Blues looking for more discipline, special teams could play factor vs. Canucks;
Dunn speaks; Blais could miss time; Barbashev still out; could Allen play
Discipline is often described as a practice of training people to obey rules, or behaving in a certain manner, using some form of punishment to fix such disobedience.
In hockey terms, lack of discipline is often translated to penalties, and for the Blues, who completed their round-robin portion of the NHL Return to Play Plan with three losses (0-2-1) to drop them to the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference, discipline was an issue.
They took 17 minor penalties in all and were shorthanded 16 times in those three games, allowing three power-play goals, and what irked coach Craig Berube most was that of the 16 times shorthanded, nine of those were stick infractions (slashing, tripping, hooking) and three more came as a result of a lack of skating (interference or holding).
Against the Vancouver Canucks, the Blues' opponent in the Western Conference first round, those penalties could prove costly.
As well as the Blues' power play ranked (24.3 percent) during the regular season, which was good for third in the NHL, the young, vibrant Canucks were right there behind them at 24.2 percent, fourth in the league.
And considering the Blues were 18th during the regular season on the penalty kill at 79.3 percent, those numbers don't add up to a tremendous amount of success.
Bottom line: spend too much time in the sin bin, and it could play a major factor in who prevails in this best-of-7 series that begins Wednesday.
"Yeah, that's going to be a big focus for us is being disciplined," Blues center Ryan O'Reilly said. "These last round-robin games, we haven't really found that. We know we're going up against a great power play. It starts with that, staying out of the box. If we can do that, it's tougher. Their best players aren't handling the puck as much. It's definitely a focus for us. It's a very good team over there and it's going to be difficult either way, but it's definitely a staple that we have to have."
The Blues can live with certain types of penalties, but not what Berube would call "easy" penalties.
"Their power play's really good," Berube said of the Canucks. "They've got some high-end shooters on their power play, with (Quinn) Hughes on the back end. We haven't been disciplined yet and going forward here starting the first game against Vancouver, we need to be a disciplined hockey team. We've got to do a much better job of getting rid of the slashing penalties and the hookings and things like that. Those are easy penalties. We shouldn't be taking those penalties. We can accept taking away a scoring chance or things like that or physicality at times, getting calls for that, but this hooking and tripping and holding and stuff like that, we've got to get rid of those."
The Blues were able to hold Vancouver to 1-for-12 with the man-advantage in the three games during the regular season. The Blues, on the other hand, were 0-for-9 on the power play, so scoring with the man-advantage could hold the key to the series.
* Dunn speaks -- Blues defenseman Vince Dunn spoke for the first time since the Blues returned to the ice in July and didn't want to mention specifics as to what led to him missing most of training camp.
Dunn, who played in each round-robin game but missed the exhibition loss against the Chicago Blackhawks, skated the first two days of camp July 13-14 but would then miss the remainder of the two weeks the Blues skated in St. Louis.
He was on the team charter to Edmonton on July 26 and participated in a limited capacity the first couple days the Blues were on the ice in Edmonton and it was perhaps thought that Dunn would miss the round-robin opener against the Colorado Avalanche, but he was in the lineup and has played since.
"I'm not going to speak about what it was, but obviously it was tough, especially jumping right into (games) and taking that time off for myself was definitely a little bit harder, but I think I did what I had to do to get ready for these next games and just looking for the playoffs to get started," Dunn said. "... I feel like I'm 100 percent. Obviously, the first game was a little bit hard to adjust, but I think now with some extra practices and stuff, I think I'm back up to speed."
Dunn had a goal taken off the board in the 2-1 shootout loss against the Dallas Stars on Sunday when Jaden Schwartz was called for offside after a Stars challenge. The goal would have given the Blues a 2-0 first-period lead.
"Yeah, I think Dunner's been fine. He feels good," Berube said. "He doesn't feel like he's lost anything with his conditioning so that's a good thing. The round-robin games, he was like the rest of our team, just OK. We didn't play our best hockey. In those games, we played periods of good hockey, but we didn't play 60 minutes of hockey."
* Blais misses optional -- Blues forward Sammy Blais, who left the loss against the Stars in the second period, only to return to play one third-period shift that lasted 26 seconds, did not take the ice Monday for a scheduled team optional practice.
Blais seemed to injure his right knee or ankle when he checked Stars defenseman Andrej Sekera by the Blues' bench. Blais was initially assessed a major penalty for boarding on the play but after a review, had the penalty reduced to a minor.
"He's out right now," Berube said. "I don't know, he's going to try and skate tomorrow. He didn't go on the ice today so we'll see how he does tomorrow on the ice, but there's a possibility that he could be missing for a bit."
* Barbashev baby -- Berube said there is no news on the Ivan Barbashev baby front either.
The Blues' forward departed the Edmonton bubble last week to return to St. Louis to be with his wife, Ksenia, for the delivery of the couple's first child.
"Nothing yet," Berube said. "I was hoping to hear something today, but I haven't yet, so I can't give you any information on that."
Barbashev played against the Blackhawks and Avalanche but has missed the past two games; he will have to quarantine upon his return to Edmonton and produce four straight negative COVID-19 tests before being allowed back on the practice or game ice with teammates.
* Back-to-back, could Allen play? -- Each first-round series will have a set of back-to-back games, and for the Blues and Canucks, it will be Games 3 and 4 Aug. 16-17.
It's rare these days that there are back-to-back playoff games. It's more common to see two days off between games, but these are unprecedented times, and in order to try and get the postseason done in a timely manner, the league has implemented a regular-season feel for everyone.
"I don't really worry about it too much, to be honest with you," Berube said. "I think back in the day, we used to play them all the time. I actually like them. I think it's something the guys will look forward to, I believe that. it's just the way it is."
Allen was terrific in his only start, the loss to the Stars Sunday. He made 37 saves and played the final period of the exhibition loss against the Blackhawks.
"Definitely could, yep, for sure," Berube said when asked if Allen could get one of those games. "I think I talked to you guys before the playoffs that I think both goalies will be used."
* Thomas could get more prominent role -- Blues center Robert Thomas, who scored the lone goal Sunday, concluded what has been a strong month of return to play for him.
Thomas, 21, played 14:34 against the Stars and 14:24 against the Avalanche and although the points don't show it, it's evident that when pucks were on his stick, the Blues were able to make plays in the offensive zone.
And with the Blues struggling to score six goals in three round-robin games (four in one), Thomas could move up in an effort to help the top six get going.
"Certainly," Berube said. "It's already crossed my mind and the coaching staff, we're thinking about things. There's changes that will be made if needed."
* The unknown is no more -- Now that the Blues know who they will be facing in the first round and it's all for keeps, there can be a singular focus on the task at hand.
Allen said on Sunday that with "five days in between games, it's been a little bit long," and now the Blues are excited to get the ball rolling. No more multiple days off in between games. It's play, every other, and in some cases, every day, from now on out.
"Yeah for sure. We get to focus on one team, obviously Vancouver, and dial it in a little bit more," Berube said. "The guys, they know now you go home if you don't play well. That obviously makes you dialed in a little bit more and I found today, it was an optional skate, there were plenty of guys that went on the ice and they were pretty focused."
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