The St. Louis Blues didn’t take advantage of playing on home ice last week. They have struggled after a decent start and now have a disappointing 21-20-3 record.
They’ve scored 57 goals and allowed 72 at home this season for a minus-15 goal differential. They have scored 22 more goals on the road in four more games, and their save percentage (SV%) at home is .881 as opposed to .895 on the road. The Blues’ penalty kill isn’t great, but at least, it’s better at home (73.8 percent). Last season, the team had a 26-10-5 record on home ice, as well as a plus-41 goal differential and an SV% of .912.
The Blues rank 11th in average attendance this season. This fan base has always shown up for mostly good teams, but this season, their performances have been unacceptable, blowing leads and giving up way too many goals.
Tarasenko Could Return During Homestand
The Blues have been without Vladimir Tarasenko (injured hand) since their loss to the Minnesota Wild on Dec. 31. Now in the final year of his contract, the Blues must trade him for assets at the deadline. He is not expected to re-sign with the Blues and the writing has been on the wall for a couple of seasons now, and, unfortunately, the Blues have been mediocre enough to become sellers at the deadline.
Blues Go 1-2-0 in Ugly Week of Games
The week began with a wild overtime win over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday. The Blues were mostly average, falling 3-1 after two periods, but they battled back. With goals from Nikita Alexandrov and Jordan Kyrou, they tied it 3-3 in the third. A simple 2-on-1 with Kyrou and Robert Thomas in overtime gave Thomas the game-winner. The Blues were outshot 31-27 in this game and lost 55 percent of faceoffs. Their lack of consistency in the faceoff circle has been glaring, ranked 18th in faceoff percentage in the NHL. Last season, they were 14th. Surprisingly, the 11-26-4 Chicago Blackhawks rank first in the league in faceoff percentage.
Related: Blues’ Contract for Schenn Could Impact O’Reilly Re-Signing
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The Blues and Flames took the ice again on Thursday at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. The Blues were awful in this one. They lost 4-1 and were outshot 40-26. They didn’t show much life outside of Jake Neighbours’ tying goal early in the third period. The Blues’ power play went 0-for-3 and registered one shot on goal.
The Blues lost their third and final game of the week 4-2 to the Tampa Bay…
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