The St. Louis Blues dropped another game against the Chicago Blackhawks, falling to 1-1-2 on the year. Through four games, the Blues have given up a ton of shots. They’ve allowed an average of 34.8 shots per game, which is the fifth-most in the NHL prior to any action on Sunday.
Despite allowing so many shots, the Blues are still narrowly averaging more shots forced per game. They’ve produced 35.5 shots per game, but the issue on defense remains despite the strong shot generation.
Historically, the Blues are off to a real rocky start when it comes to defending.
https://twitter.com/STLBlueshistory/status/1051318114024075264
As STL Blues History noted on Twitter, two of the three worst starts in terms of shots allowed in the first four games have come under Mike Yeo. That should stir up plenty of coaching questions.
The stats above should be used on any fans who are placing all of the blame on Jake Allen. No one should claim Allen has been great or even good this year (a 4.13 GAA and .878 save percentage is tough to defend), but it’s clear this is more of a team-wide issue than some would choose to believe. That’s an unacceptable number of shots to allow.
So, how do the Blues right the ship? For starters, it would help to have some sort of consistency on defense. The Blues have had rotating groups on defense, with new faces popping in and out of the lineup. It’s tough to build chemistry between defensive pairs when they’re constantly changing.
They also need to do a better job of blocking shots. Through four games, they’ve blocked just 55 shots as a team. That’s tied for the 22nd in the NHL, which is kind of a sad number when you consider just how many shots the team has faced. Everyone needs to help Allen out by trying to cut down on the number of shots he’s seeing.
Keep an eye on this story. The Blues, and any goaltender that the team rolls out, will struggle until the team figures out how to improve on defense.
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