The Blues get Oiled!

There’s no other way to put it, Tuesday’s game against Edmonton should have been two points for St. LouisThat was bad loss, flat out.

Every once in a while the schedule presents a good situation for a team. The Oilers didn’t arrive into town until close to two in the morning on Tuesday after playing an overtime game in Dallas Monday night.

It was a give and take game in which the Blues led late in the third period. Then Eric Brewer inexplicably takes a bad holding penalty with five minutes to go. The penalty forced the coaches to use Matt Walker, who hadn’t played since October 25th, on the PK late in the game.

Brewer also contributed to Edmonton’s first goal by firing what he described to me as a “bad pass” to Bryce Salvador, who was unable to handle the bouncy puck.

I’d like to point out that Eric Brewer looked awful in this game. Brewer in some ways is validating the points his critics continue to make.

With that being said I stand by the fact that I believe Brewer’s a good hockey player. If I told you Bob Plager agreed with my assessment of Brewer would that change your mind?

Andy Murray has had some great moments since taking over the club a year ago but Tuesday night was far from his best game as well. Erik Johnson not playing in the overtime in unacceptable. This was not the first time Johnson has been left on the bench during overtime play this season.
In my opinion you don’t match lines in overtime, you play to win. Especially when Edmonton is the best shootout team in the league. Johnson’s game would thrive with that much ice available and to me it’s a no-brainer to play him in this situation.

Why was Paul Kariya not used in the shootout? The club is paying him 6 million dollars to contribute in these situations. I asked Murray after the game and he said he planned on using Kariya fourth and Stempniak fifth.

The Blues should have sealed the deal with a 5 on 3 advantage with just over two minutes left in regulation. The Blues were looking for the perfect play as opposed to getting shots to the net. Tkachuk should have buried a glorious opportunity into a wide open net but he missed. He knows he should have scored, Tkachuk slams that puck home 99 out of 100 times.

Speaking of Tkachuk he’s hit a dry spell in the goal scoring department ever since he was separated from Kariya and Boyes. Obviously playing with Backes and Perron is not the right combination. Tkachuk is carrying the puck too much and is getting very few chances 5-on-5. The challenge for the coaching staff should be to find a line combination that can get Tkachuk going. The club needs his goal scoring and playing with this line doesn’t appear to be the answer.