a 4-3 lead with 1:36 left in regulation. The Jets tacked on an empty-netter.

“I mean, at the end of the day, you don’t worry about, ‘You didn’t win the game,’” Blues captain Brayden Schenn said. “It’s going to be a long series, it’s a tough series, and you don’t dwell on losses. You have to turn the page right away, stay in the moment and be ready for another game, and come here for the split.”

Game 2 is Monday at 6:30 p.m. at Canada Life Center.

The Blues might want to move on, but if they want to leave with a split, they’ll have to be better prepared to break the puck out of their zone than they were Saturday. They finished with just 17 shots on goal, including just two in the third period, because they couldn’t get to their offense.

“I’ve got to look the film over,” Montgomery said. “Right now, I wouldn’t have a real educated answer for you. I mean, both teams were forechecking. It’s the playoffs, you’re going to forecheck hard. I didn’t think our puck management and decision-making was quick enough. Our habits weren’t very good tonight. Defensively, we weren’t very good tonight.”

So what happened?

“We weren’t good enough on the lines,” Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist said. “They play really tight all over the ice, their D are coming down the walls on our wingers. So I think we just need to be stronger on the walls and getting pucks out.”

One of the Blues’ biggest advantages in their own zone is the ability of goaltender Jordan Binnington to play the puck and put it on the sticks of his teammates. Almost like clockwork, he gathers it behind his net, and within a few seconds, the team is out of the zone.

Not Saturday.

“It’s just communication,” Binnington said. “Yeah, just communication, get to your spots and trust each other, and we’ll be all right.”

The breakouts weren’t the Blues’ only issue. A pair of players making their Stanley Cup playoff debuts, Jake Neighbours and Zack Bolduc, each took emotional, unnecessary penalties.

In the first period, with the Blues leading 1-0 on Robert Thomas’ power-play goal, Neighbours slashed Winnipeg’s Alex Iafallo, and Scheifele scored on the ensuing power play to tie the score.

Then, early in the third period, with the Blues ahead 3-2, and 38 seconds left on a power play, Bolduc cross-checked Iafallo on the way to the bench with the clock stopped. The two had been battling back and forth during the previous shift.

After the Blues and Winnipeg played a brief four-on-four, the Jets had more than a minute of power-play time. They didn’t score, but Montgomery felt that that sequence zapped his team a bit.

“We can’t take that penalty in the playoffs,” he said. “It took us from a situation where I thought we were a little bit in control, and then we weren’t.”

Schenn attributed that to playoff inexperience.

“You know, first game,” he said. “We know better than that — they know better than that — and at the end of the day, you’ve just got to be a little bit in control of your emotions a little bit more.”

Sundqvist, who’s been in many such situations in his career, had a solution.

“Sometimes you just have to laugh at it instead of doing something,” he said.

Shortly after that sequence, Winnipeg started to get its act together offensively and Iafallo scored for a 3-3 tie midway through the third period.

“I thought we did a real good job of starting to sustain some O-zone time,” Jets captain Adam Lowry said. “That was a heck of a play by (Scheifele) and (Iafallo) going to the dirty area to get us back in the game, and the building erupted. I feel like we seized that momentum, and then what a fourth goal.”

The fourth goal was Connor’s.

On the lead-up to that one, Binnington had the puck behind the Blues’ net and his pass to defenseman Cam Fowler didn’t connect, keeping the puck in the zone. They had another chance to clear, but Schenn’s backhanded pass sailed to the other end for an icing. Schenn lost the ensuing faceoff, and Scheifele found Connor for the one-timer.

“Yeah, Scheifele came around the top, and it was tough to find where it was through the traffic there,” Binnington said. “He’s good at finding those holes and he got a good shot off. It is what it is, and it’s the life of a goaltender — you’ve got to regroup and focus on the next one.”

The Blues had other chances in the game, most notably a breakaway by Jordan Kyrou late in the second period, that could’ve given them a 4-2 lead. But Hellebuyck, after giving up a couple of goals early, stoned the Blues’ leading scorer.

“With the way we played in the third, I don’t know if two would’ve been enough,” Montgomery said.

So now the Blues will take Sunday off before returning for Game 2 on Monday.

Even though there was a lot that went wrong, especially late, they were looking at the positive.

“I feel like we played a hard game,” Binnington said. “There’s a lot of good things to take away from this game, for sure. It was a crazy atmosphere out there, and it could be intimidating at first, but we weathered the storm and came out playing well. Maybe it wasn’t our best game and we were right in there. We’ve got a lot of belief in this room, and it’s time to reset and focus.”

The Blues put some doubt in Winnipeg on Saturday, but then they gave the Jets reason to be confident again.

“If we want to make it a series, we’re going to have to get better,” Montgomery said. “We’re going to have to control our emotions better. We’re going to have to manage the puck better. We’re going to have to win more battles.

“It’s a little bit of execution and it’s a little bit of getting used to the Stanley Cup playoffs. We’ve got a fairly young team out there, a lot of guys playing in their first game in the Stanley Cup playoffs. So that’s why I know we will get better from it.”

(Top photo of Alex Iafallo and Jake Neighbours fighting: Cameron Bartlett / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

Share on

email

Previous

trending_flat

Can Kevyn Adams convince Terry Pegula he deserves more time as Sabres GM?

Sports

Next

trending_flat

Players in Stanley Cup playoffs may be called to testify in Hockey Canada trial

Sports