The Blues are 7-2-1 over their last 10 games and they’ve rattled off four consecutive victories. A lot of things are going well for the Blues, but it’s easy for a winning streak to cover up some of the areas the team needs to improve on. One of those areas involves closing games out and putting a game out of reach. The Blues demonstrated once again when they narrowly defeated the Colorado Avalanche that capitalizing on chances may prove costly later in the year.
The Avalanche were on the ropes. The Blues were dominating the game and generating almost all of the scoring chances. After two periods, the Blues had 27 shots to Colorado’s 12. For a decent stretch of time, the Blues had 20 more shots than their opponent. While impressive, the score was 2-2 after two periods and it looked like the Blues were about to cough up two points.
After overtime and with two points in hand, it’s difficult to complain too much considering the best result was achieved. Still, the Blues continued their alarming trend of allowing teams to stay within reach. There’s no question that this trait would be extremely costly during the playoffs. A team such as the Chicago Blackhawks would make the Blues pay and the Blues probably wouldn’t escape with a late victory.
What can the Blues do to improve? One idea may be as simple as shooting accuracy. How many open looks did the Blues have which sailed high and wide? Alex Pietrangelo had three chances in a row over the course of 5-10 minutes which should have been buried. Several other skaters had chances as well, but the score remained level at two.
Is the issue mental? The Blues have been a team which struggles to close out games for the last several years. They take their foot off the gas and the opponent creeps back into things. That’s not exactly what happened against the Avalanche, but the same principle remains. It’s as if the Blues lack the killer instinct to shut the door and keep it closed.
Again, the results have been positive so it’s hard to rip the Blues too hard. However, this trend – one which we’ve seen for years – will likely prove costly when more is on the line.
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