Blues let a winnable Game 5 slip through their fingers

Game 5 was a winnable game for the St. Louis Blues and they let it slip away. In a series in which the San Jose Sharks have received big games from their stars, Vladimir Tarasenko, Kevin Shattenkirk  and others went missing.

Need a summary? Watch what happened when the Blues pulled their goalie.

These 16 seconds sum things up. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/0RtPoZsA5z

— Frozen Notes (@FrozenNotes) May 24, 2016

That’s Alex Pietrangelo standing, motionless with the puck and his goal empty. He stripped the puck and then his controller’s battery died. He lost the puck (that tends to happen when you’re standing still) and a comedy of errors followed.

At one point there were six Blues not skating to a loose puck. If you need an argument about the Sharks wanting it more, the fact six players weren’t even trying to get to a loose puck in their own zone with the net empty should be proof enough.

Of course, the Blues lost the game well before the laughable play with the net empty. Shattenkirk took a couple bad penalties and the Sharks roasted the Blues on both occasions. If Shattenkirk’s play in the series was better or even decent, this may have been an issue fans could overlook. That’s not the case and his penalties which led to goals only make his pretty disappointing play look that much worse.

As for Tarasenko … that could be an article on its own. He hasn’t had much time and space, but the best players in the game find a way to make their own time and space. When he has had the puck and more than half a second to do something with it, he waits too long and hesitates to make a decision. Tarasenko hasn’t tallied a point in the series and that’s a huge problem when the Sharks top line is scoring at will.

It’s quite simple – the Sharks’ best players have been better in this series by a pretty large margin. If Tarasenko was even a small factor, the Blues may have been able to squeak out a win in at least one game that they lost this series. He doesn’t deserve all the blame, but you have to assign him a decent chunk given his vanishing act as the team’s best forward.

That’s a bad loss and now the Blues are on the brink. After the effort fans saw with the goalie pulled, there’s not much hope the Blues will be able to pull off another rally.