By ANDREW ALLSMAN
ALHAMBRA, IL-- The St. Louis Blues are hoping to find themselves in the playoffs at the end of this season, but to do that there are some key things that need to be fixed from last season
Goaltending- Perhaps the most important thing that the Blues are looking to improve this season. Last year the Blues acquired G Jaroslav Halak with hopes that he could turn their goaltending woes around. Halak posted a .910 save percentage with a 2.48 GAA. These numbers are average, but definitely need to be improved by this season. I am going to give Halak the benefit of the doubt and say that last season was average simply because it was his first season as a starter, and i have a feeling that this season will be much better. Last season the Blues were ranked 28th in the league as far as save percentage goes, and with 38 wins the Blues goaltenders finished 21st which is obviously not good enough.
Special Teams- Power play: The Blues need to become more of a threat on the power play this season if they hope to reach the playoffs. Watching last year's playoffs made me see how much the Blue's Power play needs to improve. The Blues did improve on their power play from the 09-10 season to the 10-11 season in which they finished 10th in the league with an 18.6 conversion rate on the power play which isn't bad at all. The fact remains that even though they had the numbers last year they still need to improve, by adding more puck movement and better control of the puck. I liked what I saw on the power play last season, but there is definitely room for improvement.
Penalty Kill: I was extremely disappointed with the Blues PK last season. They went from having the 2nd best PK unit in the league killing off 86.6% of penalties in the 09-10 season to 17th in the league with an 81.7% PK. Finishing 10th in the league with your power play numbers, is great, but you also have to be able to kill off penalties which is something the Blues weren't very successful at.
Consistency- Consistency is another piece of the puzzle that the Blues lacked last season. They were unable to repeat the same style of play that they had performed the night, or the game before. Meaning that they went out and scored 5 goals in one game one night and the next game they were unable to score any. Was this contributed by lack of leadership, scouting, or just the fact that they were more prepared against certain teams? No one really knows, but it became really annoying to expect the Blues to repeat an excellent performance the next game and see them crash and burn, causing fans (including me) to doubt their skill level. Now I'm not saying that they didn't have the skill level, but it just seemed that they didn't know how to function as a team after a big win.
Stronger 3rd period: I don't have an official stat for the number of games lost in the 3rd period, but that could be due to the fact that there were too many to count. Last year when i went to the game and it was a close game (within 3 goals) with the Blues ahead, I found myself wishing the horn for the 3rd period to star was actually signaling the end of the game. Holding leads in an important game is all too important nowadays, because you don't want to have a team that your competing for a playoff spot with have the opportunity to get even 1 pt. Hopefully the Blues have what it takes to shut teams down when it gets down to the end of the game and maybe, just maybe fans wont be so scared of the dreaded 3rd period.
ALHAMBRA, IL-- The St. Louis Blues are hoping to find themselves in the playoffs at the end of this season, but to do that there are some key things that need to be fixed from last season
Goaltending- Perhaps the most important thing that the Blues are looking to improve this season. Last year the Blues acquired G Jaroslav Halak with hopes that he could turn their goaltending woes around. Halak posted a .910 save percentage with a 2.48 GAA. These numbers are average, but definitely need to be improved by this season. I am going to give Halak the benefit of the doubt and say that last season was average simply because it was his first season as a starter, and i have a feeling that this season will be much better. Last season the Blues were ranked 28th in the league as far as save percentage goes, and with 38 wins the Blues goaltenders finished 21st which is obviously not good enough.
Special Teams- Power play: The Blues need to become more of a threat on the power play this season if they hope to reach the playoffs. Watching last year's playoffs made me see how much the Blue's Power play needs to improve. The Blues did improve on their power play from the 09-10 season to the 10-11 season in which they finished 10th in the league with an 18.6 conversion rate on the power play which isn't bad at all. The fact remains that even though they had the numbers last year they still need to improve, by adding more puck movement and better control of the puck. I liked what I saw on the power play last season, but there is definitely room for improvement.
Penalty Kill: I was extremely disappointed with the Blues PK last season. They went from having the 2nd best PK unit in the league killing off 86.6% of penalties in the 09-10 season to 17th in the league with an 81.7% PK. Finishing 10th in the league with your power play numbers, is great, but you also have to be able to kill off penalties which is something the Blues weren't very successful at.
Consistency- Consistency is another piece of the puzzle that the Blues lacked last season. They were unable to repeat the same style of play that they had performed the night, or the game before. Meaning that they went out and scored 5 goals in one game one night and the next game they were unable to score any. Was this contributed by lack of leadership, scouting, or just the fact that they were more prepared against certain teams? No one really knows, but it became really annoying to expect the Blues to repeat an excellent performance the next game and see them crash and burn, causing fans (including me) to doubt their skill level. Now I'm not saying that they didn't have the skill level, but it just seemed that they didn't know how to function as a team after a big win.
Stronger 3rd period: I don't have an official stat for the number of games lost in the 3rd period, but that could be due to the fact that there were too many to count. Last year when i went to the game and it was a close game (within 3 goals) with the Blues ahead, I found myself wishing the horn for the 3rd period to star was actually signaling the end of the game. Holding leads in an important game is all too important nowadays, because you don't want to have a team that your competing for a playoff spot with have the opportunity to get even 1 pt. Hopefully the Blues have what it takes to shut teams down when it gets down to the end of the game and maybe, just maybe fans wont be so scared of the dreaded 3rd period.
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